Most people go to college to get away from their parents. They head to a university to experience freedom, finally breaking free from overprotective moms, overbearing neighbors, nosy church ladies, and iron-fisted fathers. Although I was lucky to grow up with extremely easy-going and lenient parents, I still felt the itch to finally “be on my own.”
Well, those students who come to Liberty (shameless plug: most exciting university on planet earth, just sayin’) with the mindset of escaping all forms of parental units are in for a rude awakening, but not for the reasons you might think.
Surprisingly enough, even with all the rules here at good ol’ LU, students still have a lot of freedom. What’s different about Liberty compared to other colleges is the strong parental-like presence. These “parent-types” are the ones hovering in dorm rooms, checking to see if your room is clean. They tuck you in at night, making sure you arrived home safely. They flock to the S-LAB, proudly flashing their “Champs for Christ” hand gestures. They ask you how your day was, and don’t settle for “fine” as an answer. They use acronyms for everything: LPG, PL, PG, OSL, LTR, RA, SLD, RD, RHLM, etc. They hunt you down on Tuesday night, trying to convince you to go to prayer groups. They sing about climbin in yo’ windows, snatchin yo’ people up…. Oh wait, wrong group of Liberty students.
The parent types of Liberty University are not the pastors, or professors. They aren’t the student care workers or academic advisors… they are those student participants in OSL, namely prayer leaders, spiritual life directors, and resident assistants.
As an active member and supporter of student leadership, the last thing I want to do is compare my position to something with such a negative connotation like a “parent,” but it’s actually a comparison we willingly recognize.
Again, the reason we identify with parents might catch you unaware. Surprisingly enough, it’s not because of law enforcement, but actually because of pride--not a power trip.
Earlier this week, I had the privilege of hanging out with a group of OSL students, and we talked about how our leadership teams become like a family. Each girl takes their position seriously, looking over their prayer group, LPG, or dorm the way a parent looks over their children. We experience deep love, which I think can compare to a mother’s love (I’ll admit I’m not qualified to validate this statement). We pray for family-like unity. We pray for our hall to feel like a home. We pray protection over our dorms. We make sure every student on our hall is prayed for daily. We pray that every situation will help our friends learn in life, without having to repeat any lessons. We patiently wait and watch as they experience trials and make mistakes, being there for support when they are willing to talk about it. But the greatest of these is definitely, at the end of the day, we love like parents and feel proud of the evident growth that takes place in the life of every student. We experience pride when we our roommates and dorm mates “get it.”
This blog was created to “portray student leaders as real people,” and I hope that my attempted connection provides clarity instead of confusion. Sure, the comparison is a little cliché, but if student leadership has taught me anything, it’s to embrace the cliché if you can make a good lesson out of it, and we all know parents will do anything in the name of lessons learned.
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