Expanding the Bethel Experience
The College Community that is So Much more
By Parker Rothenbacker Schmittdiel|Student, Aspiring Writer/Novelist
There has always been one particular moment that I think of when I think of Bethel. It was around the end of my freshman year at Bethel University, only a couple of weeks before finals. I didn’t live on campus at the time, so I found myself hanging out in the AC commons, keeping myself busy by half studying, half procrastinating on my computer as I waited for my ride to pick me up. As I quietly keeping self-occupied, a girl sat down a few seats away and started crying. I honestly didn’t know how to react. She was another student, I inferred that from the fact that she was carrying a backpack, but otherwise, she was a complete stranger and my experience with social situations was subpar at best. In an instant of infinite wisdom, I decided to do what came naturally and wait for someone else to come along and fix the situation. Unfortunately, everyone else seemed to be in the middle of class, back at their dorms, or anywhere else. So I waited a moment or two before I realized that nothing was going to happen unless I was the one who did something.
“Everyone is so nice here, and I know the real world isn’t like that.”
So in a second burst of infinite wisdom, I asked the crying girl if she was alright. I would like to say that it was something like compassion or kindness that made me ask, but they were beaten to the punch by the untamed unbridled, unruly horse named Curiosity that plagued me and subsequently my teachers through the entirety of elementary and high school careers. The girl looked, dried her eyes a bit and informed that everything was fine, in fact, she was a senior and in less than a month she would be graduating. It had just hit her: “Everyone is so nice here, and I know the real world isn’t like that.”
That took a moment or two to sink in. When it did I realized three things: One, that the Bethel bubble I had heard about in chapel wasn’t entirely a bad thing; Two, The community at Bethel was a lot closer than I realized; And three, if my ride would be any minute.
Fast forward a year and a half and I suddenly realize that instead of breaking out of the Bethel Bubble like I have been hearing for the past two years, what we need need to be doing is searching for ways to expand it. Bring the kindness and compassion to the places outside Bethel walls. It’s not an idea that exactly easy to implement, but that doesn’t mean we should give up. Doing so means accepting the world is fine just the way it is. It is not, but that doesn’t mean we can’t change it. Just because we are leaving Bethel, doesn’t mean we can’t bring the Bethel Experience with us.
