bethany.

did anyone in bethany look at the moon tonight at 5:31pm? the sky was a totally gorgeous colour--remember the periwinkle crayon in the 64 pack of crayolas? it was exactly that colour! and the moon was big & full; there weren't any clouds anywhere--it was probably the most gorgeous moon view i've ever seen. there were clouds by 5:40, and the whole thing was spoiled, but it was nice while it lasted.
bethany college: an elite school with a great atmosphere! a highly esteemed institution where students have "permission to dream." great. and, that diploma looks darn good after completing senior comps--providing that the person looking at it has ever heard of bethany. do we recruit? yes. do we stretch the truth to the very max just to make ourselves look better? hell yes. okay, i'm not saying that this is a bad school; it's a fabulous school! but, i'm getting more & more frustrated daily with things that are going on. the majority of the departments around here are totally screwed up, and almost everyone on campus has a story or 15 about the time this college screwed him over. the bethany bubble isn't a rumour; it's a suffication device.
i'm not complaining just to complain; there really are a lot of things going wrong here. and, they're all little things, but they definately add up. maybe people don't see them because they just think every school is like this. it isn't. maybe people don't see them because they've never known anything else, but i have. wvu had its faults,a nd plenty of them--and every school does, but there are better ways to do things. bethany is stuck with one foot in the 21st century, and one foot back in 1840. it's really frustrating--especially when you have a job promoting a utopian institution to outsiders. and, yes, people who don't attend this place are all outsiders. whether i'm calling some high schooler in minnesota, running errands through the admissions office, sitting though another dr hull lecture, or eating popcorn with my roommates, it's all the same feeling! that damn "bethany bubble." there really is no other way to say it, and i don't even feel like those words quite pinpoint it; it's a feeling that can only be achieved by living here for a period of time and getting that sense. overall, it's not a bad feeling--just weird. bethany is about as far from the real world as one can get, and i don't think many people realize it. maybe i'm frustrated, maybe i'm just observing; it doesn't really matter. i'm here now, and that's just the way it is.
i kind of feel like we're a cult. no freaking out. cult-n; ritualistic religious system; a devotion to a person or thing. or, in dr denova's words, "a division of a religion with different rituals, litergy, & rules, but the same beliefs!" okay, minus the "religion" part, and that's entirely bethany college!! how weird. alright, enough of that anti-bethanian life bit; contrary to your thoughts, i'm really not hating it here.
here's an interesting tidbit i learned about bc tonight: buck smith, "new" president of bethany college, earns a dollar per year. for real. his yearly wage is $1. at his request, all of the rest of the money that would be his salary is put back into the school funds. pretty cool, eh? apparently, he's a pretty darn rich old guy to be able to do that!lol but, see what i mean? bethany leaves quite an impression on people that no other school does--why?!