Faith Features

Who Put Him In Charge?

February 28, 2022
Adam Sorrels
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Transitioning from high school to college about two and a half years ago, I was confident that I would not be writing more than I had to for my (then) biochemistry major and for my core classes. Writing was a pain and a burden, so I would only write when necessary, such as for lab reports. So how on earth did I find myself voluntarily writing for a newspaper, much less becoming its editor-in-chief?

To try to answer this question, I should note how exactly I did find myself voluntarily writing for The Torch. At the beginning of freshman year, I made an effort to find and join as many Catholic clubs as I could, which is how I became a part of the Sons of St. Patrick, the Knights of Columbus, and the St. Thomas More Society. I of course ignored the Torch table at the involvement fair, because wilfully spending my free time writing would just be silly.

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Fast forward a month or two to a St. Thomas More Society meeting, where I overhear a number of the people I have met through these clubs discussing the next edition of The Torch. Abandoning all reason and purely based on fear of missing out, I approach someone (it was probably Adriana Watkins, the editor-in-chief at the time) and ask about joining. I end up being assigned a Campus News article a week or so later, which ends up being the only article I write my freshman year due to the sudden campus shutdown in March 2020.

After a few editing sessions, eventually writing an article in every section of the paper (I like to think of it in baseball terms: “hitting for the cycle”), and initiating a contact-tracing fiasco in November 2020, I find myself as Campus News editor for the Spring 2021 semester. Continuing to write for the paper, on account of my contributions and abundance of culture (disclaimer: this is a joke, I may be the least cultured member of The Torch in history), I accept, and eventually survive the Culture editorship to start my junior year.

Which brings us to today. While I cannot figure out how writing stopped being a pain and a burden, I can at least say it no longer is (at least enough to stop me from writing for this paper). The question now becomes, how am I in any way qualified to be the new editor-in-chief?

The simple asking of this question may be detrimental to my fulfilling the role of editor-in-chief, as it presupposes I am unable. Turning to the Gospels, I may be able to find Our Lord, as Prof. Peter Kreeft has pointed out countless times in classes I have taken from him, answering the questioner rather than the question.

In the Gospel of Mark, when Jesus calls Simon, Andrew, James, and John out from their boats to follow Him to become “fishers of men”, they all leave with Him immediately, James and John even leaving their father behind to do so (c.f. Mk. 1:16-20). None of them questioned their own abilities to partake in Jesus’ ministry—they simply trusted the Lord and followed Him. Likewise, it is not my place to question my worthiness for my new position, but rather now that I am here and have been entrusted with this role by my predecessor, I should simply do my job and do it to the best of my ability.

Therefore, instead of succumbing to fear and doubt, I instead hope, with the help of the rest of The Torch’s staff, to continue to hold up the Torch as a light to the Boston College campus and confidently spread the Good News of the Catholic faith with all who read this upcoming year.

Adam Sorrels
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