I’ve been in college for two years! What!?
Don’t worry, this isn’t your average “Guide to Surviving Your Freshman Year” (although there might be some juicy stuff in here for incoming college peeps).
Today’s post is just what the title says, a list of things I’ve learned. As I’m **over** halfway done with college, I’ve been in a reflective mood the past few weeks and thought this was only fitting.
If I could describe freshman year in a word, it would be “loved.” I came to college and experienced girls chasing after Christ alongside me like never before, and it was so encouraging and refreshing.
But this past year, I don’t think anything quite sums it up other than “growth.” This year was just funky. It was a lot of new, a lot of transitions, a lot of hard no’s, and filled with more questions than answers. I’m going into this summer and junior year not too sure what I want to do with my degree, and that’s scary. And when the future is foggy and looming, sometimes it’s comforting to look back and see all the ways God has worked in the past.
Below are just a few of the lessons/habits/things I’ve learned in the past two years of college!
Getting off my phone more often.
I might do a whole post on this soon, but learning and beginning to enjoy putting the phone down and turning Netflix off has been so freeing!
Body positivity!! (and people positivity!!)
Ladies! (and men too!) Loving our external appearance and the way we look is difficult amidst Instagram influencers and plastered images of what we’re “supposed to” look like.
It sounds silly, but literally just following body positive and inclusive Instagram accounts has had such an impact on the way I view myself and my body. Dumplin’ says it best:
Giving time for myself and also for others.
I am a recently discovered introvert, and the result of that is a tendency to hide from the world and from even my dearest friends. This is definitely something I’m still working on and growing towards, but it is so sweet knowing we were not meant to do this life thing alone!
People and friends come and go in your life. Love the people in front of you.
I’ve taken those around me for granted too often. To my dearest friends I’ve made in these past 2 years: You are the answer to so many prayers from a nervous and afraid freshman Court moving away from every close connection. You love me, make me laugh, and remind me of who I am in Christ. I don’t say it enough, but thank you for all you do and for being my friend. I am more grateful for you than you know :).
I am not big enough to get in the way of God’s plan.
I think I heard this for the first time this summer at camp, and it truly changed something in my heart.
Maybe you needed to hear this one today too, it’s one I have to write somewhere in giant letters because I am so quick to forget. God is big and sovereign and working even when we can’t see. This means you can’t actually mess things up as terribly as you feel like you can.
College doesn’t feel like home, and home doesn’t feel like home, and that’s okay.
I can’t workout alone (haha).
This one isn’t deep or profound, I’m just really thankful for Texas A&M Rec Sports and love my newfound role as a group fitness instructor!
Growing up is really just a lot of little baby steps. You’re not going to get where you want to end up overnight!
We think the path goes like this: you go to college, do all the right things, and automatically get the perfect job out of college.
It’s okay to not immediately pursue a career doing what you ultimately see yourself doing. I would like to write a book of some sort someday, which is a giant, intimidating goal, and I have to remind myself myself I don’t have to get there tomorrow. Yes, live life to the fullest, but also give yourself a break. You will get where you are supposed to be.
The world is so terribly broken, but we must not become consumed by this.
Through various classes this year and through life itself, I’ve seen the worst parts of humanity and the destruction that comes from sin. And it broke me. I remember asking God, “How can you actually be good in the midst of all of this pain and suffering?”
I think this was an important learning process for me, to step outside my front door and finally see the world is actually pretty dark and scary. It has taught me how much bigger God is than it all, and somehow still able to work out all of the evil in the world for his good (a deep theological truth I won’t get into now!).
With all this being said…
It is important to ask and voice these hard questions to God.
God is not fragile. He can handle your hard questions and every bit of your soul. You can’t bring something to Him he as not already, a) seen, and b) fully understood and known.
I urge you to not keep or hide your pain and doubt from God.
“If we are faithless, he remains faithful” – 2 Timothy 2:13
I love the word “remain” used here. God never stops being faithful.
I have experienced doubt and fear and stagnancy and indifference in my relationship with God unlike anything I’ve ever experienced, and I’ve learned so much about God’s grace and faithfulness through that.
God’s grace is truly unfathomable. My words cannot begin to describe it. His ability to meet us where we are at EVERY SINGLE TIME, it is truly so beautiful.
Contentment, like happiness, is not a destination.
And just like it is an everyday decision to find peace and contentment, I still have SO much to learn.
It is easy for college and learning to lead to thinking “I already know everything there is to know.”
It’s true, college has widened my thinking and my perspectives and experiences in so many ways, and for that I am so thankful. But I don’t want to ever be naive and arrogant enough to believe I don’t have any growing left.
Things I am still learning:
How to listen to people.
People’s stories are so important, and I have seen the beautiful impact we can have on a person simply by sitting down and listening to them.
This is a TED talk I watched the first semester my freshman year and I guess it had an impact on me because I thought of it as I am writing this. Yay listening and communication!!
How not to quit just because something is hard/big/scary.
We were meant to live in confidence (in Christ and who He is and who He made us to be!!) and not in fear.
I am so good and hiding back and living in self-doubt. This is not God’s intention for me and you!
This is by no means a list of things I’ve mastered, but of lessons I have learned and am still learning. So here’s to the ways I’ve grown, and to all of the growth ahead.
Junior year (& summer!!) here we come!