This semester has felt like a whole new chapter in my life. I feel like I've started college from the beginning again, only this time I'm with people who have been around the block a few times, and I'm the new kid.
With being the new kid, I had to learn my way around. I had to learn how to approach new topics, think through big things, and even look for answers to the questions of my faith.
Thankfully, I was guided through this journey. I have been blessed to not go it alone, and I've been surrounded by people that have been there for me since the beginning, and will be around to the end.
When I think about the person I was before this semester, and about who I am now...I feel like a different person.
A beloved professor uses an Indian American analogy to talk about a student beginning to grow by using the example of deer hide.
In the beginning, the hide is stiff, and if forced, will break very easily. But if the hide is massaged, slowly pulled and tugged, then in the end, the hide will be stronger and maliable.
For me, I have been pulled, and stretched. Sometimes more than I particularly enjoyed, but always growing more through the process. My hope is that I will never finish growing; I pray that my God will always be molding me and stretching me, making me firm and supple in Him.
This semester was far from easy, but it is the most rewarding semester I have ever had. My mind has been blown, time and time again about the people, culture and creation that my God has made.
And I'm a part of it.
You are, too.
And I'm so thankful for all of the opportunities that I've been blessed with, and the ones I'll be given in the future. But most of all, I'm thankful to the God I serve, and am in awe of Him and the things that He does everyday.
John 15:25-27
These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I have to you. Not as the world gives do I have to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.
