College in Retrospect
Anyhow, now that I'm done, I thought I'd share with you.....wait....you know already don't you?
Of course you knew this was coming. I've done it enough now that you were probably just wondering when this post was going to pop up on your radar.
Yes, you're right, I want to share with you five lessons I learned from College.
Before I do that, however, I'm going to share some music with you all. It's a wonderful Classical Piece I just discovered, and listening to it might also encourage you to read to the end of my lengthy post....so turn it on, kick-back,or dance as the music moves you, and let me know what you thought of it. So here is Ralph Vaughan William's English Folk Song Suite....the first and third movements are my favorites...let me know if they're yours! ;)
Alright, five lessons coming right up!
1. I rarely push myself to work as hard as I should.
In high school I never had to study all that hard to get a good grade. I was a straight A student in everything except chemistry, a wickedly contrary subject anyway, in which I had to content myself with a B. In college, especially with Verity at the wheel, I found I was barely catching Cs, never mind Bs. Yes, finally, for the first time in my life, my friends I came face to face with the fact that I had grown really lazy. Somehow along the way, I had fallen into the trap of believing that I wasn't lazy, everything was simply easy. I was partially right, in that grade school was certainly significantly easier than college work, but not right in allowing myself to just sit back and enjoy the ride. I met people who had taken advantage of the fact that high school was easy for them by skipping grades and starting college early. I met people who studied twelve hours straight sometimes in order to succeed well. I'm not advocating that kind of regime for everyone, it certainly doesn't work for me, but the point was I came face to face with a lot of hard-workers and found myself particularly flabby in comparison.
My first year of college I just scraped through and had to literally pay for some lazy habits I had. The final year, I realized I needed to shape up and started praying hard. God granted me grace, though it was an uphill battle the whole way as coursework only got harder. Several times I felt incapable, was exhausted to tears, or binge-watched a tv show after finishing a difficult assignment just to escape for a while from the knowledge that I had an equally difficult assignment due in two days. However, I emerged from college a battered but better person. God taught me in the end that hard work has its own rewards. I actually began to enjoy it sometimes. Extra confirmation of this was at Verity graduation last June, when, of all the character awards I could have received (I'm still marveling over this by the way) I received Diligence, the polar opposite of laziness. Isn't God so good? That was a lesson I so grateful to my college education for teaching me.
Alright, that was long, the next four won't be such a drag, I promise!
2. I Can Be Friends With Boys Too.
Before college I merely put up with members of the opposite sex around my own age, I never would have even considered becoming friends with one of them. It was far too dangerous in my opinion. Things happened, boys and girls were like dynamite and matches in my opinion, not a good combination, at least, as long as they weren't my brothers. Throughout the course of college both in and out of academics I held countless conversations with mature men around my age and discovered that it was not only possible but advantageous to have healthy friendships with young men. I made a couple friendships which I still treasure to this day. What a valuable lesson to be learned in college. After all, if I'm going to marry, I'm going to have to be very good friends with a young man first!
3. Holding Oneself Aloof from Others Is Both Unattractive and Debilitating.
Being around Verity people and keeping in touch with them through Skype helped me really realize this fact. I knew it before, but for some reason didn't really believe it. For some reason, there was a large part of me that thought that keeping myself up and apart from the melee of people my own age would not only attract positive attention from the people I admired but also somehow keep me free from bad influences. Verity forced me to come face to face with the pride of this view and gave me a desire to overcome this. In retrospect this is one of the best lessons I could have learned through College.
4. I Need The Help of Others.
I really thought I could get through college with just me, myself, and I for company. God is enough, right? I told myself. I didn't realize that God uses people to carry His blessings. I've been spending the last through days writing droves of letters to all the people who helped me through the past two years and realizing in the process just how much I need people. Thank God for that lesson!
5. God Always Provides.
When I started College, I had no idea where the money was going to come from. Yet here I am on the other side with very little debt to pay off. God always came through. I never had to put off a class or postpone studies in any way because of a lack of funds. Learning this lesson through college I know was the most valuable lesson I could learn, and I know it will continue to influence the rest of my life. Isn't it wonderfully reassuring to know that we have a Father with inexhaustible resources at His disposal? We can do anything He asks, go anywhere He leads, climb the highest mountains of life with Him by our side, because there's nothing our God cannot do.
What do you think? Are those lessons relatable? What did God teach you during any recent experiences?
Until Next Time, Dear Friends, May God Continue To Hold You in His Hands.
~ Christianna