The best advice I think I could give anyone is to choose your own path. Whether you are a freshman in college, a retired teacher or anywhere in between, you have an unbelievable power to choose your own path. We have that unbelievable power because our savior gives it to us to use here on earth to be a light for Him. In choosing our own path, we light a way for others to see and I truly believe that is why we were put on this earth.

Starting college is one of the most exciting times! It is a new place and there are new people and no one knows you. You can be anyone you choose to be. However, it can be very easy to choose unwisely at such a fun and vulnerable time in a young person’s life. So many temptations are lingering around college campuses. It is so easy to fall into a place where you never intended to be when you forget to keep Christ close. 2 Corinthians 5:20 says, “Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God." This verse is proof that God will give us the power to choose his path. Our job is to tell others about him and he will put us exactly where we need to be to do so.

I believe God chooses to put us in certain places in our lives because someone there needs us. You may have heard your college years are when you learn the most about yourself and in my case it is so very true. For some people college is about experiencing new things, like staying out until 2 a.m. or having the luxury of not having parents tell them what to do, or seemingly finding out how much trouble they can get into. But for me it has been quite different.

My first two years of college were filled with so much excitement! I loved where I was and I loved the people who surrounded me! I was playing softball and really thought I had it made. I was happy and being a student athlete was everything I had imagined. I got so caught up in feeling good about myself, making friends and playing softball that I got away from God. You may be thinking I went on a binge drinking episode or got in some deep trouble but that was not the case. I felt in my heart that something was not right with me and God, yet I kept making decisions for myself without God's guidance.

The next two years of my college career would be the most difficult. I had decided I wanted to play two more years of college softball so I went to a short notice try- out and made the team. I thought for sure this was where God had chosen for me to be. Everything seemed to be falling into place again. And in many ways, it was; just not how I thought it would. I had big visions about the next two years playing softball and attending a new university, but looking back those visions seem selfish and I did not have God's purpose in mind.

Not long after the fall semester started those visions I once had quickly faded, I struggled through the first year. I did not like where I was living, I missed home, I had not made friends as easily as I did before and I injured my shoulder during the fall softball season. Everything I thought was going to happen, was not happening. Softball had always been my escape, something I loved but now the thought of quitting seemed like the best route. Staying there, playing this sport, was making me hate all of the memories I had made through the game as a little girl. That is what I struggled with most, why was God allowing me to be miserable when I thought for sure I was in the place He wanted me to be? Why was I not getting what I wanted?

Again, God chooses to put us in certain places in our lives because someone needs us and even though we might not know whom those people are we should always let our light shine.

I finished up my third year and fourth year of my collegiate softball career. It was definitely not what I envisioned but somewhere between that third and fourth year God made me realize I was not there for the reasons I had thought. As much as I hate to admit it, he did not send me there to be a star athlete. I think he sent me there to be a star believer, and that is something I can carry into eternity. Daily we are surrounded by people who do not know Christ, who choose not to follow him. College environments offer so many things that seem more fun than reading your Bible but if I had not have made up my mind to stay in the word and seek God first, I would not be who I am today.

I struggled so I could grow as a believer; I strengthened relationships with people around me and with God just to keep me pushing through. So as you start a new school year, wherever it may be, strive to get more out of your college career and be able to say college helped you choose God's path. Things are not always going to go your way but in those times continue to trust God because even when we do not see it, he is working and someone needs us.

Choose your own path wisely, and shine so others can see him through you!