College is a weird place. Everyone can do whatever they want to do whenever they want to do it. No one's mom is here to make sure you go to bed at a reasonable time or make you go to the doctor when your cough hasn't gone away after a couple weeks, and no one is going to wake you up for your classes if you hit snooze one too many times. There is a lot of freedom that comes to living away from your family.

This time teaches us to make our own choices, build our own priorities, and put in our own effort to get what we want whether that's a career, a position, or a grade. Faith is a choice in college too. Many of us grow up going to church with our families, but once we're off on our own, we don't get up without our mom's yelling at us from the kitchen when breakfast is ready. We use our family to hold us accountable. Our childhood bible stories stay with us and we pray before finals. But for many, that's all.

When I came to college, I originally felt unsettled. I felt like I was a visitor in Athens rather than a resident. I wanted to find a community here. The first week of school, I went with friends to a church connected to mine at home and loved it. Shortly after, I got busy. I spent Sundays doing homework, sleeping in, or hanging out with friends. Church became more of a convienience than a priority. I scheduled it between other activities, I felt too overwhelmed to go to Freshley because I had skipped for what I thought was too long. Towards the end of second semester, I wanted to make it a priority. I wrote it on my calender every single week so that I could plan my week with church as a commitment rather than a choice.

I started to plan quiet times before classes. With an afternoon schedule, I started to wake up a little earlier and have some time going through my bible. In a freshman year of roommates and community bathrooms and dining halls and lectre classes, you don't have much alone time if any. This became my time to myself and with God. I set up readings with accountability partners to discuss and help keep me on track.

As much as the "party scene" is seen as a big part of college, the presence of faith on campus is even more overwhelming and important. Freshley and Wesley and College Nights and Cru and so many campus ministries flood this University and encourage everyone to get involved. These groups of people inspire us, pour into us, and help to fullfill us. But we also have to be there for it. We have to show up- not just for attendance. We have to mentally and spiritually be present qith the Lord. We have to be open to hear new things in this new place.

College is scary. We get so overwhelmed with trying to never forget an assignment and remembering we need to buy more coffee creamer that we forget about the bigger things. The small stuff is easy to stress about- a flooding trashcan when you forget to buy more bags, a last minute reminder about a paper you totally forgot about, the date night you hvae coming up with your friend that you really really want to be more than a friend. We want more, but we forget to focus on it.

This semester, I have turned church into a commitment. DZ's bible study became one of my favorite groups i've been involved with. Going to freshley became a bigger priority. Taking quiet times is one of my favorite ways to be alone with myself and God and away from the chaos of college. This has been a year of spiritual growth and a lot of it.