I remember when my oldest sister first started going to college. When I had to start that school year, I was confused as to why she was still in bed as we got up to get ready for school. Usually she would have gotten up with us. My mom told me that she was in college now and she didn't have to go to school until later in the day. I thought, "That is so cool! I can't wait to go to college and not have to go to school early!" My sister was eight years older than me, so I was still pretty young. I thought college was another kind of school that just didn't start until later in the day. I had no idea what kind of schedule my sister had, or what it involved. I knew that older grades had harder homework, but I didn't ever give thought to how hard. It was all just something in the future.

Back then, even high school was just something in the future. I knew that someday I would go to that larger school that my older siblings went to, and I would be there for a few years. It seemed so far off; something I didn't have to think about yet. I had to get through junior high first.

Then suddenly I was there, figuring out classrooms, and finding out who was in my classes. I had to get a job and take drivers training. I was getting into the thing that is life. I was told to think about college, what I would want to do with my life after high school, when I had to go into that mysterious place that is "the real world." For a while I didn't even think that I would go to college. I would just be one of those girls who worked wherever and waited for something to happen in their life. Then I suddenly decided; I'll go to college. Just like that. Not sure what for, or where. I have never liked to deal with complicated stuff. I don't like things that get too involved. I like things to stay simple and straightforward. So looking into colleges was not my favorite thing to do. I didn't want to have to deal with college visits and applications. So I narrowed down my options on my own, chose three and only applied to those. I got accepted to two. I chose Calvin out of those two, and went with it. Orientation was my first time ever being on the campus.

I look back to then. I think about how I thought about college, what I thought it would be. And then I look at now; how it really is, what's different than what I thought, what's actually pretty accurate to my first imaginings.

On my first drive to Calvin, back then, I had thought, "Someday this route will be so familiar to me." Then, I had to be watchful for my turns, make sure I knew where I was going. Now, I can drive the route without thinking about it too much. It's as familiar as I thought it would become.

Then, when I first walked around campus, I thought of how someday I wouldn't have to worry about getting lost. Now, that worry has become less prominent. There are still some buildings that I am not sure about, but I navigate the campus much easier now.

Then, I had looked at different places around campus and thought of how they might be my study areas, my hangout spots. I wasn't sure where my nooks would be then. Now, I have places all around campus where I am comfortable to work and just chill.

Back then, my first year, I looked at things such as the Chimes office and thought, "Maybe I'll be a part of that someday." I was in the office once for a group meeting, and I looked around and thought, "Maybe this will be where I work someday." Now, I am the section editor for Features. That office is becoming very familiar to me now.

Then and now. How things were thought of then, to how they turn out to be now. I think back to to how things used to be. To how I thought of them, to how I thought things would be now. I had imagined life here at college, then. Now it is reality. Now I'm living it. That seems wondrous to me.

The most amazing thing about it, is how I can see the hand of God through it all. I can see how He has guided my life to where it is. From then, to now. The opportunities that I wasn't even sure about then, have become my life now. I can see that the Lord has taken what I was unsure about then, and has shaped my life with them. The life I imagined myself having now isn't exactly what I thought I would have then, when I first imagined life at Calvin, but it is close. And that is something that shows me the way that God works in my life.

What I used to think college was, is a little off from the experiences I have with it now, but I do get to sleep in sometimes, when I haven't registered for an early class. It is something that is way harder than I thought it would have been. Then, college was just school; something you had to do. Now, it is my choice, and what I want to do. It is where God has led me. From then, to now.