My first semester of college has flown by. I have made the greatest friends and developed friendships that I am already sure will last a lifetime. I have learned a lot in the classroom, as well. One of the most obvious changes that I can see is the vast improvement in my writing, thanks to my World of Rhetoric BIC class. I have had a lot of moments, reading things for my major, in which I will stop and express my fascination to anyone who is around and will listen to it. I have developed a love for learning, something beyond a love for getting an A. In BIC world cultures, I have learned a lot about other cultures and discovered that our culture is more similar to other cultures than we might be willing to admit.
Apart from my academic achievements, I have learned a lot about myself. Some of this learning happened in the classroom in both BIC Examined Life and Psychology. In Examined life, we extensively discussed personality types and how we could use them in our career fields. We discussed how our personality types could be a good indication of our vocation. College is an important place to discuss vocation and where we are going from here. We know that our vocation is given to us by God and is where our deep passions and the world's greatest need collide. I learned that I am not obtaining an education for my benefit at all. My career is supposed to further the gospel through helping the world. We also discussed social issues in examined life and how to go about those in a way that reflects our Christian values. I realized that much of us are lacking in standing up for the Truth and what is right. In a world that needs the hope that we can give, we are not doing a whole lot to help. In psychology, I learned a lot about relating well to others and how to best interact with people. Overall, I learned the importance and value of growing outside of the obvious academic pursuit that we tend to focus solely upon.
My friends taught me that friendship is more important than I have ever considered it before. Friendship is not something to put on the backburner, but something to invest in. If my hopes and dreams take me to a place that I do not have time to have friends, I think that is a sign that God wants me to be doing something else, entirely. My friends are the people who have pushed me to realize the greater goal of helping humanity, not just making a living to obtain a comfortable life.
Although the past four months happened incredibly fast, they changed me for the long run. I have a different outlook on the world around me and on my future. My first semester of college has been a blessing.
