Growing up, I was always blessed with good friends. My whole life I made friends pretty easily, and the Lord blessed me with so many sweet friends to walk through different stages of life with. I was rarely lacking friends, so it made sense for me to be nervous for college to start where I wouldn't have many friends. In comparison to some of my other friends, this seemed to be an irrational fear because I was rooming with one of my friends from high school, and had several other friends that would also be attending my university, but I was still scared.
Have Your Voice Heard: Become an Odyssey Creator
When I started attending the high school I graduated from, I prayed hard for friends. I was the “new kid”, and even though I already knew people who attended the school, I was still nervous. But God provided. He went above and beyond any hope I had for my high school friends. I had a wonderful group of friends who are very precious to me. I basically always had someone to talk to or hang out with wherever I went. No matter the situation, if I wanted a friend there, I had one. It was awesome. I hear stories of people’s awful high school years and I can’t relate, and I’m so grateful to God for that answered prayer. While knowing my prayer for friends had been answered in the past made me a little less nervous for college, I was still worried that I would never find a group of friends, or that it would take me several months to find them. This wasn’t a concern I voiced a lot because I knew many of my high school friends had it way worse than I did because many of them knew no one at their college.
Again, I found myself praying for more sweet friends. This prayer was different though. Although I know God’s power is incredible, I didn’t know if I could fully trust him to give me friends that were anywhere as wonderful as my old friends. I was upset that he had blessed me with something so good that he was only going to take away. I didn’t really understand why everyone had to leave and move on from something so precious as the memories made during my senior year of high school and the summer after. But I prayed anyways, asking for trust, and another group of sweet friends.
Two days after moving into my dorm, my prayer was answered. My roommate and I were at our dorm’s “Ice Cream Social.” On the outside I’m sure I seemed somewhat happy to be there, but my heart was not in it at all. It wasn’t until the end when we were all exchanging phone numbers and talking about moving the hangout from the hallway to a tour of our dorm rooms that I thought, “hey, these might be my new friends.” After taking pictures with each other and talking for hours, I started to feel at peace and I knew everything was going be okay. I knew God had provided for me once again with friends. For the second time in my life, I could see just how easy it is for prayers to be answered. Even when I struggle to believe, God still loves me and works in my life.
Fast forward a few weeks and I now am still hanging out with many of those same girls from the first Ice Cream Social. It’s been wonderful to have such sweet friends. Again, I was blessed with friends I had prayed for, and they couldn’t have been sweeter. We bonded initially over the Bachelor In Paradise and bundtlets from Nothing Bundt Cakes and our friendship grew from there. I am super thankful for each one of them, and my roommate and I hang out in their dorm rooms almost as much as we hang out in our own. Now, the six of us are almost inseparable. Whether it’s birthday celebrations, eating every single meal together, studying, walking to class, going to Breakaway, watching movies, dancing at Harry’s, going to church, or watching football games; if you find one of us, you will find all of us! God’s plan is perfect, and I am so glad that he has placed these people in my life to help me walk through freshman year.
I understand now the importance of my high school friends all moving away and doing their own thing. Without that happening, I never would have found my new friends. While I still miss my old friends, I can’t wait to introduce them to my new friends, and I hope to one day meet their new friends too! Now I pray prayers of thanksgiving, for my new friends and my old and all the adventures I have had with both. So to my new friends who are reading this, I want to say I love you bunches, you are the friend I prayed for. I can’t wait to see our friendship grow over the next four years. For my old friends reading this, I want to say thank you for being an answer to my prayers, I love you and can’t wait to see you at Christmas!
