It was late August in 2014. I had just arrived at my first college dorm room, and found myself feeling so eager to finally unpack and get all of things out and settled in. After all of my clothes were hung in the closet and folded and put away in drawers, it was time to do what I'd been waiting an entire 18 years to do; decorate my own space... exactly the way I wanted it. I had canvases for the wall, mirrors to hang up, lights to string, and the list goes on. Making an empty space into something beautiful and home like taught me something I never expected to learn in the course of my first year of college; grow where you are planted. Making a room into somewhere I could actually see myself living in more than just Monday through Friday until I could go home on the weekends changed everything. I found myself in those four walls, especially on the nights where I just couldn't take the studying or essay writing anymore, and found the opportunity to get into the Word, the self discovery was even stronger!
I'm not saying that in order for you to build a life in your college community, that you have to drop major bucks in Pier One or Bed Bath & Beyond buying all kinds of pretty things to decorate your college living space with. What I am saying is that, for me, it taught me to be comfortable with my surroundings. Think about it, if you moved away from home for the first time, would a blank, empty room motivate you to plant roots in your new surroundings? Didn't think so. I moved 88 miles away from home, so going home whenever I felt was simply not an option. It's not like I could have dropped everything at a moments notice to go home for dinner. I had to learn to stand on my own two feet. I had to learn how to make meals for myself. I had to learn how to do my own laundry. I had to teach myself how to accomplish school work without my mom reminding me every single day (by the way, love you mom & dad. I wouldn't be where I am today without you guys.) All of these practical life lessons boil down to one thing; Jesus gave me the strength to let go of home, and everything familiar that came along with it in order to begin letting Him write a new chapter for me. He gave me the strength to decorate my first dorm room, meaning that He gave me the strength to take heart in everything He said He was going to do during my years in college, and that is this; through every battle, every heartbreak, and every final exam, that my trials were for my good and His glory.
To the college kid who's probably reading this sometime between classes, today I encourage you to do something... ANYTHING that makes you feel more at home where you are at. Maybe you're a mile down the road from where you grew up, or if you're kinda like me, 88 miles down the road, do something with what you have, where you are. Hang some curtains in your dorm. Put some flowers in a vase on your kitchen table in your apartment. Take time out of your day to get to know the people you are living with, even people who are living on your hall. All of these things are leading to the creation of an environment where life can happen and community can be established. One day, you'll wake up, and it'll be two years later from that freshmen move-in day, and everything will have changed if you have allowed the Lord to have His way over the course of your college career. The same people that lived on your hall freshmen year may become your best friends, and don't think to yourself, "That'll never happen to me, the people I live near are way too different from me. We'd never get along." That's so far from true, because it did happen to me. Please, please, PLEASE do whatever it takes to plant your roots in your college community. Anything can happen. The very same small town that I swore up and down that I would move as far away from as I could once I finished college there, is the same small town that I pray daily that the Lord would allow me to stay in once this under-grad is all said and done. I will say it again; anything can happen. Let it happen during your time in college.
