Planning ahead

For three days now I have been tied up in the end-of-the-year whirlwind. I moved out of the dorm I called home for the last two years into my first real house. I said goodbye to the friends whom I had shared a hall with. We shared sadness and reminisced in our last nights together, wondering what the distance of the next year would bring. And then we went our separate ways.

Moving into my house was difficult and stressful - from buying and hauling furniture to assembling it. Things didn't go as planned, things didn't fit like they should, thumbs were hit with hammers, and things were all around messy. I was apprehensive about living with my new roommates (three wonderful girls who I am blessed to count as close friends) simply because they were new. My bedroom has a door to the outside and I was scared of intruders.

I think I realized through all this that it wasn't really the moving that makes me nervous. It's what the moving symbolizes - a transition into a new phase of my life. For the first time I am really responsible for myself. There are no hall directors or residence assistants looking over me in my house. I am really and truly becoming an adult, and that's what actually scares me.

As this year ended I watched numerous friend graduate with no plans for their futures. Many are moving back home with their parents, hoping for better luck in a different city, or going to grad school just to delay the job search. I have seen many tears shed over college graduation due to the insecurity that lies ahead. I have one year left, and I am slowly realizing that this is my only year left to prepare me for life after college.

Of all the things I can do to prepare for that new world awaiting me, I know that the most important is to put my faith in God. God has a plan for me, and I must trust that God's plan is the best plan.

I learned this lesson from one of my friends at TCU who applied to go into the Peace Corps after graduation. She has spent time in Africa before and really had her heart set on going back there. When the letter from her recruiter came with her placement recommendation the results were not what she had hoped for. She had been nominated for Eastern Europe - far from her African dreams. After a couple days of tears and doubts she told me she planned on accepting her nomination to Eastern Europe. She knew that God would put her there for a reason and she had to let things happen God's way, not her way.

Our Creator gives us unique opportunities in this world to help make it a better place. If we don't have our eyes open or are too timid to accept our call, we lose the chance at a great experience. As I go through my final year of college and begin to plan for my future, I will remember that just because things seem like they aren't going the way I had planned, a new surrounding might be just what your looking for.

My new home might be a little preview of the new life that God is going to bless me with when I finish college. I can't yet see that things are going to work out here. I don't know yet that someone won't break in my door in the middle of the night, but I do know that if I trust God to work in my life, God will give me wonderful experiences here that will shape who I will be for the rest of my life.