Thanks, Corban.

Hello, friends!

Happy Monday / beginning of finals week / our LAST week on campus for the year.

As my freshman year of college at Corban University comes to a close this week (AHH!), I thought I should reflect on some things I've learned, experienced, encountered, and become since that hot August day last fall when I first stepped on campus for orientation weekend. For all this growth and discovery and joy I've found since last fall, I have a lot to thank Corban (and ultimately, our great God) for.

I'll start with the obvious, friendships.
Never in my life have I been in an environment where making friends is so easy and simple because everyone around me is so loving and welcoming. Since orientation weekend, spending hours on end with my Elementary Ed core group of 25 excited/nerve wrecked freshman girls, I've met so many people that have already impacted my time here at Corban and my life as a whole so drastically. I walked into a core group of future little kid teachers who love to learn and love to encourage each other as we're all this this crazy Ed major life together. I've met tons of music majors that share God's love around campus through their gifts and talents while encouraging all of the rest of us to do the same. I've met some pretty great people from far away states (Hawaii and Alaska, mostly) who love on everyone like we're all apart of their tight-knit family. I've met scientific geniuses, future doctors, nurses, and pediatricians. I've met people with hearts on fire for the Lord with a heart for church ministry and missions, planning on pursing careers as pastors, missionaries, and church leadership positions in their churches back home or oversees in the Middle East. I've met upperclassmen that treat us freshmen like we're more than just the new kids on the block, and who encourage / love on us like we've been here for years. I've met artists, writers, and creators who see beauty in every little thing around us. I've been given a killer first roommate who supports and encourages me to chase after God as she does every day. God has given me a best friend and future roommate (and AMBEX study abroad travelling partner for spring '17, YES!) who is truly my kindred spirit, who balances me out with her unwavering patience, encouragement, and sweet soul. God has poured out blessing upon blessing and grace upon grace to me by surrounding me with people who love me and encourage me to love Him even more. I was pretty anxious about leaving home and the friends and family that I've known my whole life, and being placed in an environment with hundreds of new names and faces. God is so faithful, and so so good. He has surrounded me with a great support system of loving friends who help me love deeper and work harder and encourage others around me to do the same. I can't ever thank Him enough for the people He's placed around me during these past 8 months of my life. Coming to Corban has given me the opportunity to meet people that will impact my life for years to come.

Secondly, I've gotta thank Corban for its insanely close-knit community.
This kind of goes along with friendships, but it's a little more broad than that. We often take for granted the fact that we can walk around campus and anywhere we go be greeted with a smile and a hello, even from people we've never met or only know as an acquaintance. Sure, you're always going to run into people that you don't get along with 100% of the time and not everyone is bright and cheery before 10AM (me included), but in general, the majority of Corbanites understand that God has chosen us, loved us, and included us in His family- so why not do the same for the people that we're living life with for the next 4 years on campus? Corban is a community of love, respect, encouragement, and accountability- a community that I am insanely proud to be apart of. Not a day goes by when I don't feel encouraged and uplifted to keep chasing God along with everyone else around me. Corban, thanks for being so focused on the important things and creating the environment that you have. God is so good.

Lastly, and most importantly, I have to thank God and the time He has given me at Corban for strengthening my faith. As I reread this, I realize all three of these things (friends, community, faith) all tie together into the brightly colored package that is Corban. And as I reflect over the last year, I realize that I have grown so much in my faith specifically because of the friends and community of Corban. My faith has been challenged in so many ways since I moved here 8 months ago. I had to conquer my fear of leaving and home and stepping into a new place where I only knew a few people (my brother included, so that doesn't exactly count). Thankfully, God had a great plan and knew everything that I needed, and definitely provided for all of that. He gently took all those fears I had and replaced them with a confidence that I am where I'm supposed to be! My loved for Him has deepened, and my passion for everything that Corban is about has grown because of how passionate everyone is around me for the same kinds of things. Although I miss my home church and that body of believers like nothing else, God brought me to a new church here and surrounded me with people dedicated to their faith and encouraging others to do the same, in and out of Corban's campus boundaries. And for that, Corban, I gotta say thank you. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.

As you can see, I've got a lot to thank Corban and the Lord for during the last 8 months of my life (and what I've written is just a suuuuuper cut down summary...). People always say your college years are the most crucial / challenging / growing / important years of your life, and I wasn't really sure what that meant until right now. I'm super stoked to see what God's got next for me when I'm back here in the fall! He has already opened so many doors - given me a future roommate, provided the means for the opportunity to study abroad in Germany in the spring (even as an Ed major, which is a down right miracle...), giving me a job that won't go away at all while I'm here, and a whole lot more.

God provides, God is faithful, God is so so good.

So, friends, go kick those tigers in the teeth this week. Through it all, fix your eyes upon Him and realize that no matter what, it is well. The Lord is fighting for you and will always continue to fight for you. Take a breath, count to 10, and enjoy your last week in this great place we get to call our home away from home for what seems like forever but will be gone like a breeze in the wind. Heck, I blinked, and a year has already passed. Take advantage of this last week and love others well.

Corban, I'll see you in 4 months.