graduation

its official.

on may 26th, at a little after 9am, i graduated from Biola University. the ceremony was a needed ending to my college career. i had been living in a limbo for the past five months feeling like i was finished with school, but without it being an official thing. and now it was. i was finished.

it was a bittersweet experience. on one hand graduation was a very happy moment because it marked a closing to an amazing period of my life, but on the other hand it was a very sad and sobering reality. this was it. no more college life. i knew that this meant the times i would see my college friends would be much fewer and farther between. in fact, i probably said goodbye to a few people for life.

i thank God for the opporunity that He gave me. i am very grateful for my time at Biola and i was blessed to be there for three and a half years. i was blessed to learn about the One True God. i was blessed to meet the people that i did. i was blessed to experience the things that i did. i was blessed to learn from some amazing people. i was blessed to figure out more of who i am. i am a different person now than i was four years ago and i am thankful for that. even though it gives me a pit in my stomach to think about it, i am thankful for graduating.

Biola does this neat thing during the first week of school where they have a dinner for all the incoming freshmen and they have you write on a notecard your hopes and dreams for the next four years. i filled out that card and sealed it in an envelope four years ago. they gave the envelopes back to us the day before graduation. i cannot remember what i wrote down and honestly im scared to open it. im afraid of falling short of what i had hoped to do over those four years. im scared that i wasted too much of my time at Biola. im scared that i squandered the gift that God gave me. im scared that whenever i do open and read what i wrote down four years ago, i will finally understand that my college career is officially over.

regardless of what i wrote on that card, college was what it was. i was blessed to experience it. i am thankful for it and (though it is a bit cheesy) i feel this famous saying shares some of my same sentiments towards the last four years;
"I asked God for strength, that I might achieve; I was made weak, that I might learn to humbly obey. I asked for health, that I might do greater things; I was given infirmity, that I might do better things. I asked for riches, that I might be happy; I was give poverty, that I might be wise. I asked for power, that I might have the praise of men; I was given weakness, that I might feel the need for God. I asked for all things, that I might enjoy life; I was given life, that I might enjoy all things. I got nothing that I asked for, but everything I had hoped for. Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered. I am, among all, most richly blessed."
-Unknown Confederate Soldier's prayer