Stress time!
So it's about that time. I remember the craziness and anxiety I felt around finals week in high school and for some reason, I always thought it would be different in college. I always thought I'd be better prepared or less worried or know the material better. What I didn't think was that the stress would be even worse when finals week crept up on me and I realized that I hadn't done any of the reading for two of my classes, well at least the reading I need to finish before the finals. Besides that, a lot of things around GC and in my life are changing.

My relationships are definitely changing since I've been here at Goshen. My parents and I interact differently. It's less about permission and approval and more about them helping me to find my place in this world. They've been helping me learn how to be an adult. I've been joking about the fact that "I'm grown", as I like to say, since I turned 18, but I now realize how true that is. There is no Mom to make sure I'm awake for class, no Dad for me to complain to. There are no parents to keep me accountable as far as my faith, my work, or anything else. I am here, and I am learning what it means to be independent.

Besides my parental relationships, my relationship with God is changing. My interpretation of the Bible is changing as things are taught to me not as doctrine but as information that I get to interpret. I've learned so many things about my faith and about the Bible that I never knew. The faith that I've embraced and thought I understood seems to be so much different than the things I learned in Sunday school, Bible study and youth group. There are so many things left for me to discover. And lucky for me, I get to take another Bible class soon, and I hope that this next class, like my current class, leads to turmoil in my spiritual life because in the end, that struggle, more than anything else is what leads to growth.

I came to Goshen not only because of the academic reputation but because I wanted to grow in my faith. And now, more so than any other time, I feel like I am able to and being pushed to grow.
Posted at 15:33 #