My First Semester Experience

It has been the longest 20 hours to end the longest 4 months of my life thus far.

I am currently on a flight to Phoenix. I was originally supposed to go to LAX → HNL. But after 4 hours of delays, they completely cancelled the flight. I was left stranded in Columbus since hotels won’t accept lone 18 year olds. An hour and a half later, I ended up in Xenia. (Justin, you are a true life saver). After 3 hours of sleep, we left the house at 4 AM. Thank, God, there were no problems with my new flight.

Here I am, thousands of miles high in the sky. I am finally headed home. That doesn’t sound real. It certainly doesn’t feel real. My first semester at college -& away from my family, home, everything I’ve known- seemed to be never-ending. Yet, I am flying away and leaving it in the dust.

The first 2 months were the worst. They were some of the hardest I have ever experienced. College was nothing like I expected. With the pressure of staying on top of my academics, I found myself without a social life. I am an extravert and I get a lot of my energy from other people. I soon found myself feeling so drained and without purpose. It was sosososo nice getting to actually be in the same state with my boyfriend (for those who don’t know, we were in a long distance relationship for 2 years). But I had no idea why God brought me to Ohio. Whenever people asked -which was way too often for my liking - why I left Hawaii for soy and cornfields, all I could say was, “I have no clue. I’m just going where God is taking me”. And that is the honest truth. I felt like God was leading me blind. I missed my home and I missed my family. I hated Ohio.

At the middle of the semester, I got terribly sick. I had a sinus infection on top of mono. I was out for 2 weeks. I was told to not leave my dorm room for 2 days. I rested and spent that much needed time with God. I worshipped, I poured out, I prayed, I listened. “I would not have you leave everything for nothing. What I have for you here is greater than you know”. This is one of those growing outside of your comfort zone times. Stretching and strengthening are the words He uses most often when I ask Him for the 436th time, “why am I here?” After getting reassurance and peace from God, I felt much better about being in a small-town in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of people who didn’t understand me. I saw a sliver of my purpose here.

Since then, the semester started going by so quickly and things started looking up. God put certain people in my path that have taught me a lot and directed me to the right place. I’ve learned many lessons and my social life started picking up (this sounds so sad lol).

Towards the last few weeks of the semester, God started shaking me up. He is now in the process of turning me into someone completely new. This means facing things that I need to change about myself that don’t line up with the plans He has for me. This is hard, stressful, uncomfortable, overwhelming, and humbling. It was a lot to deal with during the chaos of finals. But Christmas break came at the most perfect time.

I’m coming home!! I am leaving cornfields for mountains. Snow for sand. Strangers for family. Unfamiliarity for what I know best. 17 degrees for 77. I’ve been waiting for this to come since the 3rd week of the semester. The hardest part about going home is having to leave it again. Especially now that I know how much it hurts being away for so long. But if God calls me to do this for 7 more semesters, then 7 more times I will follow Him.

The biggest lesson I learned from this semester: wherever God calls you, follow without hesitation. You might not see His plan, but He formed them even as He was forming the stars. The waters may be choppy, but He will not allow you to go under.