Cap and Gown

I picked up my cap and gown today.

Four years ago, I moved to Spokane thinking that I had an idea of what was in store. I was a sophomore in college, planning to spend only three more years in school, and had definite plans of making Spokane a mere speed bump on the road to the real Moody campus.

Funny, isn't it?


My exit interview was also today. We were discussing how I've grown since I've been here. I couldn't think of one area of my life where I hadn't changed in some way. From learning to live with non-family, to paying for rent and school, to the agony of job interviews, to surviving midterms, to finding a church to call home... every single aspect of my life now is one hundred percent different from the way it was when I arrived in 2008.

Today, I realized that my life couldn't have been more different from the way I'd planned. I've been married for almost two years (one week till our anniversary!), it took me four more years of school instead of three, I didn't go to the Chicago campus. Instead of being a place that I passed through, Spokane has been a home to me. I've grown up here, in more ways than one.

Since I have lived in this place, I have not only learned how to do "grown up things"; I have become something of my own person. What I mean by this is that living life here has challenged me to think through what I really think about things. Living with people with different backgrounds has made me question my beliefs (in a good way) and say to myself, "What do I really think about this or that?" and "WHY do I believe what I say I believe?" It's not that I doubt everything that I was taught growing up. Instead, I have reasoned through many of those things. Though I'm not very good about answering questions on the spot, I can actually give my honest opinion about issues in Christianity instead of spouting something I heard once upon a time in youth group.

Second Corinthians 5:17 isn't talking about me when it says "The old has passed away and the new has come" but I feel like that sometimes. Through a slow process where I didn't even realize that I was changing, I've changed. I'm not at all the same person. And four years isn't even a lot of time to change that much... I feel as if I should have stretch marks or something to show for all that change and growth (I'm glad I don't).

So though I didn't plan to give four years of my life to a school in the Northwest, I'm glad that I did. I am thankful for every moment here. I am thankful for my professors, my fellow classmates, friends, my husband, my church and all other people that I've come into contact with since being in this place. I love the changes. And looking forward to the future, I think that I can interpret change as a good thing. I have seen God's unchanging nature as His exhibits His faithfulness in the past four years and I can only imagine that I will continue to see it.

It's been a great four years. And very quick.
Eleven days until Pomp and Circumstance.