In a few short days, I will walk across the stage of the Wesley Chapel to receive a piece of paper that tells me I’m finished here. I’ve completed my degree requirements. I’ve had my share of fun, challenging, and fruitful experiences. I’ve built relationships that will last a lifetime. I’ve experienced joy and heartache. I’ve endured warm sunny spring afternoons and windy snow-covered wintry mornings. I’ve grown and I’ve changed. This latest chapter of my life is all but concluded.

And while this transition will be bittersweet in many ways, I am ready to move on. I’m thankful for the friendships and the memories. The learning experiences and the laughs. I have been so blessed through my 4 years here at Houghton and I wouldn’t trade them for the world. I’m thankful that I have a vast store of fun memories to consider as I look back on my college years. And I’m thrilled that these 4 years have enabled and equipped me to make an even greater impact on the world around me. I cannot wait to begin this new leg of the journey!

The excitement that I am feeling now is very similar to the way that I felt at the end of my high school years. The fall of my senior year, I wrote about my joys and passions, my dreams and my visions. As my college years come to a close, I am realizing all of these dreams and joys yet again. I cannot wait to be able to continue to use my gifts, talents, interests and abilities to impact the world. For nostalgia’s sake, here’s the excerpt of what I wrote back in November of 2006:

In all honesty, I don’t think I’ve even been this excited about my future before. I have so many hopes, so many dreams that I would love for God to fulfill in me. I want to be everything that He wants me to be. I want to change the world…I want to help those less fortunate than myself in so many ways. I want to get beyond the individual level and have an impact on a people as a whole. I want to do amazing things.

Tonight has been one full of realizations and discoveries of interests I’m not sure I ever knew I had before. Doing research for my papers has really had an impact on me over these past few days. It’s so weird…I am so excited about writing these papers…especially those dealing with international stuff. I want to know what’s being done to stop the atrocities in our world and figure out what more should be done to be more effective. I want my eyes to be opened even more to the awful things that go on in our world. I want to change the world…I want to impact the world for Jesus Christ. I want to defend the weak and help those that are in dire need. I want to put an end to so many different things. I know that on my own I am incapable. With the strength of God…with His help, I can do anything. I can pursue any career goal that I might choose…and I can trust that He will use it for His ultimate glory. I could become a doctor and serve the people of East Africa. I could become a teacher and serve those in Southeast Asia. I could do something on a more large-scale basis and help change the lives of so many. I could pursue a career in medicine and use that to change major things in our world today…I could play a major role in fighting for human rights for the underprivileged children of this world.

Wow…I am so overcome with excitement right now, I can’t even contain it. I don’t think I’d be able to sleep right now, even if I tried. I am so excited about all that God is going to do in and through me! I love being passionate…it’s something I’d been lacking for a little while, but it’s certainly back….perhaps even stronger than ever before! I will make a difference with my life! I will impact those around me and those around the world. God is going to use me in so many amazing ways…I know it!!!

Perhaps the most exciting difference at this point in my life is the joy in knowing that Tim will be my companion through all of the journeys and adventures of this life. In 2 and a half weeks, I’ll walk down the aisle and commit to spend the rest of my life with my best friend. And together, we will have the privilege of embarking on the next leg of this journey called life. I am so excited because I realize that the impact that we can have together is so much greater than the impact we could each make on our own. At this point, Tim and I aren’t really sure exactly how God is going to use us in the future…but that excites me. It means that we’ll be forced to rely on Him to show us each step of the way as we journey in His grace. In conversation with a friend recently, he told me he hopes that Tim and I never know where we will be or what we will be doing 18 months from now. I would love to be so sensitive to God’s leading and His call on our lives that we would be willing to follow wherever He would call us.

I cannot wait to see how God works in and through our soon-to-be established marriage. I am so eager to see the ways that He will use us for His glory in the lives of those around us. I love adventures. I love knowing that I am using the gifts, talents, passions, and abilities that God has given me. And while I don’t know where God’s plan for my life and the dreams He’s given me will intersect, I am thrilled to know that fully realize that the journey truly is the destination. Each step along the way is influential in molding me and shaping me into the person that God desires me to be.

If you’re reading this, please pray with me that God would reveal His plan and His purpose to Tim and me in the coming days. Not that we would know all that He has in store for us, but that we might catch a glimpse and have an opportunity to jump in feet-first with all of the enthusiasm and excitement that we can muster.