This weekend was spent acting as a tour guide for my little sister, who was in Greenville for the first time in three years. She was meeting most of my best friends for the first time. She was discovering and exploring and learning to love this place (almost) as much as I do.FYI: We do not dress like this everyday, it was for a sorority function!
As a freshman in college, she is writing a new part to her story, and in that story, I was reminded of an idea for a book I have joked about writing with a friend here at Furman titled What If College Isn’t The Best Four Years of Your Life?In her story, I see pieces of my own story.
College has not been easy in any sense of the word. Each day, each semester, each year, is filled with its own adventures and trials. And some of those days, I have found myself asking this dreaded question society tells us not to ask. Society assures us that college will be filled with deep friendships and exciting adventures and meaningful experiences. But, no one tells you this will be hard. I cannot assure you it won’t take work. I can only assure you it will be worth it.
In these years, I have learned and I have grown. I have been stretched. I have been challenged to the point of tears. I have felt more joy in my heart than I ever thought possible. I have met professors and staff who encourage me to fearlessly be myself as I pursue the things I am passionate about. I have found a homeaway from a home I thought I would always claim exclusively. I have felt peace like a river, and yet also chewed off all my fingernails because I was filled with an insatiable anxiousness. I have built up the confidence to eat a meal alone in the DH (Dining Hall). I have found friends who remind me who I am when I feel like the world is against me.
So yes, looking back I would say that my four years at Furman have been the best I have experienced so far in my 22 years of life. But, prepare yourself to be shaken up a bit, challenged and stretched in ways that make you feel uncomfortable. Ask questions you can’t answer. Don’t be afraid to step out of your bubble of comfort and ease.
Quickly, I realized that in this place, this place of confusion and frustration and maybe even fear, comes incredible growth. I don’t know if any of you saw or even remember the movie, We Bought a Zoo, but Benjamin Mee says something in that that has stuck with me ever since I saw that movie over five years ago. He said, “You know, sometimes all you need is twenty seconds of insane courage. Just literally twenty seconds of just embarrassing bravery. And I promise you, something great will come of it.”
