I'M DONE! I am FINALLY finished with my college career!!!! WOOHOOOOOO!!!!!
Next week I will be a graduate! I will have earned, after a grueling five years of on and off college, my Associates of Science in Business Management from Baton Rouge Community College!
This journey has been a difficult one, and I am so thankful to those who have shared this experience with me whether it be with encouragement in the hard spots, financial assistance, prayers, or just the love of a friend (most importantly, my parents!!!).
This journey has been one that has brought me heartache and laughter; experience and wisdom learned the hard way; and most importantly an appreciation for life, friends, and family that I share life with. I am so beyond grateful for the life I have been blessed with and the life I hope to create post-college.
I’d like to share just a bit about my journey through college. I never pictured myself going to LSU when I was in high school. I wanted to go out of state, but the LORD had different plans for me. He closed every door I tried to jump through to go out of state. Finally, after hearing God ask me to “just visit” the campus, I asked my dad to do a drive through. I felt an immediate and overwhelming peace that only the LORD could have given me. I accepted the LORD’s calling and applied to LSU. It was the only school I applied to, and I was accepted.
I moved into my dorm with an unknown roommate and got to have that wonderful first-year-with-a-crazy-roommate experience. She had an intense schedule, in her defense, that kept her up late at night and coming in early in the morning. Many a night I was woken by a slamming door and the lights flicking on. If it wasn’t her waking me up in the middle of the night, it was my neighbors. They were a couple sorority girls that would go to the bars and aim to find the LOUDEST guys they could. These men would sit outside my room and laugh and talk as loud as possible with deep voices that carried to China.
That same first year, I made some of the most meaningful friendships that will last a lifetime. I went on my first road trip with some people I didn’t know that well to the Passion Conference in Atlanta, Georgia to share together in our love for Jesus. The conference rocked, though our accommodations felt like rocks! Getting in at 1 or 2 am, showering, and finally falling asleep between 3 and 4 and waking up between 5 and 6 made for more interesting conversations and interactions between everyone each day. Regardless, the LORD moved throughout that time and it was worth it.
The next year I moved into my own house that I rented with two roommates from my dear parents. I’d love hosting friends “on the reg” and throwing parties for all of us to enjoy (safely, of course).
That spring semester, I started feeling very overwhelmed by school. My parents lovingly and gently suggested some time off might be a good idea, but that idea seemed more overwhelming than staying in school did. That summer, I participated in a summer internship at my church where I thought I would get clear and obvious direction from God. I didn’t.
In August 2011, I started back at LSU. I loved all my classes and professors, but for some strange reason, I fell behind quickly. Come midterms, I was overwhelmed and failing most of my classes. My sister comforted me and through lots of heavy prayers and tears, the answer became clear.
The LORD was calling me to passionately and uninhibitedly follow Him, whatever and wherever that meant. So I decided I would withdraw from LSU and follow wherever God was to lead me.
Through the next 10 months, I followed the LORD’s instruction. I was passionately pursued by the LORD and He lead me to the jobs that would provide for me above and beyond. These may have been the most important months of my life.
I learned that I loved business and was great at it. I developed more business skills and gained a new appreciation for the working people in America. I met plain Janes and average Joes that were anything but mediocre. These people had stories I had only seen movies of. I also learned I wanted a degree so I didn’t have to be stuck at the bottom of a business, like I was.
The decision to return to school was clear, but I was going back to community college. This is where I believe God was leading (humbling) me. Somewhere that was completely different and out of my comfort zone. My pride said I was better than community college. I had gone to a flagship school! I had lived in the real world and these people were fresh out of highschool and not smart enough to get into LSU or sketchy.
I have never been more wrong.
The people I have met at BRCC have struggled, too. They are trying to improve their lives. Some are taking their prerequisites to transfer and, for others, it’s a better transition from high school. Some were wise to take classes at a cheaper school before jumping into the extremity of cost that is universities.
I learned I am not above community college and it’s not “easier” or “less than” a “real” university.
I realized after much prayer and deliberation that I would get my Associates in Business Management instead of my 4 year, and if God called me to a four year later, so be it.
After two years at BRCC, I am proud to announce that come May 23, 2014 I will be graduating with my Associates of Science in Business Management, and I have learned so much more than just business management skills!
I’ll never be able to explain the feeling of that last final. The final that if blown, would put me back in school for one more class. The pressure of blanking when I saw the test. The fear and excitement as I remembered how to perform the necessary computations as I began to panic. And, mostly, the feeling I got from handing in that blue book and I passed. Walking from the classroom knowing I’d never have to take another written test like that again gave me such a euphoric feeling as I have never known.
I don’t know what’s next, but I’m so excited to see where the LORD will take me next! I feel like I have been on this fantastic adventure with Him since I graduated high school in 2009.
I would love to write professionally or do freelance photography and other art! I also want to start my own coffee shop in the next 5 years or so. I also plan on going on (well applying to go on) the World Race soon (date to be decided haha that’ll be a BIG posting!).
I’m living in today without the worry of tomorrow and, with God on my side, I know I can be successful in what I choose to do. God’s got my back, and that’s the most important lesson I could have learned in the past 5 years.
Here’s to the next chapter!
--Maggie Mae
