id cards

I was wearing my favorite orange tank top, the perfect fitting boyfriend jeans and my rainbows. I had just cut my hair short and made sure every strand was straightened with a little flip at the end. With my freshly washed VW Beetle, I drove an unfamiliar route that now feels like home to me. 

Waiting in the parking lot next to Alpha Chi dormitory, unusually early,  I sat nervous. I double checked myself and wondered if I should have chosen my olive button up jersey instead. I reapplied my lip gloss five times. I prayed. And then they arrived. My new roommates. At the time, strangers. 

I paused to get out of the car until I saw their car doors open. Kolbey got out of the car first, then Jen. I remember seeing Kolbey standing at 6 feet tall and just thinking, she is so pretty. And of course, Jen was just as gorgeous. We introduced ourselves and quickly found that we all didn't drink soda, but loved Shirley Temples. And it was obvious from the start, that we all loved to laugh! 

We walked around campus and found our dorm, the one we would share in just a few weeks. We got our ID cards and then went to lunch. I learned from the get go, that Kolbey loved mustard and Jen was allergic to nuts. And mostly, learned that I didn't need to be nervous. I could be myself around these girls that I'm now proud to call friends even after 5 years. 

I went and got my ID card as a graduate student this week. I couldn't help but recall the first time I went into that office and the three of us girls stood in line and insured each other our ID pictures looked great. And I couldn't help but thank God. 

I had no idea that I would be here, in this place that I am today. That He would be so instrumental in my life and use so many different people in the last five years, two of those being Kolbey and Jen, and so on with the amazing women I lived with and the wonderful Hart RDs, the Lows. I had no idea when we walked into that dorm, that it would be a place that would foster so much growth, friendship and love. Nor did I realize Biola would be. 

As I start a new journey, although in a now familiar place, I hope I am just as astonished when I finish graduate school, at the places and situations God has brought me into and out of. Although, I write this nervously similar to how I sat in that car double checking myself and praying, I know that what awaits me is nothing to be nervous about, it's something to be excited about.