Okay so let’s just take a minute and think about it…a bunch of parents dropping off their 18 (sometimes 17!!) year olds in a foreign place. We get a hug and a kiss, shed a few tears, and we are on our own! It’s up to us, the “responsible” (lol) juveniles, to now feed ourselves, take care of ourselves, navigate around this foreign place, and also manage to somehow make decent grades. Who in the world thought of this crazy thing called “college.”But, oh, college. The most beautiful, difficult, challenging, and rewarding thing I have ever experienced. I was actually seventeen when my parents moved me into my freshman dorm. They had to sign for me to live in Clemson House. Now, I’m from a small town and graduated with 30 people in my class, so you can imagine the initial culture shock I experienced. It was a whirlwind after that, followed by freshman welcome, the start of classes, and formal recruitment. Everything was so new and exciting, and there was always something to do and someone to do it with! I joined a sorority, Alpha Delta Pi, and made the very best friends, I met a boy who was nothing but dreamy, it was football season, and everything seemed to be going great.

Then, on a typical Monday following a visit back home, my world was turned upside down. My roommate’s boyfriend and one of my good friends, Tucker Hipps, suddenly and unexpectedly passed away in a freak accident. Despite being surrounded by these new and wonderful friends I had just made over the past month, I was four hours away from my parents and felt so alone. I was so confused. This is not how college is supposed to go. This is Clemson, for crying out loud. It’s the happiest place on earth besides Disney World!! How could this have happened? I still can’t tell you why it happened or why it had to be Tucker. But what I can tell you is that I grew more in the months that followed his death than I had in my previous 18 years of life. Jesus used something so tragic and so ugly to make a mess of a beautiful story to be told for His glory.

Freshman year ended and summer was fun, but man was I ready to get back to my favorite place with my favorite people. And if I thought freshman year was fun, sophomore year was about to show up and show out! Clemson football ended up having its best season in 34 years!!! Standing in a hurricane to watch my Tigers defeat the Fighting Irish was, by far, my favorite memory from this year. I also got to fly out to Arizona and watch them play their hearts out in the National Championship against the Alabama Crimson Tide! (THANKS MOM AND DAD!) Then another thing blindsided me. The dreamy boy (as mentioned earlier) and I broke up after over a year of dating. Talk about your world being ripped out from under you. Here I am, once again, four hours from my parents and more alone than ever. I remember one night, in particular, laying in my bed crying and saying out loud, “God I cannot do this anymore. I need you. I give up control to You.” Immediately, I felt a wave of peace come over me. That semester, I learned total dependence on The Lord. I learned that His plan is so much better than mine. I also learned that I am way too stubborn sometimes (okay a lot of times). Don’t get me wrong. I am nowhere near having it all figured out. But that’s okay. Because He does.

The point of this article was not to tell you how great or tragic my first two years of college were. However, it is to tell you that if you don’t have it all together, take a deep breath. College is hard. It’s weird and awkward and painful and beautiful. It’s not going to be easy. You’re going to be challenged academically, physically (if you go to Clemson you know what I’m talking about…those hills…), and spiritually. You’re going to find out more about yourself than you would probably like to know. However, if you let Him, Jesus can and will use your beautifully tragic moments and turn them into the best experiences you’ve ever been through. So be open. Be adventurous. Step out of your comfort zone. Sure, there’s a risk that you might fail along the way, but imagine the joy when you finally spread your wings and successfully fly.