Everyone always told me, "College years are the best of your life!" I got my degree last year, and as I look back, I agree—at least, they have certainly been the best four years of my life so far! I don't mean they were one long party. On the contrary, it was a time when I was forced to overcome one challenge after another. But they were good years because of the many valuable lessons I learned. I realize that a world of new challenges lies ahead of me, but I now trust that God will be with me through every one of them, and that I won't approach things with the same naivete again. I've learned something of the importance of being alert and vigilant.
Leaving high school was harder than I had imagined it would be. I felt mentally paralyzed by fear of such things as drinking, smoking, and sex. The temptations of the world were thrown at me, and the first semester of college was dark. I recall the drunken stupors many of us went through, and the confusion of friends whose lives revolved around marijuana, alcohol, and men! However, I finally realized there had to be more to life. This wasn't the world of God's creating. Through prayerful efforts to grasp my relation to God better, I gradually learned to overcome many of the fears that hypnotized me—lack of money and friends; overdependency on food and people; and depression and other forms of illness.
I gradually
conquered fears,
depression,
overdependence on
food and friends.
