It has finally begun; the last semester of my senior year of college. I can feel it. It is a bittersweet feeling, I must say. I have made so many memories at this place, the University of Kansas. Some good and some bad.
I look back on when I first started at KU and I am definitely a different man than when I came. When I started here I was a boy, a recent graduate of high school and very angry. I wanted desperately to be apart of the world. I wanted to be a normal guy, and be a part of the college scene. I did it all. I partied. I drank. I lived the “college life” and was still alone. Day by day, I made bad decision after bad decision, not knowing where I was heading and what I was wanting to do with my life.
It is very true what they say, that you God never does leave you. I tried to run, I tried to hide, I tried to be a part of the world as much as I could. But, this was not God’s plan for me. After another bad decision, God took hold of me and took hold of my heart.
You see, through all of this, before God took a hold of me, there was a woman in the background of my life that I was not noticing. I was chasing all the bad things in life, but living the double life of playing church. When I finally came back to God, he revealed this woman to me. It was that day my life has never been the same. I changed from a troubled boy into a man chasing after God’s own heart. When I opened my heart to him, and thus, opened my heart to her, life was different. I was able to love. I was able to chase my purpose and passion once again. It is because of God and because of Amber that I can now write again.
But God knew that I did not have it all figured out. He was able to keep my pride in check. God knew I needed strong, Christian men around me to build me up and make me a strong piece in this thing called Christianity. That is why a mere two months into my new budding relationship with Amber, He put me in touch with Todd Dorsey, who, by asking me to be a part of this new thing called Beta Upsilon Chi, was asking me into the best brotherhood a man could ask for. I of course accepted and thus began my saga into truly becoming a man of faith.
The three years I spent in BYX was the greatest three years a college-aged man could ask for. I grew in faith, in love, and in community. I learned how to be amongst brothers and know what it means to lead. There were ups and downs of course, but I could not have asked for a better brotherhood.
Finally this past year, as I prepared for my fall semester of senior year, I married Amber, and worked feverously on my first big research project that chronicled comic book culture in America which totaled 30 pages in length.
To be honest with you, I haven no idea what God has in store for me after May 18th, 2014 rolls toward me. But what I do know is that he will bless me and keep me in his hand. As he says in Exodus 14:14, “The Lord will fight for you, you need only be still.” And still I shall be.
My Story. 