Russ Cantu

Guest post by: Kelsey Dahlin

When asked about my college experience thus far, I don’t really know where to begin. One word doesn’t summarize my experience. It’s been exciting, fun, crazy, beautiful, amazing, wonderful, fantastic. But it’s also been challenging, overwhelming, terrifying, lonely, hectic and scary. But overall, it has been an experience that I would never, in a million years, trade. The things I have already learned and the moments I have had with God will be with me for the rest of my life. It is these moments that are slowly forming me into the woman of God I want to become. There have been incredibly hard moments, times when I didn’t think I could do it anymore, and times that I couldn’t see the light at the end of the tunnel. But, it was in those moments that I could feel God’s arms around me and I knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that he was carrying me. I knew that I was never truly alone and that in the moments that I didn’t have the answers, God did and that was all that mattered. 
The one thing that I loved and hated at the same time is the independence of college. It’s so nice to just be on your own. While I miss my parents often, I love being by myself. It’s nice to not have to justify your decisions and have the authority over yourself to make them for yourself. In all of this, it’s also nice to know that I could call my parents and talk to them about the decision and they listen, give me their advice, and then let me make that decision. The hard part about all of this, however, is that not all decisions are easy, and the fact that I am making them independently adds a lot more pressure to my shoulders, as I know that my decision reflects my parents and how they raised me.
The most distinguishing thing about my choice of college is that I am attending a private, christian university. For the most part, I absolutely love it. I love being challenged in my faith on a daily basis. I’m taking a class right now called Exodus/Deuteronomy and through it, I am gaining a whole new appreciation for the Bible. I’m learning from one of the most intelligent men I have ever met in my life, literally. My bible professor has so much to offer, I leave his class absolutely amazed on a daily basis. For example, he learned Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek because he wanted to know the languages that the Bible were originally written in. At the beginning of both semesters, I had teachers pray for the semester ahead of us, and my teachers take time to pray before all tests, that we would remember what we studied and do well on the test. It’s just little things like this that make going to a christian college so different and so amazing.
Overall, I would describe my college experience as life-changing. To my friends going to college, or already in college, here is my advice. I firmly believe that college, no matter where you end up, will be anything that you want it to be. One of my best friends is going to Cuesta College in San Luis Obispo and she has gotten involved in Campus Crusade and a church and is growing in her faith just as much as I am in mine. God is going to go with you wherever you decide to go. But your relationship with God will either thrive or die in college, and that is the decision that you need to be aware of. It’s really easy to tell yourself not to get out of bed to go to church on Sunday morning, or to find something to do rather than do your bible study in the morning. These are just a few examples. Your faith, while in college, will be whatever you want it to be. And that is the beauty of being independent. I have absolute faith that you can make it work, you just have to put some effort out. My prayer is that you will put that effort out and come to have a relationship with God like you’ve never had before.