Well, that's it. No more modal verbs, hazardous passive constructions, brain-bending sessions on the subjunctive or lush literature. My degree is over and with it four years of university life.
What can I say? Feelings are mixed. While it's great to have exam stress finally over and to look forward to less insomnia-filled nights, it's also quite tragic to think that yet another stage in life is at an end. There's been times over the last few months where I've really struggled to keep going, physically as much as spiritually. Sundays have been a real refuge, a time for blowing of steam in some cases. Experiencing God's grace and especially that peace which surpasses all understanding has taught me what it means to be continually thankful even when I feel that what I'm about to go through is not something I have the strength or will to be thankful for!
Despite the growing pains, I've had the most side-wrenching laughs, the craziest spur-of-the-moment escapades, the most foolhardy party frolics and a good dose of docile members of the Leporidae and lusty ducks than I think is actually healthy.
I've met a wealth of people with more intelligence, wisdom and beauty than I was certainly blessed with at conception and yet who have had the grace and humility to help me attain even just a little of what they have.
I've had my mind blown on so many occasions by the things I've read and learned over my course of study, by seeing and tasting just how beautifully intricate and formidably designed this whole world is, yet sadly, how devastatingly torn by sin.
Experiencing the oddness of the English on post year abroad re-entry and how sane the rest of the world can often appear was, well, bizarre.
I can't help but stand in awe at a God who saw fit to give it all to little me.
So here's 10 (of so many) things I've learned (often quite painfully) and been blessed to experience while at university:
1. The friendships you make here are the most influential and the most abiding. Be wary of making short-lived acquaintances and missing out on real friends.
2. Good grades are not the goal. God isn't as much interested in the output as He is in the input. Straw houses aren't fit for fire, only refined gold is so make sure that the life you're building is one founded on the right foundation.
3. The darkest of days are the ones where Christ's love pulses through my veins most strongly. He is the God who is there even when I don't want Him to be.
4. I'm more complex than I give myself credit (no arrogance meant). Souls are weird places, difficult to comprehend, landscapes full of adventure but also of fear: God has been strolling through my desert heart, calming storms and bringing life to a weary me.
5. Seeing precious individuals, images of God, coming to accept Jesus as Saviour, their lives being utterly transformed.
6. The thrill I experienced and the privilege it was to spend time living and working in two foreign countries. National, ethnic, social, political borders can only be overcome by the power of a boundary-defying Lord.
7. Independance is fun. Isolation is destructive. Go home, once in a while.
8. The love of christian work does not equate with loving God. It is an idol like any other. Love the Heart that loves you unconditionally.
9. Keep keeping a diary! It provides a barrel of chuckles for rainy days and more than just a wee bit of forgotten wisdom.
10. Learning to laugh at yourselves more than others. Use humour in loving others and then you'll see God's sense of humour. Believe me, you're not as serious as you take yourself.
I always thought it was clichéd to say that it was the best time in your life, but I guess it does come close...
