"Letters to Myself," from Excel Magazine

From Excel Magazine, Spring 2007...

"Letters to Myself"
A recent college grad reflects on what he wishes he'd known years ago

Dear freshman me,
Forget about high school. There, I said it.

It may have been wonderful, it may have been awful, but either way it’s over and it’s time to move on. You can keep in touch with your old friends during the holidays and on Facebook. Just don’t be the guy who goes home every weekend, or you’ll be the guy without any friends during the week.

Meet as many people as you can, and when you like a group, stick with them. Make both Christian and non-Christian friends. College is a great time to get to know people you never would otherwise. And definitely live in the dorms—it’s the best and fastest way to get to know people for who they really are.

Have a lot of fun. You may not realize it, but the classes you take this year are actually pretty easy. You’ll have more free time this year than you ever will—probably for the rest of your life. So enjoy it.

Please, please, don’t try to date. You’re still growing into your own skin, and you don’t know yet what you really want in a girlfriend. Years from now, you’ll fondly remember the time you got with the guys.

Make your faith your own. You no longer have your parents and youth pastor to help you know what to do in each situation, so you need to mature and take the next step in your relationship with Christ.

No one is going to make you go to church or spend time with the Lord. This is why it’s crucial to find a group of solid Christian friends who will keep you accountable. It’s probably the most important thing you can do this year.

Try out all the campus ministries and small groups, and see which one fits you best. Get plugged into a local church. Find one where you can make friends of all ages. You’re going to be around your peers the rest of the week, so seeing some younger or older faces on Sunday morning could be really refreshing.

Finally, take advantage of your summers. You only have three of them, so make them count. Do things that will either build your faith or your career, or take advantage of once-in-a-lifetime opportunities. Mission trips, summer projects, internships and study abroad programs—there are so many options!

Dear sophomore me,
It’s great to be back, but everything has changed. You don’t live in the same place. You never see some of your old friends. And there’s all these new, wide-eyed freshmen walking around. Get used to it. Things change every year in college. People move, graduate, start dating or break up. I guarantee you that your gang from freshmen year will have changed some already.

Now that you know some people, make sure you choose your roommates wisely. You can either live with non-Christian or Christian friends. There are advantages and disadvantages to both.

Living with non-Christians can be the best evangelism opportunity of your life, but it can also be very challenging. It can drag you down and put you in tough situations. If you’re going to live with non-Christians, it’s crucial that you meet regularly with your Christian friends to stay uplifted and accountable.

Living with Christians can be an amazing opportunity for spiritual growth. However, it’s easy to get stuck in the Christian bubble and neglect your friendships with non-Christians. Don’t let this happen. Your goal is to be a light for Christ in the world, but you can’t do that unless you’re in the world.

Regardless of where you live, take advantage of your Christian friendships. You’ll learn more about your faith from talks with them than from anything else during college. Find an older believer who is willing to disciple you, and help out some of those wide-eyed freshmen.
And take advantage of your summer.

Dear junior me,
It’s time to start growing up, spiritually and career-wise. Stick with a major, or else you’ll be an undergrad for six years. Get realistic about finding a job or going to grad school, because by this time next year it will be too late.

Classes are consuming a lot of your time now, so learn to work hard at them. You’re going to have a job sooner than you realize, so get serious about dropping those bad work habits.

Continue to make your faith your own. Question why you believe certain things, and then search for answers in the Word or among older believers. Meet daily with the Lord in prayer. I can’t overemphasize how important prayer will be to you during college.

Start investing in younger believers. You may not feel like you’re very mature in your faith, but you’ll be surprised at how much you have to share with younger students, and how powerfully God can work through you.

Invest more time with your best friends. It’s better to have a few truly meaningful relationships than to be exceedingly popular. Try to talk with them about what’s really going on in your lives. It helps if you plan to meet for lunch, because that is specifically setting aside time to talk about significant things, rather than just everyday stuff.

And take advantage of your summer.

Dear senior me,
Before you get here, I hope you’ve put yourself in a position to get a job when you graduate. It will make this year a lot less stressful.

This is your last year, so enjoy it. It will be a weird, surreal time. You’ve been going to school your entire life, and pretty soon it’s all going to be over. Take advantage of the opportunities that college still offers you. Go on road trips, stay up late talking to your friends, soak in the last bit of that campus atmosphere. Look forward to the future, but live in the present.

You’re really old and wise now, so keep sharing with your younger friends, and keep spending quality time with your best friends. Get together and pray for your futures, that God will guide you and provide for you, and that you will never stop pursuing him.

Whatever you do in college, never stop pursuing Christ, because nothing else in these four years, or the rest of your life, will fulfill you the way the love of God will.

Sincerely,
Chris