The Science Major | Letter to My Freshman Self
Hey Freshman Caeley!
Your senior year is closing in and you’ve applied to five schools. A family friend mentioned they were considering applying at Maranatha Baptist University, a school you’ve never heard of before. In visiting the school, a year before you arrive, you meet the Science Department head which settles your decision. Freshman year begins and the preconceptions you have about college start to melt away.
Finding friends will not be a single weekend checklist; it will be a process. Those you meet your freshman year will help form future and lasting friendships.
There will be days you feel utterly alone, cry to God, and then call your parents. As the weeks progress, your walk with God will grow more personal and the calls home will be less frequent. I am not suggesting you stop calling your parents and loved ones. However, calling twice a day for hours at a time is too much.
Now with multiple semesters behind me, I have the smallest glimpse into the multitudes of mistakes I made.
Accept people for where and, to some extent, who they are. No one, no matter how long they may spend here, has got the “college thing” or even “life thing” down. We all enter this stage of life with different formative experiences and opinions. The beauty of going to a Christian university, specifically MBU, is that you are offered a protected environment to explore your beliefs and who God has called you to be in an overwhelmingly positive and affirming culture.
With that being said, look around at those experiencing this newness with you and accept them as peers worthy of your respect. You will all wake up late one day and need notes from a classmate. You will all need a random late-night chat for the encouragement that what you’re studying (Biochemical pathways usually) will in fact matter in the future. You will all still be working through who and what God has called you to be. Didn’t God meet us all where we were? He saw us in our sinful incomplete state and chose to offer us salvation despite that so we may become more like His perfect Son.
College will be a journey. You come in freshman year intending to make a certain number of friends and succeed at everything you do (yes, I was living in an illusion). I don’t want to burst your bubble, but the number of friends you have does not matter. The quality of those friends you are blessed with depends on if you “show yourself friendly” (Prov. 18:24). And if you think you will succeed at everything just take Organic Chemistry and let me know if you still think that. However, if you are afraid of changing don’t be. Change is what college is for. You will not always be comfortable and that is a good thing. Push yourself to be comfortable with discomfort.
I loved being around peers who put God first in their lives which made the fellowship in the dorms and the cafe that much sweeter. I loved being in a Christian environment that encouraged students to grow in their walk in Christ but also drove us to be active and present members of our community. As much as your job is to attend classes, you will be implored to take your classroom knowledge out into the world to affect change.
As a science major, you may see this in encouraging coworkers about the beauty of God’s design, as a teacher showing the compassion God has poured out on you and your students, as a musician being able to soften the hearts of those who hear your music to feel the beauty and truth of God’s word. Wherever you may end up, know that God will equip those whom He has called.
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Caeley Griffith is a senior majoring in Biology with a double minor in Cross-Cultural Studies and TESOL.