4 years later and here I am getting ready to walk across the stage of Elliott Hall of Music in a few days to be handed my diploma. A diploma I have worked so hard for that brought about a lot of learning, failing, laughs, tears, and so much growth. This diploma is going to mean more than the success of graduating from Purdue University. It will mean more than the fact I now have a Bachelor of Science in Dietetics and am eligible for a dietetic internship. It’s a reflection of how much I have learned the past 4 years at Purdue.
I have learned so much in the past 4 years that writing about it now is difficult to even think about where to begin.
I started college determined to become a Registered Dietitian but not being aware of just how difficult it would take me to get there. I started college calling myself a Christian but also not fully embracing the character of God and how to call my faith my own. I had, and still have, my morals and values I believed but didn’t always know how to connect them with what God said was true. I trusted God’s plan but still wanted a hold of the steering wheel at times.
Sophomore year was hard both academically and personally. Classes were the hardest I had ever taken and I started having more gastrointestinal problems the summer before starting my second year at Purdue. My GI doctor was afraid I had gastroparesis so at times I felt like a ticking time bomb and my symptoms would all of a sudden get worse. I avoided any spicy and greasy foods I thought would bother me, which did heal my stomach but was so hard during the time. I was also taking biochemistry and anatomy, two of the hardest courses I had taken up to that point in undergrad and I felt like I was drowning and didn’t know how to get back to surface with my grades. It was really hard having that barrier which seemed like I wasn’t going to reach my calling to be a Dietitian. But God is so good and he took care of it all.
Throughout college there have been courses I was afraid of passing or not. When each exam would come, I would stop and say a prayer to God for me to do well on this exam so I can fulfill His plans for my future. I started doing this the summer before my senior year I believe. I was taking two classes over the summer I was really struggling with. When the final grades came in, I literally got the % I needed to pass the class. Throughout that time, I kept seeing the phrase, “pray more, worry less.” I saw it at the store, online and I later saw it the first day of my senior year at the University Bookstore on a small sign. I bought the sign to say the least. That phrase has been with me so much this past year.
If you would tell my freshman/sophomore year self I would be graduating from Purdue and getting ready to apply to graduate school I probably wouldn’t have believed you. I was so set on not doing any more schooling than I needed. I had told myself going into college, 4 years was enough and graduate school was not on the radar.
Throughout this whole process though, God has made it VERY clear that graduate school is what my next step is. He specifically made a dietetic internship with a concurrent master’s degree at the graduate school my fiance is attending. The internship was never there before and I will be applying to begin in January after getting married in June. How cool is that?!?!
As I look back on what I learned the most from undergrad, this is it: God’s plan is always better and will happen if He has planned it to be. If you have a passion, keep Christ as the focus and use it to bring glory to Him. Being intentional, requires more than just saying it- it requires active steps each and every day.
And you can’t go anywhere without a little faith,
Ciara
SincerelyC 