Biola in Retrospect

I'm sitting here in the library at Biola after my last class of my last semester, and it makes me think. So much has happened since I first set foot on this campus. I remember my first day, wandering aimlessly to the Sutherland steps for Torrey orientation, and being given my room assignment. I remember how confused and lost I felt for the first few weeks. I didn't know anyone, and everything was so new and different. I remember how alone I felt at first. I remember all the difficult days and nights of reading, reading, reading, and then writing, writing, writing. I remember the bad food, the hard, lumpy beds, and the asylum-like cell block that is Sigma Chi.

But I wouldn't trade that experience for the world. In the last 3 years I have learned to force myself to keep on going no matter what, and to engage those around me with a mixture of logic, knowledge, intelligence and love. I have learned to admit that I'm wrong and be ok with it. I have made friendships here that are worth more to me than all the tuition and the learning. When I started here I had no idea what it would do to my relationship with my high-school sweetheart, and I am leaving here to become her husband and the head of a new family.

In these three short years my life was changed forever, but I have been constantly encouraged not to turn my back on the life I knew before. I am going home now, but not as I was when I left, and the home to which I go is not that which I left. I feel no sorrow at this parting, only fond memories and gratitude for the part which this place, these people, and these experiences have played in forming who I am. Goodbye Biola, may God bless you as he has always done, that you may in turn bless those who have entrusted their minds and souls to your care.