I could tell you about six thousand different reasons why I love my school, starting with a Baptist-affiliated school is defying every law of reason by being run by a bunch of hardcore Liberal Democrats and ending with my professors know me so well I call one of them the grandfather I never had and another asks about my health every time I see her, but no. I'm going to tell you about something that happened today.
So on Mondays and Wednesdays I have 8:00 French History and 9:00 French Lit. I slept terribly last night, so my mind was extra worn down after the first hour, so in the ten minutes between the two classes, I went over to the Student Center to get some hot chocolate from the mini Starbucks in there. (Because also? North Carolina seems to have skipped over fall and gone straight into winter.) There were like four people in line ahead of me. Two were this guy wearing a lumberjack hat and this girl buying a chocolate bagel who seemed to know each other. No one was really saying anything except for the guy, who was basically jumping around like he was on speed. He kept talking about how no one was saying anything and why weren't we more awake and COME ON IT'S A BEAUTIFUL DAY. I told him I was in between two back-to-back French classes, then asked what he was on and could I have some. He cringed, jokingly told the barista to get me a double shot of espresso stat, then asked me my name, told me good luck and bolted out the door before I could say anything out. The girl told me he is pretty much always like that, and I laughed a little because it was actually kind of infectious, and then we both went on with our day.
Fast forward to about 2:55 this afternoon after I got out of Municipal Government. I head out the back door of my classroom building after talking with Dr. Mero a minute about the election because I had to go to the post office. What's the first thing I see as soon as I open the door? That lumberjack hat. I called out "hey!" and the kid is apparently SO ADD he didn't remember that he had just seen me six hours prior. I jogged his memory a bit and then we just started talking about Campbell and stuff. (He's a freshman, and it's adorable.)
This is where God stepped in.
What started out as a friendly conversation about the headache that is having a foreign language as a major quickly turned into a 45 minute conversation about my testimony. Like, seriously. I told him about the brain surgeries, the foot surgeries, hitting rock bottom, The Vespers, the Nashville trip, my baptism, ALL of it.
And this is why I am so thankful that I go to this school. Because I can stand on the sidewalk in the middle of the afternoon and tell what is basically a complete stranger about the effect God has had in my life. And it was frowned upon, or weird, or told to happen in private. Instead, I got to share with yet another person just how amazing my God is like it was the most normal thing in the world. Not everyone gets that. And that feeling, that overwhelming, humbling, filled with awe feeling, never ceases to amaze me. God is SO good, not only to give me opportunities to share my story, but to surprise me with them, and to have gotten me to the point where I am genuinely EXCITED to talk about my past.
So yeah, I'm thankful that I go to this school. I'm thankful that I met Jacob. I'm thankful I walked out of the building the second that I did and recognized that hat. Because I want to tell the world about what God has done, and it happens one person at a time.
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