Grateful.

I've spent the majority of the week in Arkadelphia preparing for New Student Retreat. From spending an entire day setting up Walker Conference Center for the legendary "purple & gold party" to helping house students for the weekend, this has been a pretty long week for the steering committee. But more than all the work and stressful moments that have happened thus far, I've been able to realize what a blessing it is to be a part of the Ouachita family.

To look back a year ago at this time and see how much personal growth has occurred for me is almost staggering. That growth has required a lot of pain, long nights, pulling it together when it's not, and some dark moments. But there has also been a fair share of triumph and joy associated with it. I'm thankful for the way the Lord has chosen to develop me, and grateful He placed me at a place like OBU for it to occur. I'm convinced it really is a place like none other. It never feels like I'm 'away from home' when at school. You can find me sitting in a professor's office talking, having homegroup at the dean's home, dinner at an admissions counselors' house, and many other places. I describe it like that only to say that these people are friends to me before they are whatever their specific title may be. How cool is that? The faculty & staff of Ouachita are what make it such a special place. Always willing to open their homes and lives' to students, as well as invest their time in each and every one of them. If I had to describe Ouachita in one word, it would most definitely be 'genuine.'

I'm very excited for all the new Tigers to be arriving here tomorrow. I can't believe that was already a year ago for me and my friends, but I know that this next step in their lives' will offer a time of great growth, through successes and trials, and I look forward to seeing the transformation the Lord will make in each and every student here.