College life can be overwhelming at first, but you can survive if you ‘trust God, hang in there, jump one hurdle at a time’

College life can be overwhelming at first, but you can survive if you ‘trust God, hang in there, jump one hurdle at a time’

By Debbie Campbell
The Alabama Baptist

College was a new adventure for me — a beginning of sorts — as I left the comforts of home, my home church and my hometown.

Moving into the dorm and meeting my roommate was scary at first, but as it turned out, we hit it off and had many of the same interests.

One hurdle behind me, I thought, as we organized our room and explored the campus together.

As an excited, eager college freshman, my confidence was growing. I was ready, or so I thought, to tackle those 16 semester hours.

How hard could it be? I had just graduated top senior in my high school class. College couldn’t be that much different, could it?

I signed up to take a foreign language. What was I thinking! I wasn’t. French 101 was a disaster.

After three weeks trying to make it work, I knew I was going to fail that course, not to mention the history class with a professor who talked faster than superman could fly.

By midterm I was depressed, certain this was the first and last college semester of my life.

I wrote my parents a letter to ease the shock that when I came home for Christmas, I wouldn’t be going back to college.

The next few weeks confirmed in my mind that I would be saying goodbye to campus life.

At last, finals were over, and I headed for home.

The dreaded grades arrived during Christmas break.

Shock. They were good — and with the good grades came a renewed sense of hope.

I hit the spring semester with a growing confidence in God, not myself, along with a life verse, Matthew 6:33, to claim through the next three and a half years of college life.

And when my sophomore year rolled around, I felt at home on campus — an entirely different experience from that harrowing first semester.

My advice to college freshmen: Trust God. Hang in there. Jump one hurdle at a time.