The outside air blasted through the windows like a furnace! The overheated engine did not allow use of the air-conditioner, and I arrived in Fresno, California sick with heat exhaustion. My beloved “Pink Farm” was now replaced by a corner-lot, ranch style house in a subdivision with a peach tree in the back yard and a palm tree in front. However, our side view included horse pastures surrounded by white fences and palm trees lining a long driveway to someone’s sprawling ranch house.

I began my first real job in the college library that summer while my parents and siblings left on vacation. I stayed with a Mennonite family around the corner whose daughter would also attend FPU. Marilyn and I became wonderful friends! Working with people in the library also eased me into college life. I remembered a girl in high school who came from California her senior year and became student body president. She said hi to everyone by name, even to me! I resolved to reach past my relational fears and follow her example. Soon nobody believed I was an introvert, and I blossomed into what I believe God had intended for me all along.

That fall my boyfriend attended a school on a ship that traveled around the world for a semester. We agreed to casually date others. The next semester he returned and enrolled at FPU, but it wasn’t the same. Yet, I wouldn’t think of hurting him. One night a bunch of us girls hung out in Marilyn’s dorm room discussing relationships. I painfully realized I had to be honest with Steve. Our relationship ended, but when I think of how close I came to never telling him, I can only thank God for giving me the courage to be honest with my heart and with him.

One day, while trying to study in the college library, I felt angry with something my mother did or said, which was not unusual since her favorite words were “discipline” and “obedience” and my favorite word was “freedom.” I decided to write out my feelings to God. He met me there and changed my attitude. That was the first of many times, many years, and many reasons for prayer journaling. And always, God met me, speaking His word into my mind and heart.

Also during this time, God tested my faith. The pride of intellectualism on the college campus became a slippery slope on which to lose one’s faith. I was tempted. I loved the heady conversations with my classmates who read The Koran and other philosophy books. I enjoyed my philosophy class and did well. I remember feeling troubled and going for a walk one day to think things over. The invisible God walked with me and protected me from the evil one who sought my destruction. That day I decided not to question my faith in God or His Word. I would no longer walk in the counsel of the ungodly, or stand in the way of sinners, or sit in the seat of the scornful (Psa. 1:1). This choice had absolutely nothing to do with religion. It had everything to do with my own personal relationship with Jesus. Joy and peace returned to my heart.

I can honestly say my college years were the best relationally joyful years of my life! My parents said I could live in the dorms for one semester to experience dorm life, which I did, and which helped me to feel part of the college culture. God graciously gave me some wonderful friends. Judy, a beautiful tall girl, was Marilyn’s friend first and in Concert Choir with me. She also lived off campus, and we became dear friends. Then I met Shirley and Carol, both originally from Canada, and our birthdays were (and still are) September 25, 26, 27. We related as transplanted Canadians, in our shared faith, as concert choir buddies, social interests . . . . College life—that time-limited, unique microcosm drew us all together like nothing else could. We studied, shared, laughed, sang, played, and made memories in that short space of time, but remembered and cherished for always.

Gratitude for such amazing grace still fills my heart. I never even imagined going to college because I really believed I wasn’t smart enough. Embedded childhood deceptions of feeling stupid still effected me. However, my parents said I should go for one year, which stretched to four and a Bachelor of Arts degree! Amazing and miraculous! I can only bow before such grace and mercy. The next step of my life, ordered by the Lord, waited just over the horizon. Soon I would meet the love of my life . . . .