Now let me paint the picture for you....Its college and there are students everywhere who are meeting each other. The first thing they ask is "Whats your name?" Then they hear an accent (because everyone but you has an accent) and ask "Where are you from?" then here comes the dreaded "Whats your major?" Whenever I answered "Undeclared" I always heard "Oh thats ok..." I never knew it wasnt ok! Until then! Whats worse then being undeclared is all the people telling you, you should be one thing and then thinking thats what you should do. Or comparing what you do to what others do. I always went to my other friends dorms to check out what they were doing and found so many things that correlated with each major. Here were my observations:
Nurse majors: Always had BIG books out. They were always reading and looked tired and stressed...I definitely did not want that!
Drama Majors: They were always together jumping around campus and were always singing or talking loudly as if no one could hear them..plus, they were together all the time, like they formed like mini cult and as a girl from the city that was scary! That wasnt my major!
Music Majors: (See Drama Majors)
Theology Majors: I couldnt understand them. As they spoke all I could hear is the quote from the movie with Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker "Do you hear the words that are coming out of my mouth?" Theology majors are the kind of people you need to keep a pocket dictionary with you in order to make out what they are saying. THATS A NO for me!
Education majors: Their rooms always had arts and crafts boxes in it, their rooms had yankee Candles burning or a type of fruity or seasonal scent and they always smile as they walk through the campus. I liked that! So I changed "Undeclared" and to "Education" major!
Now I have a major so I am ready to go! As I go head first into this new confident major of mine I begin to go into classrooms and am thrilled to be around students. There were all these little people around and they were stinkin cute. I taught my lessons and everything went SUPER well, so well, my teacher asked me to teach the same lesson for another teacher across the hall! Now thats exactly why I am an Education major...I belonged in that major. One day I get to the school and the teacher asked me to sit in the back of the class at a table and she would send me students who I can help at a more personal level, not teaching up front. I sat at the table and one by one these little people came and through teaching helping them with their spelling they began to open up about their homes and their families and I just stopped thinking about their work and I began to listen. These little people knew so much about their surroundings...Some made me laugh and hearing some of their stories (which the teacher later shared with me) made me cry. I left the school that day with a HUGE dillemma. I wanted to work with kids but not up front teaching Math and English....I wanted to be with kids at the back table. I knew the back table was exactly where I needed to be. SO I CRIED! I Prayed! I just spent about 2 1/2 yrs preparing for education and now I know that's not where I belonged and thats a problem because I have this young man at home (I LOVE HIM :) who is waiting for me to get out of college to make me his bride! I prayed and then sought counsel from my college counselor and she agreed I needed to be at the back table also. Problem is there is not a degree entitled "Back table" and if there was I would be the only dork to have majored in it in the history of this world! So it was decided I would become a Liberal Arts major with concentrations in the three areas I loved: Education, Psychology and Sociology. Basically the three components needed to be with the back table kids!
Now I have graduated and I need a job! I thought, I worked at the Boys and Girls Club in Indiana, let me try something similar.... NO LUCK. Nothing available in any YMCA's or Boys and Girls clubs in Chicago, nothing! I decide to branch out and landed a job at a wonderful Non for profit as a Teen Pregnancy Prevention Specialist....Nothing better than hanging out with teens and getting to talk to them about "Baby mama drama." It was at this job where I fell in love with teens, I mean I always loved teenagers but I KNEW this is what I wanted to do. My time there was very short but I left there sacrificing those students and being obedient to where God was calling me. In the next four years I learned more at another non-profit-organization than I would have ever known. I grew in my leadership there and was even given my own after school program to direct. God knew my heart. I worked with youth in the church and my heart was to serve them but those students are blessed because they have a team of leaders who are all Believers in the faith serving them faithfully...what about the students who dont go to a church? Who loves and serves them? Who listens to them at the back table? That my friends, would be me! God did give me a back table degree! Not only did he give me the degree, He gave me amazing training and WONDEFUL teens. I have had opportunites that have only come about through God! Remeber that job I loved and sacrificed? Well, I didnt't understand this when I left but I had to leave that job so that I can get the training I needed to come back. When I worked as the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Specialist I had NO idea I would go back to be the Director of the Youth Program! I now a director of a youth center....Still shocking to even hear myself say it! I have been so blessed and and am so happy with where God has led me. He has had this ordained for a very long time now. I cannot begin to explain to you the joy I feel when I am around youth! The Lord knew exactly what HE was doing...He saw me at my singing psychiatrist days, my physical therapy days and even my undeclared days. He wanted me to be undeclared so that He could guide my every decision....He knew I had to become an education major....just so that one day I would be sent to the back table and have my life changed forever!
Dont ever underestimate what God can do through something so simple. Our lives can be changed in the blink of an eye. Be obedient and pay attention to what God is saying...You never know, He may be sending you to a back table!
Psalm 31:19How abundant are the good things that you have stored up for those who fear you, that you bestow in the sight of all, on those who take refuge in you.
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