What Is It Like To Be A First Year Student At CCS?

CCS students in discussion

What Is It Like To Be A First Year Student At CCS?

The Pastoral Care Year fall learning circle wrapped up yesterday, and CCS student Melanie Ihmels has offered some reflections on what it is like being in her first year at the Centre for Christian Studies…

I was dreaming about this last night, my mind circling through bible story discussions, lecture notes, student forum mumblings, and when I woke up I realized, I belong.  I belong to a group of people traveling a journey that never ends, a group that search and stretch and reach just like me, ones who want to know what it is like to be God’s hands and feet to the rest of the world around us.  I, who have hidden lost and alone; who have struggled with belonging all my life; who have felt a deep yearning without understanding what for; have found a home.  A home like one other.  It is in a brick building in a city far from me that we are called together but, like the small c church to which we all belong, it is a home that carries with me.  Attached through my heart and reaching out over cords of technology, respect, and love.  Did we know of these intricate ties when we started?  Did we realize our searching, our yearning, would reveal that we are no longer separate?  That no matter where we are, the darkest valleys…the quietest plains…the whispering forests…the sun drenched mountains…we carry each of us with us always.  Aweness fills me, I am not alone, I belong, a circle unbroken through time, space, and heart.  Thank you my sisters, my brothers, thank you for welcoming me as we each scramble through text, drop tears unexpected, laugh mercilessly, and love recklessly.  Thank you for being you and allowing me to be me.