I’d love to tell you that my main reason for going to university was to share Jesus with my non-Christian friends, that on my first day I stepped into my lecture theatre with a missional mindset, but that is simply not true.
I had always been ambitious, and my undergraduate degree was just a first step onto a career ladder motivated by money. I was more concerned with being in the top 5% of my class than I was sharing Jesus. I subscribed to the ever-pressing mentality that achievements would bring success, and that success would bring joy.
You can imagine my disappointment when after 4 months of study, I had yet to achieve a first on anything I had written. The word “failure” circled my mind as I questioned my purpose whilst at university and declared that if I didn’t graduate with a first, then my time as a student would be worthless.
In my pursuit of academic success, I failed to recognise that I wasn’t the only one struggling and I wasn’t the only one who felt like a failure. I was, however, the only one with a source of strength that I was yet to tap into. I was the only one who knew Jesus.
After Christmas break, I was determined to change my perspective. The stress of an increasing workload became an opportunity to be a Light alongside my also-slightly-struggling course mates, rather than another fall into isolation.
Study sessions over brunch turned into faith – filled conversations. Instagram scrolling in the library turned into productive revision groups. Group chats filled with worry turned into conversations of Hope.
I didn’t graduate with a first. Instead, I graduated with lifelong friends, testimonies of redemption that began with a study session, and an altered perspective. A perspective that declares that there must be a bigger purpose for our time at university, and as students, as Jesus followers, we must step into it.
