Yesterday it was raining in Poughkeepsie, New York. I go to school in Poughkeepsie, at Vassar College. I'm a senior, and in exactly two weeks I will have been graduated for about two hours. In two weeks and three days, I will be back where I started, in Puyallup, Washington. But right now, I am in the beautiful Vassar library, working on a paper and studying for an exam and eating leftover spaghetti and trying to stay off the internet. Yet here I am. Here's a picture of it. The library, not the internet:
When I'm not in the library, I live in the Terrace Apartments (we call them the TAs). My friends Catherine, Christie, and Michael live in the Town Houses (THs). The TAs and the THs are ALL THE WAY across campus from each other. And yesterday evening, Catherine decided to host a movie night at her house. So I filled my backpack with books (the old "I'll do homework while I watch the movie!" line), slipped into some sandals, and put on my raincoat to walk over. I called my dad to say hello as I walked.
As soon as I stepped outside I started to laugh. It was raining. It was pouring. I'd barely walked out of the TAs and already my feet and dress were waterlogged. I tightened the velcro on my coat's sleeves and hood and tried to nestle my phone inside, but it wasn't long before I needed to say bye to Dad and shove it into my coat pocket.
I was soaked so fast, it wasn't even worth it to hurry through the rain, so I took my time, wading through puddles and wondering what constitutes a flash flood. The rain made all the trees seem greener, and the wet, woodsy smell reminded me of summers on Orcas Island back in Washington. The absurdly heavy rain had me grinning, and when I finally got to the THs, I stepped out of my shoes and took off my coat and backpack and stood on Catherine and Christie and Michael's porch while they got me a towel and a change of clothes and my friend Nora chided me for being generally opposed to the idea of umbrellas with approximately these words:
"Look. Look at [our other friend coming to the movie night] Anu. Look how dry she is. She is using an umbrella and now she doesn't have to suffer being all wet because she thinks that a little rain coat is all she needs but really she should use an umbrella like a normal person."
The other lesson I learned was that my trusty North Face backpack, which has seen me through many trips across campus and the country, in all sorts of weather, is not as waterproof as I thought it was. My books were, and are, wrinkled and dripping. The Easter cards my parents and grandparents sent me are now blurry and crumpled, as are the old to-do lists and ticket stubs.
"I'll need to have a backpack that's actually waterproof for World Race," I thought. "Either that, or I'll just have to remember to zip up this one when I go out in the rain." That's right. I forgot to zip it shut.
It's moments like these that are striking: it rains really hard and my clothes take forever to dry and my books get a little ruined. The slight inconvenience only highlights the beauty of this school in the rain and the kindness of my friends who help dry me off and give me clothes. These brothers and sisters in Christ have made Vassar College my home for the last four years, and when it's time to go home in two weeks, it's going to hurt.
But at the same time I rejoice, because of all we have been through together here: amazing ministry opportunities, long bouts of apathy, doubting, fighting, loving, misunderstanding, praying, laughing (lots of laughing), suffering, mourning, losing, resting, praying, working, playing. We have dealt with problems far bigger than soggy clothes, and have seen God moving on a campus the Princeton Review has rated the 4th least religious in the US.
In 2 Corinthians 6, Paul says this:
"Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation. We put no obstacle in anyone's way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, but as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: by great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love; by truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich;as having nothing, yet possessing everything."
That's the attitude I want to have. I want to be so satisfied in Jesus that anywhere I–or any of us–end up, our preferences and insecurities would be swept away by a desire to know Christ and be found in him. Even if that means parting ways with friends or getting a lot of shots to do a crazy 11-month mission trip.
So thank you, my God, for the suffering and happiness the Vassar Christian Fellowship has seen these four years. Thank you for keeping us and working through us even when we don't know it or like it. And thank you that it is not over and your kingdom is still advancing on earth as it is in heaven. And thank you for my backpack.
There it is! My first ever legitimate blog post. More information is coming soon! Be on the lookout for things like, well, my name, who I am, what I'm doing, how I got into this….
