TIME. Spring 2019 | Page 9

Embrace the Season You're In Anna Delamerced In the spring of 2012, senioritis hit me. After reading my ac- ceptance letter to Brown, I immediately began to daydream. Whether it was envisioning myself walking across the Main Green to class or chilling in the dorm lounge with my hall- mates, I was preoccupied by thoughts of college. Before I knew it, prom and senior projects had become things of the past, and I stood next to my classmates at graduation. “Where did the time go?” I asked myself. I had been thinking about col- lege so much that I had missed out on savoring my final mo- ments as a high school senior. ations. Maybe He placed me there in that specific semester of sophomore year so that I could sit next to someone who would eventually become my study partner, and now, a friend that I still talk with to this day. This is something I’ve struggled with for a long time. Even at Brown, similar thoughts crept up on me. I loved many parts about college life: late night conversations in Perkins, studying at the Ratty with friends, singing worship songs on a Friday night. My faith grew exponentially through fellowship, prayer, reading God’s Word, and spending time with Him and my brothers and sisters in Christ. Still, it seemed like the pattern of wanting to move on to the next season continued. Ask Him: Lord, what are You teaching me right now? Lord, how can You use me and refine me in this particular season? Lord, I may not understand the reasons why I’m here right now, but would You sustain me and be my strength to help me get through this? With certain classes, for instance, I But the truth was, I sometimes found myself thinking: had been blind. I was Why am I here? Sitting in a Barus so caught up in my & Holley room, staring at a stain own thoughts that on the ceiling, I dreaded lectures. I failed to see God’s Knowing I wanted to become a doctor, I reasoned that I probably hand in all of it. wouldn’t need to study physics for the future. I deluded myself into thinking, let’s just get this over with. But the truth was, I had been blind. I was so caught up in my own thoughts that I failed to see God’s hand in all of it. Looking back at those seasons of life, I slowly began to realize that maybe God had placed me in that physics class to help me be more in awe of Him and the complexities of His cre- Though I know not everyone has shared this experience, I’ve seen students—undergraduates and postgraduates alike— struggle with the similar feeling of wanting to move on. But, brothers and sisters, we can’t keep looking so far ahead that we become blind to what God is doing right now. As a medical student now in the trenches of third-year rota- tions, I’m asking God to do just that: to help me embrace the season He’s placed me in right now. I’m clinging onto this verse: “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.” Ecclesiastes 3:1 (NIV) I confess that sometimes I still wish I could graduate already. But I now need to fight this mentality with gratitude, humility, and contentment in the Lord. This means surrendering to the Lord, understanding that He is in control. We must recognize that in every season, God is using that time and place in which He has put us for His glory and our good. He wants to reveal more and more of Himself to us and to transform us contin- ually. And if we keep living in the past or rushing towards the 9