2015-2016 Year in Review
"Peopling.” That’s the word that comes to mind when I ponder this year. My second year of college has been marked by the richness that comes with deepening relationships and magnified community. The term “peopling”, derived by a good friend of mine, literally simply refers to the act of spending time with people. I think that proper “peopling”, however, has to be accompanied by a certain intentionality. You can hang out with people to hang out with people, or you can hang out with people to get to know them. You can hang out with people to not be bored, or you can hang out with people to build relationships. The pursuit of the latter has changed my life.
My first year at UC was great. But my second year at UC was fantastic. The difference is that each aspect of my life – academics, leadership, community – has been positively impacted by my decision to pursue deeper relationships. I stopped waiting for good relationships to happen to me, and started pursuing them myself. About a hundred times amidst exhaustion or distractions, I made a conscious decision to make myself available to spend time with people and plug into a community. I went to those late-night intramural soccer games with H2O. I started playing pick-up wallyball at the Rec Center. I led Life Group in Daniels residence hall. I chose to set up my hammock in high-traffic areas, instead of in the most secluded place I could find. I started asking people I barely knew to get coffee with me. Why are wallyball and Life Group and hammocking important? Because people. People come to wallyball. Good people. Good people hammock on Sigma Sigma Commons every day and good people come to Life Group every week. I used to fret that I didn’t know how to meet good people. I would see good people, observe them from afar, but I didn’t know how to be their friend. This year, I figured out how to do that. Drop the expectation that it will happen over night. Play wallyball with them every week. Strike up a conversation with them at a soccer game. Be bold, tell them you think they’re neat, and get some coffee.
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"When I am with a group of human beings committed to hanging in there through both the agony and the joy of community, I have a dim sense that I am participating in a phenomenon for which there is only one word....'glory.'"
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“I don't like that man.
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This year, I have truly felt the value of being a part of communities like those forged in ROAR Guides and H2O. H2O is small enough that I get to cherish the comfort of familiar faces and some of my closest friends, but large enough that there are always new people to meet and deeper relationships to be formed. The best decision I made this year was to pare back involvement in so many different things, and dive whole-heartedly into a few of them. This is the year I finally learned to say no. I learned to say no to many good opportunities to make room for saying yes to a few extraordinary opportunities. This year, I became a ROAR Guide, and I cherish the opportunity to share my genuine affection for UC with prospective students every week and work with some of UC’s brightest. I value being surrounded by individuals who love UC and Cincinnati as much as I do, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to learn and grow with them. The people of ROAR inspire me to be a better student, a better leader, and a better Bearcat.
The people of H2O inspire me on an even deeper level. Daily, the community of H2O encourages me to succeed, but empowers me to fail. Never before have I been part of a community that so genuinely celebrates with me in good times and loves me through the bad. This year, I became a student leader with H2O, and the relationships I’ve formed with the staff and other leaders in the church have been so valuable to me. It’s been a pleasure to be part of H2O as a whole, and then form deeper community with our small Life Group in Daniels Hall. What a joy it is to very literally live life together. There’s something special about meeting each week to intentionally build community and pursue Jesus together. H2O has been a tremendous vehicle through which I have been able to serve people, this campus, and my community with my time and talents. I have been able to pull out my public speaking skills to facilitate Life Group and emcee events like the annual H2O Variety Show, as well as serve behind the scenes on the Video Team and Media Team. One of my best gifts lies in administration, and I will have the chance to serve in that capacity as well, having taken over the presidency of H2O in April. More important than the title of President or the participation on any number of teams, H2O has provided the opportunity to disciple other students. To me, the most important act of service I’ve performed this year has been through “peopling.” I got to serve as mentor in H2O’s Leadership Program, The Well, in both the fall and the spring, and I attribute my newfound realization of the value of relationships to this program. Two beautiful women started as my mentees and have grown to be two of my very best friends. I found that I flourish in the space of very intentional one-on-one meetings. I love getting to know someone over a cup of coffee or weekly Chick-fil-a, asking questions that go beyond “how are you?” and “what’s your major?” I love the deepening of a relationship that comes with meeting with someone each week, the way that it allows you to live life together, standing at each other’s side through each season of life. Once I began to realize the value of this type of relationship, I started taking my existing friendships deeper by encouraging this type of consistency, and building new relationships in the same way. Nothings makes me happier than a schedule full of lunch and coffee dates with people I love or am working to know better. I'm so thankful for the opportunity to mentor these two wonderful women and foster such valuable friendships. They've taught me more than I could ever dream of teaching them!
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In my year-in-review from last year, I mentioned that my memories from the year were woven with images like McMicken at sunset, mock trial courtrooms, and baseball games. This year, I can’t help but remember the image of people, smiling and laughing and crying and studying in all sorts of humble places: Steger Starbucks, a hammock on the commons, the floor of my apartment, the 86 Club, or Duttenhoffers Used Book Shop. I can’t help but remember days and weeks and months made glorious by the intentional act of “peopling.”
As I look forward to next year, I can’t wait for the fresh opportunity to deepen existing relationships and pursue new ones. I am excited to serve as the President of H2O, continue leading prospective Bearcats as a ROAR Guide, and mentor younger students in both official and unofficial capacities. As I enter my third year of college, I hope to pursue experiences and opportunities that will help guide me in my decisions as I move closer to graduation. Until then, I look forward to spending some time abroad this summer in Costa Rica and Togo, utilizing my newfound “peopling” skills to serve as a foreign missionary. I look forward to returning to the Queen City in the fall, ready to take the observations I made about myself in my second year of college and spend my third form a clearer picture of how that impacts my future.