“True happiness is to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future, not to amuse ourselves with either hopes or fears but to rest satisfied with what we have, which is sufficient, for he that is so wants nothing.” – Lucius Annaeus Seneca
Even when brainstorming the title of this article back in late June, I dreaded returning to campus.
To think that in a handful of months I would be plastering a tableau of sticky notes to my wall at 2 a.m., pining for the last drop of self-induced intellectual stimulation was enough to sway me to reject anything somewhat scholastic or cerebral until forced. The thought physically exhausted me.
I’m sure most of the student body can relate. To return to school is to constantly think, and to constantly think is to confuse and distort the notions that you have already one-too-many-times exhausted.
To allow yourself freedom from any artistic or intellectual blockages this semester, you must ask the most basic question: Why am I here?
This question is not intended to delve into the primary focus of basic existentialism, or even to fully rhetorically answer it, but to provide a reminder of where you are in the current moment of your life.
I have asked myself that question many times. Why was I in an arbitrary English 101 class at community college when I could have tested out of it? Why did my therapist force me to attend a support group when I clearly didn’t have time?
Every aspect of your current circumstance is vital to who you become later in your future.
My English class introduced me to my first real connection with someone that entirely influenced and changed my perception of love. The support group led me to one of my dear friends, with which I couldn’t imagine life without. To remove those life seasons are to remove significant and encompassing pieces of myself.
We all were discomforted and frustrated by last year and how the pandemic affected our college experience, but to block out and remove that vital piece of the puzzle that we currently are, is detrimental to our intellectual and personal growth as human beings.
Seneca, a Roman Stoic philosopher during the era of Hellenistic philosophy, solidified this premise with his counseling Latin work, De Tranqillitate Animi. He elucidates the Greek term “euthymia” as “believing in yourself and trusting that you are on the right path, and not being in doubt by following the myriad footpaths of those wandering in every direction.”
The chaos attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic did not uselessly happen. You are not experiencing vital, developmental years that are restricted and shaken by uncertainty and limitations by accident. You are not attending Asbury arbitrarily.
Jonathan Romain, in his article “Suffering Serves no Divine Purpose” for The Guardian, after undoubtedly expressing his disbelief in a ruthless higher intelligence, says, “The idea of a God who sees some use in people being in physical pain, or traumatized emotionally, or having their lives wrecked by natural disasters or fellow human beings is warped theology.”
Obstacles and discomfort are inevitable and expected in this life, therefore, the notion that God places you in a situation that cannot result in personal betterment is absolutely false.
1 Corinthians 13:12 says, “Now that which we see is as if we were looking in a broken mirror. But then we will see everything. Now I know only a part. But then I will know everything in a perfect way. That is how God knows me right now.”
I had no idea what I was doing with my life when I transferred to Asbury. I was fully prepared to exit with a degree I would be unsatisfied with and continue my years attending a mediocre job that I knew I would hate. I was lost, or to reference Corinthians, only saw a part of the hopeless and broken mirror.
Today, I still have a broken mirror in front of me, but more pieces have been placed into it. I now know that that semester was a tremendously important stepping stone to who I am and what I am doing.
The present moment is for learning and growing, no matter the circumstances that growth comes by. What you experience during the semester and your mindset towards your experiences establishes the path of growth that will catapult you closer to your ideal self.
Why are you here?
Why are you sitting in the library glancing at the opinion editorial section? Why are you switching to a major that you had no interest in before now? Why are you subjecting yourself to the discomfort of a place that isn’t truly home?
Gradually, the shattered pieces of your mirror will align with the eventual and big picture — you.