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My name is Grace Thompson, and I am a rising freshman studying chemical engineering. Having completed my first year of college, I have a few thoughts to share about my experience and about the choices leading me through a time of many transitions.<\/p>\n
Choosing which college to attend was, at the time, one of the most difficult decisions I\u2019d ever had to make. For a little background information, I come from a family that eats, sleeps, and breathes Alabama football. Everyone seemed to know exactly where I\u2019d be going\u2014everyone but me. I wanted to be different, to go to Vanderbilt or UCLA, but was genuinely afraid of what my parents might think. Thankfully, they were more open to the idea than others (*cough* Brad *cough*). However, I still did not want to miss out on the family tradition. In constant debate with myself, I questioned which decisions were my own and which decisions I made in response to others. Finally, after months of prayer, the Lord made clear which path I should take. I would continue the Thompson\/ Newbill legacy at The University of Alabama.<\/p>\n
So, the hard part was over, right? WRONG. Fears still swirled around in my head. Will I make friends? How many times do I have to get lost before I learn my way around? Can I make the transition from a private Christian school to a massive public university? Bama isn\u2019t exactly most well-known for its Christian environment. This uncertainty remained for quite some time as I saw the more common values reflected all around, even in my own living room or in the unexpected extra roommate! But of one thing I was certain, and that was my place at Central Church of Christ.<\/p>\n
I\u2019d been visiting the congregation since I was a little girl to see my aunt and uncle as well as my brother who also studied at Alabama. From all his stories, I knew, or at least hoped, that Central could be my home away from home too\u2014and it was. If asked to describe Tide 4 Christ in one word, \u201cfamily\u201d is always the resounding answer. If I could stress one thing to incoming students, it would be this: get involved early. The Tide 4 Christ students are some of the most welcoming people I have ever met. I only wish I had followed this advice sooner.<\/p>\n
First semester I was initially determined to start fresh, to not to be the same quiet girl as before. Instead, I spent way too much time studying (yes you read that right) and not enough time getting to know people. Old habits as they say. Although I never missed services, without people to talk to, I left immediately afterwards. It wasn\u2019t until second semester that I decided enough was enough. I went to absolutely everything and said yes whenever possible. Though I may never be known for my loud, outgoing personality, I can say that I have opened up a lot thanks to the incredible friends I have made. For the first time in my life, I am truly part of a group of Christians who constantly uplift and encourage one another. As a result, I feel closer to God than ever before, and I would not change any of the decisions that led me here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My name is Grace Thompson, and I am a rising freshman studying chemical engineering. Having completed my first year of college, I have a few thoughts to share about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-student-blogs"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8LSHf-gM","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tide4christ.ua.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tide4christ.ua.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tide4christ.ua.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tide4christ.ua.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tide4christ.ua.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1040"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/tide4christ.ua.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1040\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1045,"href":"https:\/\/tide4christ.ua.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1040\/revisions\/1045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tide4christ.ua.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tide4christ.ua.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tide4christ.ua.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}