One of Favorite Years in My Life: 2003

2003 was a great year in my life. It was my first year in university, where I briefly attended UMBC in Baltimore. I was on my own after working hard in high school and getting where I wanted to go, with God's Grace behind it all and my parents working hard to get me to college. I have so much respect to my parents.

I just remember 2003 with fondness. Being on my own for the first time really helped me focus on my interests and a person. I started to feel out what kind of person I was and the sort of talents I had.

Being mixed race, I found being in the university environment was quite refreshing. I had some really cool friends in high school, but my high school was not the most fertile environment to feel a sense of belonging in terms of racial apprecation.

I remember doing some cool things in college such as meeting Christians from other countries and church backgrounds, so it started to open my mind up to other people's journey in their relationship with Christ. It wasn't just about Christians from "suburbia" gathering together on campus, it was an international community from Africans to Asians to Arabs to African-Americans rocking the house in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I met some cool peoples like my friend Stanley, a Haitian-American who was cool and mellow, and for the first time, I got to really get down with somebody who I had some really common interests: international soccer, politics, economics (my future major that year), and of course, faith. I felt like I could unleash my tongue in discussing these topics for me as I did not have much of an opportunity to do it before.

I got to be in a cool college environment where I met people from diverse backgrounds and areas of life. Sometimes I felt like a "kid among giants" because I was a freshmen among juniors in some of my classes. I really enjoyed the challenge of meeting people older than I am and trying to listen to what they have to say, while trying to impose myself as an individual.

I met people from Albania, Lithuania, Russia, the Ukraine, and many other countries, and I felt more at ease meeting these people because I was interested in their backgrounds.

I also started to feel my own self when it came to what kind of person I am and I became more comfortable with it, I felt like God was leading me to a place where I did not have to force myself to be a prototype person of what people wanted m to be, but just be me who God created me to be, with room to improve for more.

I started to realize I felt more comfortable in a certain zone in my multi-faceted personality: I am very gentle in dealing with people but very passionate when it came to things like my job and tasks given to me. I am people person when required to be, but most people find me very calm and relaxed when alone. At a party I'll be loud and outgoing when I'm up to it, then on the way home in the car I'll usually be the one listening to the other's people topics with intent and attentive focus.

I'm a very submissive and loyal, but not a whipping boy. I think that's one aspect where God is working on me now, to become more stronger.

I started to hone my interests: world affairs, social issues, languages, cultures, international sport, and hip-hop music.

I remember C.S. Lewis talking about what happens when you accept Christ as your personal Lord and Savior in his book, Mere Christianity, "you get your true personality." I'll find that quote again, but I'm sure its there.

Even though I struggled with sin in 2003, the victories over that sin brought me closer to God and more closer to someone I want to know...myself.