After graduating from Community College in May 2017, I transferred to a four year university to finish my bachelor’s degree. I was really excited to go but as things began to settle, my struggles with belonging became more and more evident. Before the Fall semester started, I had participated in a summer program for transfer students whose purpose was to alleviate the difficulties transfer students like me might face. However, finding my place in such a large campus brought to the forefront this deep desire to belong. 

Entering my graduating class as a junior was no small task for a transfer student because most of my peers had already gotten to know each other fairly well. So I was feeling left out honestly and the important question was:  How do I meet other people? How can I build deep and intentional friendships as the new kid on the block? I did not know how it would happen. So I did one of the things I knew best! I began praying and I remember asking God for the gift of a pal. 

A couple months later, mid-spring semester, I met a young adult at a group event in a Church not far from campus. After the event ended that night, we stayed outside in the parking lot and talked for some time, exchanged phone numbers and parted ways. I did not have any expectations from this encounter but it was the beginning of a friendship that I was not expecting at all. Yes I had prayed and asked God for friends but I was not going to every possible event just for the sake of meeting people. So slowly and steadily, our friendship grew. Even with the distance mostly on my end from living in Europe to moving to a different state, the relationship has continued to grow more than 5 years later. 

So did the Lord provide for me? Of course He did! It might have seemed silly to ask God for a friend but nothing is ever too small to ask. 

What have you been longing for that you have yet asked God? Now is the time and today is the day!

See you in the Eucharist, 

P.S: S. F, You are an answer to prayer and I am so grateful to have you in my life.