If you look at my iTunes history*, I listened to a lot of Evan Wickham during the first half of 2008, when I was deciding where to go for college. I didn't listen to his music after 2009, not until early 2012, coincidentally when I was deciding where to go to graduate school.
Since 2008, I have been attending the University of California, San Diego. I am due to complete my degree in Computer Science, minoring in Economics, in early August 2012, though I will be participating in commencement this June.
I joined Upper Room Christian Fellowship in September 2008. There are several Christian fellowships on campus**, including ones that are a few hundred in size. What attracted me to this ministry was the genuine interest of the people I met, as well as the existence of several opportunities to get involved. Starting in September 2009, I joined the events planning team, and in June 2010, I began serving on the public relations team, responsible for promoting Upper Room on the UCSD campus, booking rooms, and filing over $2,000 in funding requests; I also operate the video projector and visual media for each large group on Thursday. I will continue doing this until June or July 2012.
Throughout this time, I also completed all of the core courses of the computer science major. Computer science is not an easy major; as I entered the upper division classes (each of which took 10 hours a week outside of class), I spent more and more time in the labs; virtually all my time during the quarter went to Upper Room and to my classes.
During my time in college, God has shown me who I truly am. Coming out of high school, I was unsure of my identity, and largely insecure as a person. During the first two years of college, God brought about several events that showed me my identity in Christ and my strengths as the unique person He created me to be. By popular culture's standards, I have little to offer. But this is not true. God has show me the strengths that I do have and how they combine to make me the unique and complete person that He created.
During my final two years, my schedule grew more and more busy; yet, this is the time in my life where I've grown in my relationship with God the most, and matured the most as a person. God has used me in incredible ways over the last two years, and I am humbled that He has chosen me to accomplish His purposes. Throughout my college experiences, God has become more real to me than ever, and I have learned what it means to trust Him fully and completely.
Last night was the end of several months of applying to graduate schools, waiting, getting acceptances to a few schools, touring graduate schools across the country, and making the stressful decision of where to go for the next two years. I have spent hundreds of hours promoting Christian events at UCSD, and through this experience, I have really developed a heart for this campus. But throughout the last year, I have felt God calling me away to somewhere else once I graduate from college.
My plans are to get a masters' degree in computer science, specializing in the areas of systems/networks/security. Following this, I want to work in the software development industry; seeing where the jobs are, I will probably wind up in Seattle or San Jose, or (less likely) Southern California, though of course that's not for certain.
My hope is to marry a woman who is beautiful, outgoing, spontaneous, and quite importantly, who shares my values. I hope to raise children who walk in God's ways and who are not complacent, but strive to make a difference in the world.
The problem of the majority of high school Christians going to college and losing their faith bothers me. I have thought about ways to be involved in the lives of college students after I graduate. One of my other passions is with technical ministry. I started operating PowerPoint slides during my 8th grade year; during my high school years, I transitioned to church presentation software, and I have continued doing slides and videos in college, for a total of 6 years. It is my dream to continue doing this in some capacity, either as a volunteer, or even part-time at a church.
But regardless, I see my mission as follows: to serve God with my whole heart in whatever position I may be in, and with the skills that I have. This is why I never really want to take a break from "ministry" and why I don't want to become complacent and become a "freeloader" in the church.***
I have decided to attend the University of California Los Angeles beginning in the fall of 2012, and plan to be graduating in mid-2014 or before. I have enjoyed my time here at UCSD and I will miss the friendships that I have made here, but I know that God has a plan for me that is better than I can imagine right now, just as I have seen throughout my undergraduate years.
*As I toured other college campuses over the last month, there were definitely not as many as there are at UCSD.
**While my Mac's iTunes library dates from 2002 and iTunes 1.1.2, most of the Evan Wickham play counts were probably from my old Sony Vaio, on iTunes 7.6.
***I believe that "ministry" does not need to be formal; we can do God's work without being on a formal ministry team.
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