Original Post #4 - Kevin Lynch

In my fourth meeting with Sam, I went in thinking a lot about our previous conversations on time being my greatest resource, as he challenged me to come back to him with a time that I said "no" to someone in the prior week.  As someone who is very caught up in the need to say "yes" to everyone, it is something I am not always great at.  I work on the ResLife staff in Fischer Hall, and we frequently talk about self-care and the need to find rest and margin.  Sam, very focused on helping me prioritize the things in my life in order to become the best version of myself possible, strives for that margin to exist in my own life.  As someone in college who feels like I need to be part of everything, I look for the ability to not spread myself out so thin.

Talking more with Sam, we discussed the need to surround ourselves with people who are a priority in our lives.  For context, most of my friends from home are guys older than me who pastor or volunteer at my church or people who I mentor as a member at my church.  Sam told me the value to having mentors and friends I look up to and the value of being that friend to others, but he asked me how much time I truly focus on the friends that are in the same place of life that I am now.  This is what helped me realize the incredible resource that Wheaton is for its students.  At home, to spend time with those that mentor me or that I mentor is the norm, but to have school that 9 months or so out of the year I am given the opportunity to walk through life with is a rare resource.  Maximizing my time at Wheaton is definitely a high goal for me, especially with only one year left until graduation.  Finding those who I can walk through life with, someone like Sam, but someone who is in college going through a similar life phase to myself, is perhaps the greatest way to be sharpened continually on my path.

As I look back at my time at Wheaton, the friendships that I have gained here are the thing that makes me look forward to coming back when classes end.  The relationships that the spirit can help foster here remain essential for me with someone like Sam being a pastor from home.  In the past I have spread myself out very thin in trying to remain close and involved home, since it's only thirty minutes away, while being a member of the community here at Wheaton.  This balance can be hard to find when living in the tension.  As Sam helps me prioritize the things that I should be doing right now in life, it is helpful for me to make room for the friendships and relationships that can be created here on campus, that many people wish they could be a part of.