It’s the last Sunday in June, and what better way to close off the first half of the year than to graduate college!:)

It’s been three days since I “unofficially” graduated. Even though with my school, it never gets official as there isn’t any graduation ceremony of any sort. However, defending my final project last Thursday marked the end of a chapter.

The euphoria that engulfed me right after defending my project has long faded off, leaving behind the residue of enormous relief. To be honest, I’m still not sure how to handle such relief. Having gone through several rounds of exams and all for months on end, waking up the next morning knowing that I don’t have to think about none of that anymore is quite a sudden transition I’m still coming to terms with.

A Bumpy Ride

As it turned out, every single day in the past six months had me thinking of, preparing for, or taking an exam. To be clear, that’s pretty unusual given that my final year semester exams were to hold in January and April for both semesters respectively. However, due to certain circumstances (which can either be considered as fortunate or unfortunate, depending on what perspective you decide to look at it from), I found myself stuck in the exam cycle for five consecutive months.

Needless to say, it was a tough ride. If you’ve been around for a while, I dropped little hints here and there of how I was needing to push through. Back in late March when I did the First Quarter Review, I did mention how I had underestimated the workload of my final lap and how I was having to pay for that. Also, another post I made mid-April titled “Keep Your Head Up, Champ”, was a genuine ‘note to self’. Many times, I had to remind myself that “to win, you’ve got to stay in the game.” Keeping up with the blog itself amid all the turmoil was nothing short of divine.

There were days when it seemed like there was no headway. There were days when I felt like the weight was going to swallow me up, and I’d flunk out eventually. Like when I was asked to sign my agreement to be expelled if I failed to keep up in school. Or when the “carry-overs” of the first semester spilled into the exam period for the second semester and I had to simultaneously figure everything out. However, despite the many lows, I kept believing — not in myself, but in the Greatest there is.

My Biggest Flex

Let’s talk about God for a moment, shall we?

You know, it’s one thing to speak about His benevolence from hearsay and popular opinion, and it’s an entirely different thing to speak about Him from experience. Having experienced His goodness firsthand, I operate from the latter. I can say that I have tasted and seen that the Lord is good. In the words of Apostle Paul, these are not cunningly devised fables. I have seen God come through for me in the direst of situations and in the most spectacular ways. Given all that transpired in the space of these 6 months, graduating with a CGPA of 4.75/5 is simply a miracle.

In all of the struggle, one thing that kept me going was my faith in God’s faithfulness. Ever since I decided to hold on to His promises, He has proven Himself to be true to His Word. One of such promises is found in Isaiah 43:2. “When you pass through deep waters, I will be with you; your troubles will not overwhelm you. When you pass through fire, you will not be burned; the hard trials that come will not hurt you.” (Isaiah 43:2 GNT)

Of a truth, He was with me through it all. Whenever I got hit, I turned to Him. And like the Good Father that He is, He was always there to comfort me. And since He promised I would come out of the fire unscathed, my peace remained intact. Whenever I felt too weak to go on, I turned to Him for strength. And as promised, His grace was sufficient in my weaknesses. I have learned to trust in Him even more deeply, and not once has He failed me.

God is not just my biggest flex, He is my ONLY flex!

Times And Seasons

Tomorrow makes it exactly 7 years since my High School Graduation ceremony. I stepped out of that phase confident that I was on my way to becoming a medical doctor. Well, God had His own plans. 7 years later, I am graduating college with a degree in Petroleum Engineering… and what’s more? I studied it in the Russian Language!

Never in a million years would the 15-year-old-high-school-graduate version of myself have imagined this twist to the proposed trajectory of my life. But one thing I have come to learn through the journey is that if you’re keen on letting God lead the way, indeed, all things —the good, the bad, the ugly— eventually work together for good.

Life is in phases and seasons. Some seasons are pleasant (as we understand ‘pleasant’ to be), while others are less exciting. Some seasons tend to tug at our very core as though they’ll break us, but in reality, they ultimately seek to make us. Just as a tree is pruned to the end that it produces more fruits, so are some seasons meant to prune us and make us better versions of ourselves. Pruning can sometimes be painful, but as much as we’re eager to get through such seasons, it is necessary to seek out growth points from every season.

Every season has an expiry date. Some have defined durations, and others do not. Some can be aborted manually, and others cannot. Regardless of the nature of your season, what matters is who you become at the end of the journey — ensure that the latter version of yourself is better than the former.

To Those In My Corner

I cannot end this without giving honour to whom it is due. I am highly privileged to have the best people I could ask for in my corner. My parents have served as a reliable support system throughout the ride.

Since I left home 5 years ago, we have developed a little ritual of weekly video calls every Sunday evening, and I cherish those calls dearly. I have also made it a point of duty to not hop off those calls without receiving some “fatherly (or motherly, depending on who is available) blessings”. And no matter how low I feel before getting on the call, I get revitalized after speaking to my family. I just cannot articulate completely how big a role they play in my journey. I feel like I’ll need an entire independent post to express all of it.

And to everyone that has influenced me in one way or the other so far, I am immensely grateful. I have grown in ways I never imagined, experienced several invaluable moments, and evolved positively, all thanks to the wonderful people I encounter on this path. I would not trade all of that for anything in the world. This isn’t an appreciation post in itself, and I feel like I’d need a dedicated post to do justice to the many “thank yous” that are worth saying.

And to all those who have me in their prayers — those I know of and those I don’t, y’all have a special place in my heart. I have come to understand that one of the best gifts you can offer someone is a sincere prayer on their behalf. I really can’t thank you enough. But be rest assured that your prayers are being answered.

The Next Step…

I’ll just go ahead and answer the most popular question I’ve been asked lately: “What next?”.
The short version of my answer is: I don’t know…
There’s a much longer version to the answer, but it’s all uncertain at the moment, and the variables can change even right after I publish this post.

The truth is, I am not sure what exactly is to come in the next few months or in the next few years, but one thing I am confident of is that whatever comes next would be good. As Dante Bowe puts it in the song ‘Wait On You’ (by Maverick City Music & Elevation Worship), “All the questions come second to the One I know is True!”. He has the master plan, and my role is to execute when it is time to. But until we get the ‘go’ signal, we stay waiting on Him.

In other news, I’m pumped for the Summer! How about you?:)