What to Give Up for Lent?

Today is Ash Wednesday, a day which marks the first day of the season of Lent. We celebrate Lent as a reflection of Christ’s forty-day fast in the desert and his enduring of Satan’s temptation, as recorded in the Synoptic gospels. Many Christians choose to observe this season by fasting from something like television or …

Hope College’s Greatest Mystery

Okay, so this might not exactly be Hope’s greatest mystery, BUT it (more accurately, he) was definitely a mystery at least to me for a while. After my freshman year at Hope, the college hired a new chaplain of worship and arts: Bruce Benedict. As a frequent Chapel-goer and someone who was definitely interested in …

Why Be a Religion Major?

When I came into my freshman year at Hope I was a music education major. After my first semester, at some encouragement from a professor and a “life crisis” spurred on by myself and by emotion-creating medication for my consistent and random freshman year illnesses, I made the call to add a major in voice performance …

Taking Full Advantage of Campus Offices

One thing that I love about college is that I have so many things at my disposal right now that might never be provided again. With one phone call, my driveway gets plowed, and I do not even have to pay for it. A visit to the library allows me to use an HTML-writing program …

Starting “Spring” Semester

A few days ago, I received an email from the professor of one of the classes I’ll be starting tomorrow for the new semester. In it, he mentioned the optimism present as we refer to the second half of the school year as “spring semester.” In Holland, Michigan, it feels like spring usually starts during the …

Investments to Make in College

It comes as a surprise to no one that college is expensive. Everyone knows that a lot of college kids do not consider themselves too good to check between their parents’ couch cushions for lost change, to take hours of surveys online for a $5 gift card to Amazon, or to scrape together donations from …

Ways to Enjoy Advent When Finals Try to Interrupt

I love, love, love Christmas and Advent. The world just feels a little different: students and teachers everywhere long for Christmas break, the ground almost seems to cry out to be covered in a blanket of snow, and the church around the world awaits the birth of Christ. Of course, we know that Christ has already …

Why I Love Lemonjello’s

Those who know me know that I can usually be found at Lemonjello’s (LJ’s for short and for the reason that I’m still unsure of the socially acceptable pronunciation of the name). I spend far more of my waking hours at LJ’s than I do at home; often, on days when my first class is at …

Defeating “I don’t feel like it”

Over the past week and a half or so, studying has become far more a part of my life than it had been for the previous two months of the semester. However, it has also been a much healthier part of my life than it was in my first two years of college, especially since …

Once Upon Another Nykerk

Nykerk, as put by the 2015 general chair, Claire Leitzen (AKA the “Queen of Nykerk”), is hard to describe. It is a really unique tradition that you kind of have to experience in order to understand. Last night I had the privilege of watching Nykerk for the third year in a row, and as always, …