Taking the “Under” out of “Undergraduate”

The letter came in early March to my mailbox in the mailroom: the letterhead of a college that is different from Hope. It’s red and white (thank goodness, not maroon and gold… sorry to all of you Calvin fans) and it’s 229.5 miles from my cozy apartment east of campus. And what it had inside …

The Best (And Partially Hidden) Allergy-Friendly Places in Holland

I’m a food connoisseur – not just because I’m a college student – but also because I’m a, well, hungry college student. I lived my first two years in the downtown strip of Holland, running triathalons between JP’s, Jimmy John’s and Lemonjello’s- but this third year, I discovered there’s so much more to explore. Especially with gluten, egg …

The Best Beginning to a Beautiful End

Where has the time gone? I’m three weeks into my final semester at Hope. They say if you blink you might miss it, so I’m doing my best to keep my eyes wide open to capture every moment I can. Four years goes fast. And if you complete college in three years (like myself), it …

Finals Week: A Greater Revelation

It’s true, I’ve been sleeping less often than usual. I’ve been snacking during weird hours and eating sugar cookie-flavored popcorn at 10 a.m. And I glance down at the sticky notes on the keyboard of my computer to see the list of three presentations, an exam, two quizzes and four journal entries due in the …

“This is my Anchor of Hope”

There’s a park at the end of the east side of campus in the square that makes up 10th, 12th, Central and River. Its name is Centennial Park. I know that now. But freshman year, while trying to find the Pine Grove (and inadvertently walking directly through it to instead find Centennial), I sat down …

An Inside Scoop on Owning a Small Business in College

LLC (The three-page document making your company legal)? Check. T-shirts ordered? Check. Fifteen boxes in the back of my SUV? Double check. Whose debit card did we use again, anyway? Just kidding. But we’re a discombobulated mess… sometimes. The three of us live only three blocks apart, but now we know why people who work …

The Things that #PrayforParis Taught Me

The first place I saw it was in a post on Facebook: “The attacks are close to me. But I’m okay.” The person, a friend from high school, was marked “safe” in the attacks, the post said. And I began to scroll through my Facebook feed I began to see more news articles appear and …

The Seasons Change As We Do

We found two sunny, 70° weather days in the beginning of November, but it’s back to 50 with clouds today. And that’s alright with me. Among the (non-snow) flurry of changing leaves, fall boots and flannels, I think that we sometimes forget one important thing: not only are the seasons changing, but we are as …

Choose Your Kingdom

There’s a kingdom that reigns in each one of us. A kingdom that was built to be explored. I’ve been praying a lot lately. Praying that my career and life and all that is ahead would somehow fall into place before my eyes. But I know life doesn’t work that way. So I celebrate the …

Be Still, My Ever-Wandering Heart.

I quickly find that in the midst of my daily life, there is an insurmountable peace that exceeds understanding running upon a parallel path. There’s a lot I know; but even more, I do not. And I believe that is okay. As humans I think we spend a lot of time thinking that if we …