Monthly Archives: October 2014

The Community Life Office here at CBU is responsible for most of the exciting events held on campus. Twirp Week, Yule, Homecoming, and even intramural sports all fall under the office. I am always interested in exciting events that distract me from my homework load, so I have come to appreciate Community Life very much. One aspect I hadn’t experienced yet, though, were off-campus events. More specifically the Outdoor Adventures.

I am all about adventure and the great outdoors, but until this year my weekends have been dominated by Male Chorale concerts and mismanaged lab report writing. I never had the time to commit to a trip. This year I wanted that to be different. Without the commitment of choir and a better understanding of my class work, I planned ahead and signed up for the San Jacinto backpacking trip.

Our group of 25 left Friday afternoon and drove to the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway. The tram begins in the desert at an elevation of 2,643 feet and ends at the Mountain Station at 8,516 feet, which by itself would’ve been worth the trip. The rotating cabin provides an amazing view of the mountainside and valley below. After reaching the station, we set off for the campsite. We hiked a few miles with our backpacking gear, all generously provided by Community Life, until reaching a clearing that would be our campsite for the night. We all slept under the stars, and some in hammocks between trees. That mountain air at night was chilling, and I definitely was unprepared. I’m looking into buying a real jacket now, and maybe hammock too.

The next morning we packed up and hit the trail to the summit. With our day packs and plenty of water and Cliff bars, we reached the San Jacinto Peak. The view was spectacular with the Salton Sea to the east and the valleys and cities below. We hiked back down the trail and found ourselves at the bottom of the tram by late afternoon Saturday. The trip was a success. I highly recommend future trips. I will probably be there, too.

Speaking as a woman who loves to make and stick to plans, I have to admit that no other word scares me as much as it excites me. On one hand, I crave change and repel monotony. I love new experiences and the feeling that I am investing in something that really matters. On the other end of the spectrum, I fear change when it means that I may have to give up something that I have been relying on and looking forward to. This is something that I have been wrestling with throughout my life, and it has resurfaced and been amplified once again in my last year at CBU.

Senior year thus far has meant both extreme joys and foreboding decisions for me. I have never felt so far out on the brink of something huge, where my decisions will truly shape the rest of my life. With this knowledge, I have placed a lot of pressure on myself to figure out exactly what I’m doing with my life and precisely how it’s going to happen. As I’ve been caught up in this, I became suddenly convicted that I was placing too much of my identity in that, and I was not focusing fully on my first priority, which is to love and serve my Creator and his world.

Let me say that while I firmly believe that making plans and setting goals is a beneficial and important thing, it should never take higher priority than a Christ-follower’s trust in the Creator. Setting goals and following through is a key part of college life; it allows us to be productive in service and personal growth while investing as much as we can into our time in school. There comes a time, however, when we have to step back and proclaim to God that we trust him more than our own dreams. We know that he has what is best in mind, and sometimes following the path he puts you on means going a different direction than you initially planned for yourself. This is scary – but it is OK. I know that in the end, my Lord will be glorified and that it is my purpose to honor him with everything, and that is sufficient.

One of the privileges of working for Conferences and Events here on campus is that I am given a sort of “backstage pass” to the events that I run. It’s really a fulfilling experience to put so much effort into setting up an event, and then watch it come to fruition as students enjoy what it has to offer.

Throughout the school year, Conferences and Events, along with Community Life, put on a few concerts by popular Christian artists, such as Phil Wickam, Switchfoot, Gungor, and the like. This past Friday, we proudly welcomed Citizens and Saints to the stage!

My first encounter with CBU pride was when a friend of mine who was a student here called out, “CB-What? CB-What?” and without prompting, the student next to him immediately responded “CB-U! CB-U!” It was almost instinctual, and the smile that lit his face at the response he was hoping for was priceless. Lancer pride clearly dominated their attitudes.

A while had gone by since I’d heard our school chant, and, truth be told, I was beginning to forget about it. At the concert on Friday, the lead singer paused after a few songs to connect with the audience. The first thing he said was, “So, I brought my wife with me tonight, and when we entered the gym, she looked up and saw this sign (gesturing to the “Crazies” sign) and she whispered to me, ‘seriously, their mascot is the crazies?’ When we found out you are actually the ‘Lancers,’ we were sorta confused. What does ‘crazies’ mean?”

Without hesitation, a few young men in the crowd shouted, “CB-What? CB-What?” and as though we’d rehearsed it, the entire gym joined in a resounding, “CBU! CBU!”

Stunned, the lead singer stumbled over his words a bit as he exclaimed, “Well, that was pretty cool.”

Here at CBU, we are the Lancers, but we are also the Crazies; and we are proud of it.

I have been involved in sports my whole life, so ever since I hurt my knee, it has been hard for me to find an outlet for my energy and stress. The first week of school I went to the Rec Center to do my strength training. When I got there, I saw the rock wall and was in awe. However, I hesitated to try it. I was convinced that my knee couldn’t handle the pressures of climbing up a large wall.

That next week I finally got the courage to try it. Though I felt like I didn’t have enough strength in my knee to climb, I knew that I would have to try it eventually. It was a struggle at first. I felt my knee grow weak, but I kept pushing through the pain. I wanted to get to the top as many times as possible that first day. I accomplished five different paths. Though they were in multiple attempts, I did it!

When I finished climbing that day, I realized how relaxed I felt afterward. The next day, I went back to get another climb in. I felt the same relief I did after the first day. Climbing soon became an addiction. I climbed daily or every other day for hours at a time. Regardless of the sore forearms and rips on my hands, climbing made me feel so much better. It was my ultimate stress reliever! By the second week of climbing, my knee grew strong enough to where I could climb for just about three hours straight and feel no pain.

I never thought I would be into rock climbing. Now I know that rock climbing will be a hobby that I will enjoy for the rest of my life.

Much like the majority of male Latinos, I grew up with dreams of playing soccer professionally. It’s hard to think otherwise when you grow up in a culture that worships one sport. I never complained, though, and even without a million dollar contract, I make time to enjoy the game I love. Unfortunately for an engineering student, though, the class load and lab hours create difficulties when scheduling scrimmages or anything athletic. All last year I would hear about groups meeting on the front lawn but never had the time to check them out. My feet would beg me to lace up my cleats, but my Circuit Theory homework would be speak louder. I knew this year would have to be different.

It wouldn’t easy though. Right from the start I knew my classes would only increase in difficulty with more complex homework and lab reports. As an RA, too, I would have to dedicate hours to my residents and East Colony events. How then could I make time for everything?

The answer came to me in a fun little phrase: Futbol Fridays. Every Friday at 5 p.m. I would dedicate time to play on the roof of the Rec Center and advertise it to my residents as a weekly event. I would advertise it to other international students as well, and to anyone else who feels the same desire to play like I do. It would be perfect. I never do homework on Fridays, and saying Futbol Fridays at 5 is just the right amount of alliteration to keep it fun.

Our first turnout was modest, but last week’s was crazy. At its peak, we had 27 guys on the roof, with four teams switching off and on to keep it from overcrowding. I couldn’t believe it. I only put up six fliers on individual doors. Word of mouth really came through, and my feet are finally at peace.

It’s generally a good thing to focus on your health. Whether it is getting enough sleep, taking advantage of the Rec Center, or saying “NO” to that sixth cake pop at the Caf (guilty as charged), we can all pretty much agree that it is important to take care of your body.

The choices we make to advance our physical health allow us to perform more efficiently and have an all-around better quality of life. Being physically healthy allows us to feel more energized and alert, giving us the opportunities to keep up with life’s many opportunities and achieve more in school and at work. We remember to dedicate all this time to working on physical health, but it’s also extremely important to apply these principals to church health. Thanks to a convicting chapel series, the students of CBU have been graced with the opportunity to remember exactly that.

A healthy church is something that we should constantly strive for and celebrate. Being an active part of a healthy church is vital not only to us as individual believers, but also to the greater body of Christians who strive to further God’s Kingdom. God reveals multiple times in scripture that he loves and values the Church – so much so that he died for it and claims it as his bride. That is pretty intense imagery that calls for an intense response.

If our Creator values the Church so highly, we as his followers should do the same. We should care about our fellowship and our mission to love and serve other people as selflessly as Christ did. He gave us a job to do while we are here, and that is to be completely set apart and influential in being a positive impact on our world. The best way to join in on that mission is to partner with a Bible-believing church and offer all our talents to further God’s Kingdom with them. What better time than now?

During my senior year of high school, I went back and forth about which of my top two universities (CBU and another) I would decide to choose for my coming college years. The stakes were high, as this was not a decision I could rewind and make again if I chose wrong.

I went about the process carefully and intricately, being sure to hit all my bases before saying “yes” to either offer. I toured both schools more than once, I stayed overnight at CBU for “24,” researched heavily, and spoke with alumni. My dad, being someone whose career involves a lot of numbers and charts, even created an Excel spreadsheet which compared every detail about both schools and displayed the winner. In each scenario, CBU consistently came up on top.

But what really made the final decision for me was an email I received from one of the heads in our CAVAD department, and an email I received from the head of the other school’s design department. I received the CBU email first, and was immediately impressed by the passion and enthusiasm that this professor spoke with… I could tell without hearing his voice that he was so proud of, so ecstatic for, and so thrilled about the coming school year with his Graphic Design students. He practically wrote me a novel on the program!

When, much later on, I finally received a response from the head at the other school, I was disappointed to find a simple remark about where on their school website to find more info.

The choice was clear.

For those of you still in the process of making your college decision, I encourage you to dig deep, dive in, and then decide. But remember, this place will be your home for the next four years, and also your diving board into a lifelong career. Be somewhere proud, passionate, and invested, and you’ll never think twice about your decision!

One of the things that most freshmen, if not all, look forward to when entering college is freedom. There is this feeling you get when you experience your first taste of the do-as-you-please freedom as an adult. Then there is this feeling you get when you experience the freedom to take care of business at your own leisure.

Now by the title “Last-Minute Beach Trip,” you would assume that I took a last-minute trip just because I could, right? If you guessed that, you would be incorrect. I did go to the beach after classes one day this week, but it was to handle some business. My ROTC instructors gave us empty sand bags and commanded us to fill them up with sand. There were two catches: one, there had to be at least 25 pounds worth of sand in them, and we could NOT fill them up with sand from the CBU beach volleyball courts. My battle buddies and I headed for the beach.

We left at 5 p.m. and were back home before 8:30 p.m. We arrived at Newport Beach, filled up the multitude of sand bags, finishing just in time to watch the gorgeous California sunset and get our feet wet.

It was relieving to be able to fill up those sand bags and not have to worry about them for the rest of the week. This experience made me realize that going out and taking care of business should always be a priority. Though it is tempting to push it off, I found it was best to just get it over with. And let me tell you, filling up sand bags with 25 pounds of sand with no weight scale is not easy.

Freedom in college can be abused by simply saying “No, I’ll do it later.” Such a situation can turn into something that was never intended. PRIORITIES! Never forget your priorities.

As a young, male college student I represent a few stereotypes. I sleep in, I procrastinate on all homework assignments, and I leave campus late at night to eat greasy fast foods. One stereotype I’ve been trying to overcome, however, is the inability to cook. Too many times last year, I found myself in my apartment starving with nothing more than an empty pantry and refrigerator mocking my state of distress. Even if I had the ingredients, though, I wouldn’t know how to create a fulfilling meal.

I took it upon myself, then, this summer to learn just that. I started with baking since making cookies and breads would provide an ideal snack for late-night study sessions. I soon came to realize that every recipe involved ample amounts of butter, sugar and eggs, and I was OK with that. With sweets covered I knew, I would have to move to real foods, and the only meal I would have time to prepare would be breakfast. I wanted to perfect the CBU brunch delectable I crave each Sunday: the omelet.

My first two weeks on campus, I cooked up the most mutilated-looking egg creations you’ve ever seen. But I improved and garnered enough confidence to host a breakfast for my residents last week. I brought an electric stove out by the Colony barbecues and set up a little breakfast station complete with tablecloth, toaster and hot water pot. I provided bagels and orange juice as well, but those were just the extras .

The entrée would be my omelets. Groups of residents came and left through the morning, grabbing tea here and a Nutella bagel there. Finally, I was asked to cook. I beat the eggs, poured it onto my pan, added cheese and ham and waited. After a minute I folded the omelet easily and served the most beautiful thing I’ve ever created. Breakfast event was a success, and my stomach hasn’t been happier.

I’ve discovered that senior year brings out a lot in a person. The list includes the ability to sleep harder than ever before, find an unhealthy amount of enjoyment in crafting, and become ever so highly reminiscent of the good ol’ days.

Now, before I definitively convince you that I am an 80-year-old trapped inside a 21-year-old, allow me to say that I have seen these traits in many of my senior friends past and present. While we are at this crossing point in our lives, we are reminded of what is most important to us as we come to the end of the undergraduate journey. At the top of the list resides the community we have gained in our time here. I have found that cultivating a well-rounded group of friends consists of three different types of friendships that not only enrich life, but also help to further develop you as a human being.

The first type of friendship to maintain is with someone who is older than you. There is immense value to be gained from being discipled by a more experienced friend. Gaining wisdom from others advances spiritual growth and fills you so that you can go out and serve more effectively.

The second sort of friend to keep is a person who is more intelligent than you. Life is a constant learning process. Surrounding yourself with people who know more than you is not only humbling, but constantly pushes you to keep growing in knowledge.

The final friendship to cultivate is with a person who is completely different from you – someone with a different culture, background, perhaps even worldview. It is so valuable to allow yourself to be challenged and shaped by others who have a completely different perspective to offer.

Community will outlast a graduation date, and being a part of a thriving and challenging community is one of the most valuable things a person can accomplish. With that, let’s now move forward, go out, and effectively serve.