Feedback Please

This is my next potential article for "Outlook," the union magazine. I'm feeling uncertain about it. My only assignment was to write a story "about my Union love." The theme of the issue is loosly Union's various ways of allowing students to experience campus. Can you give me some feedback? Does it flow--do you "get it"? Is it persuasive and yet appropriate for a church publication (meaning, is there enough Jesus in it, or I should say, is Jesus obviously in it, because the whole thing is a Jesus story to me).

Here it goes:


The moment I first knew I would become a Unionite came long before I ever visited campus. Wendy, my friend, mentor, and summer camp boss, called me from her first visit to Union. “Katie,” she said with urgency, “You have to come to Union. This is the school for you.”

The following summer, Laurel Lake Camp, where I worked, was inundated with staff members who hailed from Union. I met Jifer, quite possibly the funniest person I’d ever known, and who exhibited more enthusiasm before noon on a given day than I could muster in a week. Michael, who loved the field game Dare Base almost as much as he loved the kids, taught the campers the Union College Song with such passion that they voted it their favorite song. Stacy and Emily were two of the most loving, compassionate counselors I’d ever met; instead of bickering over boys, their campers argued about whose counselor was better. Justin’s love of fun and games was epic; when he wasn’t cheering up a tired staff member, he played a practical joke or instigated a round of Rook or Dutch Blitz. Tim, our mountain bike director, used his time off to cut a new bike trail through the woods. Gina taught us about leadership and love and Jesus, with not only her words but also her life. They were just a few of the out-of-the-ordinary people I met from Union that summer.

Their love for God, Union College, and others was unlike anything I’d seen before. Each of my new Unionite friends happily answered my dozens of questions about their school. They loved Union, and while I was content at the Adventist university where I was enrolled, their enthusiasm about “the college in the west,” was refreshing and surprising. Although I hadn’t yet said it aloud, I knew that I would attend Union College.

I accepted the school’s offer to provide prospective students with housing, meals, and travel costs to come visit Union the following spring. Justin and Tim picked me up from the airport in Omaha, refusing money for gas, and gave me my first campus tour. They eventually introduced me to three friends I immediately knew were some of my favorite people at Union.

I visited during the opening weekend of the new student center, where I was introduced to Ben, Ashley, and another Ben. I remember thinking at the time that they were unnaturally nice, but at the same time, I was struck by how genuine their kindness seemed. Since then, they’ve helped me move to and from the fourth floor in the dorm in agonizing Nebraska heat, baked cakes and thrown parties for my birthday, leant me keys to their cars and houses, and given me advice on everything from cooking to money to God. They’re still some of my favorite people at Union, and among my closest friends--the Lincoln family God made for me.

Soon I was on the phone with the admissions office, transferring transcripts and working out a change in major. Late in the summer I called to arrange a fall class schedule. Once we had it settled, Mr. Blake asked me, “Katie, have you ever read the book Searching for a God to Love?”

“Yes,” I responded. “Actually, I have that book at home.”

“Interesting,” Mr. Blake said. “Did you enjoy it?”

I thought a moment. “Well actually, I’m not sure that I’ve ever even read it. I think I picked it up in the lost and found at the end of the year at my academy.”

“Do you happen to know who the author is?”

“I have no idea; I guess I haven’t really given it a close look,” I said obliviously. When I got home, I was embarrassed to read the author’s bio on the back: “Chris Blake … serves as Associate Professor of English at Union College in Lincoln, Nebraska.” He would soon become my favorite professor, one of many teachers who have personally invested in my education in and out of the classroom--and I’ve since read both Searching and its sequel.

I often tell people, as clichéd as it sounds, that Union College is the best thing that ever happened to me. Union is not only my school; it has become my home, my community. I love to tell people about my experiences at Union, and I’ve become one of the school’s many unofficial recruiters—students who are passionate about Union and want others to “experience the spirit” as well. It’s easy to share my excitement about Union because I don’t have to lie to people; the Union College I love really is, as our vision statement says, “a passionately Christ-centered community,” where I’ve learned, grown, and seen Jesus.