Austin 4 Years Ago

As many of you know, I’m about to graduate from Ouachita Baptist University this December (want to hire me? Holler at your boy!). This blog post isn’t about how much I love OBU, or how much I’ve gotten out of it. There’s enough in that to fuel a separate daily blog of its own. So don’t you worry about that.

Four years ago, as an incoming freshman, I was totally different. Different dreams, different goals, different knowledge, different perspectives, different ideals, different preferences. Everything was different. I always hear about how college are four of the most transformative years of your life, and they are. I mean, I’ll wear a v-neck t-shirt these days. That’s change! But on a serious note, a lot has changed in these four years. When I came in as a student to OBU, one project of my freshman seminar class was to go and video tape ourselves answering five questions. I went down, answered the questions, and went on with life.

Now, as a senior, in senior seminar, we go and answer the exact same questions. Of course, we dont get to see our previous answers first, but after answering the questions, you get a DVD of your first round and your senior year answers. The school archives the videos, and you walk out with almost a mini-time capsule. Obviously, as soon as I got to my dorm on the 4th Floor, I popped the DVD in. Amazingly, I didn’t quite want to punch my four years ago self in the face as much as I wanted. I seemed pretty level headed, and not too overly arrogant as a freshman. It was pretty interesting to hear my goals and viewpoints and how they’ve changed.

I wont bore you with those details, but here are the five questions we had to answer.

1. Freshman year: What do you expect out of your Ouachita experience?
1. Senior Year: What did you gain from your Ouachita experience?

2. What do you hope to be doing in ten years?

3. What are the most important Christian beliefs?

4. What does it mean to live as a Christian in this world?

5. How would you define ministry?

And here’s a screen grab from me my freshman year of college, circa September, 2007.

And here’s a screen grab from me my senior year of college, circa September 27, 2010 at 1:57 P.M.

I think this project has inspired me. I may answer these questions every five years and go back and watch them. I think it’s a great exercise in checking your growth as a person and as a Christian. Thanks Pruett School for having this as one of our assignments!