“Adventure of a Lifetime”
Author: Ellie McNair | Living Education Charlotte Faculty & Program Assistant
- A summary of an introductory speech presented to the students given by a Living Ed Alum at Orientation.
You have started the adventure of a lifetime. This Living Education program, nine months of it, is an adventure. You have your favorite stories, real or fictional, that speak to you and challenge your perception. If you consider your own life and all that has led up to now. This is a big step forward. You are Bilbo Baggins of Bagend, stepping out to follow Gandalf on a grand trip.
But what do they encounter on those travels? Danger, hardship, hopelessness. You will most likely have these too.
Danger–in the form of classes with teachers who will push you to either secure your beliefs or fail.
Hardship–will come through daily living, working, breathing, with people who are so different that they make your skin crawl. Make your Christian love for them grow daily so you can cope with the situation.
Hopelessness–that comes the first time you realize every other person in the house, room, class, and church is also a human being. With their unique flaws and peculiarities that make them imperfect.
What Kind of Adventure?
What kind of adventure is this, you might ask? Where’s the swashbuckling hero, or daring heroine? Look around you …this is your cast. Like Daniel and his three friends, you are here to stand together. Where’s the challenge? Building a base in God’s ways is your daunting task. Push each other to do so. Dig deeply into what you are learning. Know why you are taking each and every step in your life. Does it follow the mind of God? Your Creator, whom you came here to learn about? Or is it your own will that you have justified as His by your human logic?
Do you have questions? Ask them! But not of each other, with the limited understanding you came here to develop and grow. That’s youth asking for the counsel of his friends. Look to your teachers and the instructors God has put here to guide you to His truth. To understand, ask the “Gandalf’s” in front of you daily, because later in life, you may not have one available to you. Deepening understanding of those things is what you came here to do. Well, at least that’s what you said it was in your essays.
This program is an adventure of a lifetime. Treat it as such, and you will walk away in nine months with an unquestionable accomplishment that can stay with you for a lifetime. And truly, this is the start of your own Christian walk, which is the adventure for eternity. The opening scene is set – where will you go now?
Ellie McNair is a Living Education alum from the 2021-2023 school years. She currently works for the Living Education program as the Women’s Life Roles Instructor and Program Assistant.