The transition from your hometown high school to the unknowns of college life can be daunting to even the most confident of us. Whether you have a full-ride scholarship and have your entire four (or more) years planned out, or you simply are unsure of what the Lord has planned for you after you cross that stage, gaining insight and encouragement from peers that are a few steps ahead of you can be invaluable. Natalie Fowler, a recent graduate of LCA, provides a glimpse into the life of a freshman in one of the most prestigious colleges in Georgia and offers up valuable advice for parents and students when preparing to take that next step toward God’s call on their lives.
My name is Natalie Fowler, and I graduated from LCA in May of 2019. In the fall, I started classes at the greatest institute in the world, Georgia Tech, in downtown Atlanta to pursue my Bachelor’s of Science in Business Administration with a concentration in Leadership and Management of Human Capital and a minor in Law, Science, and Technology. After graduating from Tech, I plan on attending law school (but don’t ask me where I’m going just yet!) to pursue a career in corporate litigation. Before I figured out what I wanted to do, I knew I wanted to go to Georgia Tech where 9/10 majors are some kind of engineering. However, considering the fact that I could barely sit through fifty minutes of a math or science class without feeling infinitely confused, I had a fair amount of certainty that I did not want to be an engineer. That left a few majors in the college of liberal arts and business administration as my choices. After watching my dad run his business, I decided on majoring in business administration because it simply seemed like the least of all the evils and would be a good undergraduate degree to have before going to law school, where I originally planned to study to become a prosecutor. After one class of business law, I knew that I wanted to work with contracts instead of criminals. But have no fear, I still make many a “Legally Blonde” joke.
Georgia Tech is no piece of cake. If you hear rumors about kids skipping football games to study or engineers forgetting to shower during finals, they are not jokes; these are mere observations. My first day of classes included a pop quiz and a pre-assigned 100 pages of reading. The academic rigor was a curveball for sure, but the most daunting part of starting classes at Tech was doing it alone. I went from living in Loganville and knowing each one of my fifty-six classmates’ full names to living minutes away from Mercedes-Benz stadium with 36,489 peers whom I had never even met. As much as I love making new friends, 36,000 is a little bit overwhelming. This change was dramatic, but, as a high school theatre veteran, I live for drama and found myself with a group of new friends that I felt like I had known all my life after only one semester. My experience is unique, but I think that going to a college where no one else I knew was going forced me to get out of the bubble I had known all my life and allowed me to form new and deep friendships instead of clinging to what I previously knew. So, seniors, say hi to the kid sitting next to you in your first college class next year; they could end up being your best friend!
From the outside looking in, my life before and after Georgia Tech were vastly different, and they are in many ways; I did not wake up to the sound of sirens and traffic in Loganville, and I had never used UberEats or DoorDash (two of my greatest friends) before college. However, the thing that stayed constant was God’s voice. During my time at LCA I was blessed with some of the best friends and teachers who spoke the truth of God into my life when the lies of Satan were so loud. LCA taught me how to discern what the truth and promises of God are and to surround myself with a close circle that reminds me of these things when discouragement seems like too big of a mountain to face. I did not know if I could get into Georgia Tech; in fact, many people told me my chances were slim to none. However, LCA gave me the friends and mentors that told me to step out in faith and believe that God could get me where I was supposed to go despite both my own doubts and the disheartening words that were spoken over me. Now, a year after receiving my acceptance letter, God is continuing to teach me to listen to His voice, especially in the form of my friends, and to remember that His goodness will forever exceed the limits the world puts on me.
So class of 2020, congratulations. Your seat is an exciting one to sit in. Your future is so bright, and you have so much to look forward to! Do not be afraid when you walk into college (if you choose to attend); everyone else is just as new and lost as you, which gives you an exponentially better setup for making a whole group of new friends. Fix your eyes on God and let His Spirit lead your footsteps. When you seek Him, everything else will fall into place. You will find yourself having peace even during finals or sorority recruitment or breakups or whatever else would normally leave you stress crying in the middle of the student center. But do not just seek out God for what He can give you. Seek His face before seeking His hand. Fall in love with Jesus and cultivate a relationship with Him because everything else you do will flow from that. When you prioritize your faith, you will be able to love your friends or boyfriend/girlfriend, or that random kid in your Accounting I class so much better because you will have known true love.
Do not expect too much from the dining hall desserts. Pace yourself on the soft-serve because it gets old after a while. If you do not have your car on campus, immediately find a friend who does. Choose to spend time with people even when your schedule looks too busy; one of my favorite memories from my first semester was staying up laughing with my best friend until 5 AM when I had an 8 AM class the next day (Sorry, Mom and Dad! I still made an A!). Beware of the campus Starbucks. Coffee can be a study aid, but it is the enemy of your bank account. You can still have fun without being a part of Greek life, but, also, do not underestimate how fun an ADPi silent disco can be. Study hard and learn how to manage your time well; when you prioritize and manage, you have so much more free time to do the fun college things you have been waiting for. But most of all, have faith in yourself, have faith in God, and look at your future through a lens of celebration. The best is yet to come.
We are excited to see what God holds for Natalie in her future, and we are so proud to call her an LCA alumna! LCA is blessed to continually have alumni, like Natalie, who desire to pour back into our students who are preparing to take the next step in their lives. Congratulations, Natalie, on all your success so far at Georgia Tech! We cannot wait to hear more of what God is doing in your life!
