Holding the Key? Or Unlocking Doors

This picture is a very special picture to me, but I'll get back to that in a little bit! TA DA guess what? It's story time with Sara! Today I wanted to share with you this picture and the miracle story of how I got to college, the full story.

So this all started out, around four or five years ago when I was looking at colleges. At this point it seemed like there were not colleges that had archery in their programs. It wasn't like basketball where coaches were looking everywhere for the best archers and then they would watch a game or practice to see if that's the person they want to recruit or not. I always had wanted to shoot archery at college, but didn't know exactly what colleges I should go to. I was thinking about JMU, but their college program didn't offer scholarships and I was thinking about Messiah College and I could continue shooting archery locally as I always had done. For a little more back story and in depth idea of where I am coming from and the miracle that I am about to explain is that I went to a college prep high school, and a very competitive one at that. Now that I am in college, I can with a clear mind say that the classes in high school compared to those I am taking in college. There was just an assumption that all of the students would go off to IV League or similar prestige colleges. This was nothing against our school, because this was the exact place to be if someone wanted to go to Yale or Harvard. Actually, one of my graduating classmates got a full ride to Yale, which is absolutely incredible. Though, my mind was not set on IV League. In my position, I was looking for a school that had a good film/videography program and I was hoping that same school would also have archery. Easier said than done right? If I were to go to an IV League school that had archery, I would end up at Colombia University. Which actually has an archery team, but the fact was that even though the campus was gorgeous and it had many things about it that I loved, it didn't have a competitive film program, so that idea was off the table. That left me with JMU and Messiah, both were good options, but none of them felt.....right.

Before the miracles started happening, one of our friends came over to the house. We got onto the subject of college and she had mentioned that God had given me a key and I just had to open the door.

Then came USA Outdoor Nationals, which changed the game for just about everything. Here's where the miracles just start pouring out. It was practice day and I remember after I got done shooting my end of arrows, I walked back to where my mom was standing and I saw her talking to a man. He was in fact a very influential person in the world of collegiate archery and he had told my mom that I should look into the University of the Cumberlands, that it would be a good fit for me. The odd thing is that, he didn't coach for the University of the Cumberlands and in fact, his college was on the far other side of the country, but one that had archery. So when I got back from the competition, my mom started talking to me about this new college. I was far away and I didn't know if I wanted to travel that far, so I shrugged it off. Besides, it was almost time to send in my college applications. Then there was something in me that just said, look at the website and then determine what you think. So I looked at the website. I saw their colors were red, white, and blue and I liked that, so I continued some more. I saw they had the program I wanted and they had archery, so I decided to write a note too the coach who then wrote to me back saying that they were interested and that I should come for a visit. I didn't have much time, but I saw that there was an open house that I could go to, so my parents and I went into the state of Kentucky to visit the patriotic school. We got to meet the coach, who was very nice and welcoming, I loved the campus, I loved the atmosphere, and they had my program that I wanted. They had archery on scholarship. It was a perfect scenario. Then the next day there was a parents Q&A and informational about the campus where they were playing a game where I had won a t-shit and around the t-shirt was a little note which is in the picture above saying, "Life is a Journey and You hold the Key!" I knew at that point that God was telling me to go to this school and that it was the right decision. Little did I know that even though this was a huge miracle, I didn't know that once I got to college that multiple miracles would follow afterward.

I didn't know that I would be on an archery team where I would get my own national titles and I would be on the team as we earned national titles. Even when our competition got tougher, we still fought hard and ended up succeeding. I would never know that I would ever in my life get a championship ring, and never would I ever have imagined that I would have two! I had no idea that in my Communications major that I would be so in depth in film studies that I would be able to take classes like Advanced Video Production where we will get to learn about foley (which is making everyday sounds that you would normally not think about, but are essential to a video... Like footsteps, you never really think about them when someone is walking in a film, but if they weren't there then you would notice). I also wouldn't know that I would have a work study working in the Digital Media Studio and then I didn't know that right when I wanted to start making my own YouTube channel and have been working on making YouTube videos in my current job, that I would be able to take the first YouTube channel ever offered in the major. Also I would have never thought that I would then add Accounting as my second major. At one point when I was little I thought I was good at math, but as I grew up learning its intricacies, it started interesting me less and less, but here I am studying accounting! 

So why am I writing all of this down, because I'm pretty sure that some could care less how I got to college. The fact is that each of us have our own talents and our own paths. God has led me down mine and multiple miracles have followed. I didn't even think it would be possible for me to even go to college and shoot archery as a student athlete. At one point I also didn't think I would go into a major where I would study film, because at the time I wanted to go into Hollywood, until I realized how unreliable those jobs could be. Though I stuck with what I was passionate about and it has payed off in ways I could have never imagined. Don't ever doubt yourself, ever, ever, and if there is something that you know is your calling, don't ever let it go, because you don't know when the next time it will be until it pays off again! Don't hold your key, start unlocking your doors.