What Inspires You?
“Behold, you are beautiful, my love, behold, you are beautiful! Your eyes are doves behind your veil. Your hair is like a flock of goats leaping down the slopes of Gilead.” Song of Solomon 4:1
For the summer after my sophomore year, I was offered an internship at Southeast Psychological Services in Charlotte. I would get funded through the Lilly Summer Discernment Institute at Sewanee, which is a Christian organization. The program would focus on integrating my psychology major’s studies with my spiritual journey.
My inspiration to apply for the Lilly stemmed from the desire to connect these passions to my love for God and my desire to serve my community. Throughout my summer, I was blessed to see God work in unexpected ways. The Lilly helped me realize that my profession can become my calling.
I met Dr. Kelley Bolton at Southeast Psych who practices integrating her faith into her work. After watching her in camps and talking more extensively about her work, I discovered that her career was appealing to me: I could bring my faith and who I was into psychology and make people feel good about their differences. I found out that there are clinical psychology programs that have seminary wrapped into them so that you are able to practice your faith along with your counseling.
I also feel a calling to serve my community. This connects to what I want to do through serving all populations of people. At Southeast Psych, they are only serving a community of people who can afford therapy without taking insurance. I feel called to help many people, regardless of their socioeconomic status.
Also, I want to branch out and touch lives outside the United States borderlines. I love being abroad and feel that when I am out of my comfort zone, I make the most difference. If I were to be able to reach out to people who might not have these services otherwise, I would be making the world a better place.
God created you. He worked very hard and deliberately to make you. There is no flaw in you. God doesn’t mess up. He gave you something that fires you up. He made you to be passionate.
I encourage you to find those passions. Write them down. Then live your life focused on those passions. Do the things you love to do and God will find a way to tie them all together.
He will make it clear how you can do what you love while serving Him. Even though I missed a summer at Greystone, God showed me how much I love counseling young women in a spiritual way. This internship led me right back to camp, where I could come to be a counselor for young women.
He works in wondrous ways to provide us exactly what we need. God made you to be flawless, so find your strengths and what you like to do and run with it.