Being an academician and a young Christian, the experience of being a college student was unique and challenging, personally.  In my experience and through the various experiences of those around me, I saw everyday the issues that came to the forefront through spiritual integrity (or the lack thereof).  It was only natural for me to write a book on helping young collegians coming to grips with the exposure to new elements of the world, fused with the challenge of living life that is ultimately school-based.  Not an easy thing for a teenager trying to live a decent, honest life of faith.

This blog post about the aforementioned book "The Way, The Truth & The (College) Life" was difficult to write, largely because of the ups and downs that took place in my life as I was trying to write, from a spiritual perspective.  It's truely one of my most inspired works that I've ever written.  As with my first book "...Bent Out Of Shape", this is currently being shopped for major publication and distribution, and I'm sharing a small bit of the manuscript for you all to read.  The chapter snippets that follow are "Your Vision" and "What It Truly Is..."

Your Vision:  Aligning Your Goals, Hopes and Dreams with the Will of God

Your goals, your hopes and your dreams-what are they?  Why do you have them?  Where do they come from?  Dreams are the things that we all have in some capacity.  We have all dreamed about being the next big basketball or football star, the next president, or being a doctor or lawyer or something like that; but do you ever wonder where those thoughts come from?  We all have our reasons for thinking about wanting to become what we envision, but maybe those dreams are mere fantasy and some maybe actually be God in us, getting our attention early to meditate and concentrate on our gifts and our future.

Hope, according to 1 Corinthians 13:13, is one of the only things that lasts forever (along with faith and love).  The hope that you have when you are young is the one thing that you can really take with you into the rest of your life.  Having and investing into hope is one of the chief attributes of success, because hope gives way to a future when none seems possible.  The whole point of college, really, is for people to obtain a higher education while in pursuit of dreams that may not necessarily be as possible without such an education.  The world has shifted in some degree to where college is a place that launches you into an environment where you can "make the big bucks"-but the dollar doesn't come automatically attached to your personal goals and dreams, so a conflict is created.

One of the best and worst things about college is the pressure to state your position-that is, to declare your field of study soon after you enroll in college.  It is so, largely because of the fact that being in college has a high cost financially that leaves very few the ability to ease into a field of study that may reflect his/her interests at a comfortable pace.  The pressure to "declare" is one of the things that causes young people to panic about their livelihood, because so much is riding on their getting in college and getting through college, that the reason in being there almost becomes secondary, if not tertiary, in reasons why young people are there in the first place.  It's a present and regrettable (to some extent) part of being a college student-but that doesn't mean that God can't work with you on the time you have.  He might be very well be the reason for the time crunch you have in figuring out what you want from your life.

God wants His children to be their best in all ways, and keeping God first is paramount in a person's success.  If you have certain hopes and dreams, remember God and mediate on Him through prayer.  Because we are a people of sight first, because of our human nature, much of the time we must think to concentrate dedicating our lives to God, because only through Him can we find all truth-and that divine truth is where we can truly find ourselves at our best, according His great and holy plans.

Many people have dreams, only to see their dreams never happen.  Many times if not all times, it is because their goals were not rooted in God.  The goals that we may have, if not according to God's will, may deceive our vision of who we should be or what we think we ought to be.  Sometimes as well, people meditate on their dreams and live and see those dreams through, and they pass away without making a defining impression on the people that dreamed them, because they also found that the things that they wished for were not life-fulfilling.  Think about it-people don't seriously dream about being drug dealers or addicts or liars or cheaters or murderers-that in itself should prove that there is a God present in our hopes; and this draws closer the role of God in what we project upon ourselves in our goals.  In the end, with God, all that we are for is to be enriching not only for ourselves but for others, because are a people to "be the righteousness of God" (2 Corinthians 5:21). ...

What It Truly Is...

...To Be Both a College Student and A Christian At Once

            When the thought of college comes up, people come up with a lot of ideas.  Older adults might think of their own college memories, or if they didn't attend, they might think of what they were doing during their college-age years.  Younger people (no older than 25) might think of the experiences and adventures that they have yet to embark upon or the recently college-departed have fresh memories etched into their skulls.  And yet there's still the old saying that college is where you experience "the best four years of your life."   Personally, I find it sad that grown men and women might look back and see that the best years of their lives had taken place during a time when so little about life is known.

            Really, coming to college is about experiences, and being a college student is more the circumstances of the environment and the preparation and being equipped for those experiences.  It's about building on an education, building on life skills, and it can be truly valuable in forming the self.  Anyone that says college is only about those general and vague ideas, though, is half-mistaken.  The experiences that the latter post-secondary student bears witness to can range between varieties of extremes, depending all upon where a person attends.  The diversity of the college experience goes from the public to the privately-funded institution, the city-sized university to the store-sized college, and even from the historically black college/university (HBCU) to a seminary school.  Everyone sees and comes into contact with different things on their journeys.  Ultimately, the reason why a person goes to college is to achieve a higher level of education that can ultimately benefit and enhance his or her life, professionally and personally, but the classroom is least of the concern when it comes to being a Christian.

            As a Christian exercising personal faith in what many times is a diverse (and at times, overwhelming) environment, it's so crucial to be aware of the pitfalls that trip young people up upon their arrival to the university scene.  Usually college students use the excuse that college is a place to be "free" and to "discover" themselves as a way of ignoring their consciences when it comes to questionable behavior.  It's totally fair to say that and to believe it, but just as no one professor or academic advisor is going to hold a student's hand when it comes to adjusting to the rigors of class, the same is true for what happens outside of the lecture hall.

            With the weekly college parties, the increased presence of young men and women, and the added bonus of exercising "parental emancipation," there are risks.  It's not unknown that the whole binge drinking, casual and unsafe sex, and drug use scenes are the perceived activities of choice for what seems to some as "most college students."  While that's flawed to generalize a whole generation of individuals that way, it is true that those temptations exist-prevalently.  It's parallel near exactly to preparation for mid-term exams and finals, in that the college kid has to constantly be true to themselves and review material in order to pass with acceptable grades; in this case, one of faith has to constantly keep a self-check and be willing to weigh his or her options of activity based on what they know is best.  Just as everyone studies differently and it's not fair to criticize someone else for having different study methods, the same can be said for those who weigh life situations differently-as a Christian, sometimes (depending on your home environment) there is this perceived notion that Christian shouldn't even be near the vicinity of where sin can lurk, as if one may taint his or herself just by standing near something going awry-but this is flawed thinking, and unlike what Christ was actually doing.

Jesus went to places that were considered detestable in some circles and dealt with those who were considered "unclean," but this was how he spread the message of salvation.  Many times, it's the actions that a person may display in an unstable environment that speak louder than anything.  The college student with Christian beliefs doesn't have to not go to parties or not go to a dance club; what's more important is how that person reacts to their environment despite obvious peer pressure (which does not leave after high school, by the way).  It's important to gain perspective and as a believer in Christ, it's even more important not to be afraid of experiencing a different crowd and getting to know your surroundings.  It's not to say that a young Christian college student should always go to the next party or next club night if there a sense of temptation, because when it becomes to nighttime, early ‘80s rap group Whodini made it famous to be said that "the freaks come out at night"; but to be realistic, part of gaining perspective is changing environments, but it doesn't have to come at the expense of faith and integrity...if your heart, mind and spirit are in the right place. ... ###

As a writer, I began my journey drawing on life experiences.  One such experience is a continual ritual of taking care of my health.  Three months after I graduated from college, I started the journey in writing my first book--a self-help, fitness-oriented book titled "The Reason Why America's So Bent Out Of Shape", a book drawing from my own understanding and study of fitness and health in relation to daily living, written from the first- and third-person perspective.  While I'm still shopping this book as a major publication with national distribution, I'm willing to share a bit of what the book delves into (which touches upon diet, environment, ethnicity & nationality and work & family, as well as sex & gender).  The snippet is two separate bits from chapters called "The X-Factor" and "Image Deception".

Enjoy.

The X-Factor

What is it that keeps two people together in a committed relationship?  What is it between members of a sports team that helps them win a championship?  How do you get through your day at a so-so job and even more questionable co-workers?  With all three examples, the answers may vary in range, but there is a common theme between them all--they require some sort of intangible that allows for a positive result.  It's what Americans tend to call the "X-factor."  It's that seemingly impossible, unidentifiable thing or idea that allows for circumstances and life situations to play out for certain reasons, and for the average person who has a mission to achieve better health, those X-factors are key in helping reach the goals.

            For people looking to stay motivated and focused in context of acquiring a better standard of fitness, there's always something that makes people do what they do, whether it's to look better or lower cholesterol or just to feel better physically, there is something (or someone) that can keep the initial plan on track; and many times it's because of the lack of intangibles in a plan that many people fail, when it comes to seeing their goals of becoming more fit burn to the ground.  The question then becomes, "What's your X-factor?"

            What is it that you can rely on to keep you going and "staying the course" when it comes to taking control of your health?  Is it your faith/spirituality?--health studies have shown in recent years that people who actively engage themselves in some sort of faith-based beliefs and/or have a solid spiritual foundation of some sort tend to gain better overall health results in their pursuit of better fitness than, more so than those who do lack a spiritual or religious base of some kind.  Is there someone in your life that pushes you or motivates you?  It's thought that individuals who take advantage of the usage of a life coach/fitness coach/personal trainer are more likely to achieve (and sometimes exceed) their goals, because there is someone helping to guide them to the "finish line."

            Really though, X-factors could be anything, because every single human being is unique.  The whole point is to have something that can help you do the best you can consistently, day in and day out.  On a personal note, I keep exercising and discerning for myself what's good and not good to eat mainly for health--I just want to keep up my end of the bargain in my life; what I mean by that is that we all are going to die someday, and that shouldn't be a surprise, but I do want to be accountable for my health so that I can try to prevent certain ailments to afflict me in the future.  Diabetes, arthritis, and high blood pressure are somewhat prevalent in my family, and I just want to do my part in prevention.  Now, whether I get those things, despite my insistence on being fit is a whole other thing...but I know that with many things, it takes two to create problems for your health (not always, but many times).  You've just got to be pro-active about your health--it's as simple as that. ...

Image Deception:  The Female Plight

Women, image, fitness.  They all go together like a full course meal, don't they?  I mean, beautiful, thin women provocatively dressed are in magazines, billboards, commercials and seemingly everywhere.  Seems pretty normal, but the display is usually somewhat risqué, always showing the obvious sexual touch points of the body--you know, the frisky stuff.

            The gift is that the woman, in all her glory, her true glory, is one of the most beautiful things in creation, if not the most beautiful thing in creation.  That much should be obvious, but the curse...oh, the curse...the curse is that women in this age, and in decades past within the 20^th century have endured much objectification, in reference to their bodies and having to shoulder the unfair load of physical perfection to not only their male counterparts, but to themselves in the end.  And what's one of the ways that a woman could try to achieve such perfection?  You guessed it--by means of fitness-related activity, or exercise.

            Understand that the ideas of women, image, and fitness are married to each other in a variety of ways, but for the better part of the era of the modern media, the ways in which they have been bonded have been in the ill-fated scope of the superficial exterior.  This alone has given the means to which a woman would get fit a bad wrap.  So what does that mean?  That means that because of the contributions to the destruction of generations of women by way of the sexist powers that be in big business, the current generation of females has felt the need to respond to quick-fix products that are so well known today.  Many women have simply developed a disdain for the thought of the work involved to satisfy their mounting consciences on what physical perfection is.  The true goal of exercising has been lost in a sea of money-making ploys and advertisements that aim to satiate the pocket's thirst for mammon, as opposed to satiating the body's need for wellness.  These realizations are crucial in identifying why women have literally been victims of ignorance, and on a grand, hypothetical scale, mass-societal mental (and social) abuse.  Mind you, it's not necessarily outright physical abuse--no, no, it's the psychological abuse that has led generations of women to inflict bodily harm on themselves, either through eating disorders, under-activity and/or over-activity.

            And so, how is it that women get over these things?  How do women get over the idea that the female celebrities and models they see on their televisions, on book covers, in clothing ads, aren't necessarily the standard to which they should hold themselves?  Sure, you have the Dove ads with the array of multi-aged, multi-colored ladies posing in the nude (or close to it) in their bare "true" forms?  You could see this and maybe start to think hard about that.  How about seeing Tyra Banks get up and defend herself for having gained 20 pounds after retiring from runway modeling?  Her tears and her "poured-in" fit in that one-piece swimsuit might stir up a change in your thinking.  And what about the emergence of female celebrities that are now widely accepted for their shapely figures?  I'm sure Queen Latifah, Scarlett Johannson, and Beyonce Knowles would absolutely love to talk to more than just a couple of women about that.  But are any of these things really relevant to the way women can change gears in warming up to what being fit and, more importantly, being healthy are really about?  It's a yes/no answer.

            Ultimately, it comes down to what one is exposed to in their lifetime that chooses for people how they feel about themselves.  Take accents, for example--it's known that people acquire grammatical and phonetic accents not from birth, but from linguistic interaction with people who speak a certain way.  Okay, okay--basically, I'm saying that you'd get a accent according to who's talking to you and how he or she has spoken to you from an early age.  Now apply that study to women and image perception and fitness, based on what we know.  Some women will have responded positively, in thought, to the idea of having a certain body image, by way of exercise, while others might have responded not so positively to similar messages.  It's theoretical, yes, but perfectly plausible, and it depends on not only where you might have stood on such ideas, but it relies on how the people around you might have responded to those ideas--and those same thoughts and ideas, whatever they may be, can be passed down. ...