Observations on the Fears of College Students: Adam Guillory

When I came to college, I was told stories about people partying every weekend, spending all their time getting high in the dorm rooms, getting tattoos, growing their hair out, etc., etc. In other words, the expectation I had for college kids was that of spontaneity to the point of recklessness. Over the last few years, that image has been challenged to the point where I think for LA Tech, at the bare minimum, it is completely false. 

People still go out to drink on the weekends to bars, but it’s “only” social drinking, and they claim they would never do it on their own. People still get high in their dorm rooms and flunk out, however the amount of people who do that seems to be decreasing. People would rather have a quiet evening playing a video game or spending time alone in their dorm, rather than going out to do anything fun with people. I believe that this is a negative development because it very heavily bleeds into the work of ministry, and ultimately serves to make students’ lives miserable without them knowing.

We Christians used to be the prudes! Growing up, I saw Christians as those people who would just go to their boring things and wouldn’t know what “fun” was if it hit them in the face. Somewhere along the line, however, secular culture got it into kids’ heads that their grades are what make them valuable, and that we should all live for a comfortable life and should never ever overexert ourselves in case we have to see the consequences of our actions. And yet many students will drink energy drinks, pull all-nighters studying for tests they would’ve made an A on anyways, eat fast food, and do a million other things that are objectively bad for their body, their soul, and even their academics! They do this all in the name of “success,” and look at you like you’re crazy if you do or don’t do these things.

I started to notice this during the past week because of three separate events. The first was when I was inviting people to come to our Fall Retreat. We’ve probably contacted over a hundred students at the time of initially writing this, many students have either declined to go or have given the dreaded “Maybe,” or “If my classes allow it.” I expect this attitude from freshmen, who don’t necessarily know what college is like and are trying to get off on a good foot. However, we have gotten this response from everyone, freshmen to seniors. We’ve gotten this from people we know are homebodies, who take care of what they need to do and manage their time well, and we get it from the reckless people who don’t manage their time at all. It’s a very confusing trend. The second instance was at our first Community Group on Thursday night. We had more new freshmen come than people who had been previously plugged into one! The most prevalent excuse for not coming, once again, was because people were trying to get on top of their homework the day it was assigned, as though they would not have 5 more days to work on it. The final time this happened recently was for a personal event that I do every week, in which I have movie nights at my house. They are open invitation, and people are allowed to come and do whatever they want in an objectively fun setting. I invited over 20 people, and 5 showed up, none of which you would consider reckless in any capacity. 

I could go into speculation as to why this trend started and the history behind it, but I don’t think that that is important or interesting, so I will not. I will instead talk about why this is potentially more damaging than the spontaneity we used to see, as well as where we can go from here in curbing this mentality. This is damaging, primarily because that spontaneity included obvious, external issues which could be addressed by the church and then their energy redirected into good ministry. The current issue seems to indicate, instead, a lack of energy which is driven by fear, which is notably an internal affair that can not lead to anything good. I will repeat, for anyone who this affects, the fear which drives them to succeed will have to be destroyed and replaced by love for them to be capable of authentic, God fearing ministry.

Secondly, there is the question of where do we go from here? How can we address this issue with college students? As a college student, the two things I can think of are this: Firstly, and by far most importantly, pray. Pray for college students, especially if you know of any individually who don’t know how to get out of their dorm. We need to live in the hope that God will work on them and that He will supply the love that overcomes their fear of failure, and the confidence that He will feed and clothe them, as He has promised. Secondly, we need to live a life which flies in the face of their fears. We need to be willing to agree to do things that interrupt our productivity and our lives, with the sole purpose of  loving God and loving our neighbors as ourselves. We need to be willing to have fun, play, and be with people. We also need to work, so that we can be living proof that we don’t have to choose between getting done what we need to get done and living a joyful life. We need to take personal responsibility in living balanced lives so that others look at us and see the light of Christ. In short, we must live in such a way that in good times or bad times, we can radiate the joy of the Holy Spirit, which can work through us to reach the unbelievers, and bring them out of the darkness they have been living in.

Amen.

Adam Guillory is a senior Engineering major at Louisiana Tech and has blessed our community with his presence and joy since he showed up on our doorstep the fall of his freshman year. His wisdom, excitement, and tenacious desire to serve are a gift to The Wesley. Adam is passionate about swordsmanship, D&D, puns, and his friends. He will be serving his third year on our Discipleship Team this upcoming school year, and it has been a delight to see him grow in his faith.