By Mikel Berger
Dear incoming freshman,
Congratulations on your acceptance into Purdue University. We’re excited you’re coming to campus and our cities. You’ve probably stumbled upon this blog post because in some way you connected with Chad Moore or one of our Salt and Light Christian Fellowship student leaders. Maybe you’ve already decided to make Kossuth your church home or maybe you’re still investigating which of the many good churches in the Lafayette area God would have you join to grow and serve spiritually while during your time at Purdue learning and growing academically.
Since you’re reading our website to check out our church, I’d like to offer a bit of advice.
There is a lot you’re about to experience. You’ll be meeting new people. People come from all over the world to study at this fine university.
I grew up only about two hours north of Lafayette. It amazed me when I showed up as a freshman that people came from huge cities on the other side of the planet that I had never heard of to study here. Maybe you’re from nearby and will feel the same. Maybe you’re one of those people from far away.
Wherever you’re from, those new people are going to feel very different from you. They have unusual names. They believe different things. They eat different foods. Honestly, some of them will even smell quite different. Don’t feel too bad about that last one. They think the same thing about you.
As you get a few weeks into your classes it will start to feel like they are the ones that are supposed to be here. And you’re not. It will feel like the admissions office made a mistake when they processed your application many months ago.
You will have a case of imposter syndrome. You might feel like a fraud. You might feel out of place. You can start to wonder when everyone else will realize that you don’t have what it takes to succeed here.
You probably expect me to encourage you that you’re not actually an imposter and that most students feel this way at a competitive university. It’s true, they do. You probably expect me to tell you that you can do it. Work hard but don’t be too tough on yourself.
But honestly, I don’t know if you’re an imposter Purdue student or not. I don’t know your mental capabilities or ability to work hard.
Here’s what I do know about you. Your anxiety about belonging at Purdue is not from God. Jesus addresses anxiousness in Matthew 6:25-34. Anxiety comes from the size of our faith. Our tiny faith results in our anxiety. So when Jesus tells us to not be anxious he is saying we need to increase our faith in our Heavenly Father.
At Kossuth, we don’t believe that if you just somehow work harder to increase your faith that you’ll magically get the grades you want or that you’ll eventually get the job you’re working so hard for either. What we believe is that God will love you because he’s already done the work of making you one of his children once you put even your tiny mustard-seed-sized faith in him.
Once you’ve done that, then you’re freed to work extremely hard but without anxiety on your schoolwork to his glory.
From one former imposter to a future one, welcome to campus!
God bless,
Mikel Berger
Elder, Kossuth Street Baptist Church
P.S. For any non-college students reading this, just substitute “college student” in the above letter with dad, foster mom, grandmother, engineer, accountant, or whatever else has you feeling like an imposter.
P.P.S. To my fellow elders, we can also substitute pastor. I know we all feel it at times.
