Operating in the capacity of an Alumni, I recently assisted freshmen at the University of Indianapolis move into their dorm rooms. Seeing the excited faces, the confused faces, the crying mom who confessed she couldn’t handle the emotion of leaving her “little” boy as she thought she could.

All of these reminded me of my own first day in college. You see my college opportunity was nothing short of a miracle. After sitting out 730 days at home with my parents, because I had not received an admission, things changed rapidly, and within 24 hours I was sitting in class, an enrolled college freshman. Looking back, it does not feel as though I spent 4 years in college, but rather, that I spent 10 long semester’s in college. Each of those semester’s were both grueling and trying. I didn’t know how I could pay the next semester’s fees, how I could pass that hard class. How I could fend for my family.

I worked full time, went to school full time, was a student athlete – all just to make ends meet. It was a very hard season of life but I got an important lesson from it all. One in which I am now sharing with College Freshmen around the world. My biggest take away from completing college is to see the end from the beginning. As scripture states:

Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done … – Isaiah 46:10

If I had looked ahead to the year I was to finish, I would have made even wiser decisions, I could have maneuvered in such a manner, that I achieved my ends sooner.

And so my advice to the class of 2017, and to any college freshman, is to see the end from the beginning. I understand 2017 is still far away. A lot will happen before then if God tarries but I want you to picture yourself in your graduation gown. What would you like to have accomplished when you put on that gown? Where in life would you like to be when graduation rolls around? Figure that out, and what it takes others 4 years to accomplish, you will accomplish in 3 years.