One of my favorite memories of my senior year is Victory Day. On that day, Unity hosts a football game for disabled kids and adults, matching them with Unity football players and other students. My friend and I signed up and were told we would get to hang out with Karlie for the day. We started by meeting with her and getting our picture taken. Her fun-loving energy was contagious, and she was so excited for the game. We cheered Karlie and her teammates on as they each ran and scored a touchdown. I’ll always remember the huge smiles on every player’s face that day, Karlie included. After the game, all the participants got handed a medal. When my friend and I sat down with Karlie to eat a meal after the game, she started telling us all about herself and asked if we would be friends with her.  That truly touched my heart and made me realize the huge impact this day has on these individuals. I initially went into this day intending to serve faithfully, but I also ended up being very blessed by Karlie and all the others. Victory Day is an amazing example of how, as a community, we can be faithful to God’s calling to serve others and be different from the culture around us that often overlooks and avoids these special people.

 When I started high school, the last thing I thought about was being different from the culture. In fact, I strove for just the opposite. I wanted to blend in with everyone else: having the same phone, same clothes, same interests. But my senior year chapel theme, “Faithfully Different,” has shaped me into someone who wants to pursue God above all things. This means I have had to put off my old self and step into a new character, ready to obey the Lord and serve Him with a faithful heart. For me, sometimes being faithfully different can even mean being different from my friends or being different than other Christians around me. This could mean stepping away from certain apps that draw me away from God or fasting from certain foods so I can spend more time in prayer. This puts me in a spot where sometimes people notice a difference in me, which can be uncomfortable. But actively choosing to be different among my peers means I am being faithful to God. I think being faithfully different also means reflecting God’s image for the world to see. If I reflect the Lord’s image, people will be able to notice a visible difference between me and the world.

My senior year at Unity has been so fun and has gone by so quickly, and I’m sure almost all my classmates will agree. I know I’ll always look back on my high school years with appreciation for the valuable lessons I’ve learned that shaped my worldview and taught me to go into the world being faithfully different.