Senior reflection series: Elliott Humphrey
by elliott humphrey
contributor
I was kicked out of San Diego State. Twice.
Although that story is best shared another time, it provides the necessary context for how I came to PLNU. You could always Google me if you’re that curious (probably the fifth result down, but my Myspace is no. 2!).
I started back at a community college shortly after my exit (aka: booting) from the CSU system, and I had a new school in my crosshairs: UCSD. Seventeen months of mind-numbing monotony later, I pinned my acceptance letter to my bulletin board. Half a month later, I burned that letter, along with the note from UCSD that rescinded their acceptance due to a technicality from grades.
When I had my interview in Draper Hall at PLNU a few months later, I was asked why I wanted to come here. Since the University of Spoiled Daughters (what USD really means… and PLNU I guess) was not a great option and “You’re the only game in town” was not an acceptable answer, I made something up about PLNU being a natural fit for blah blah blah.
“So… you made national news when you were kicked out of SDSU” (seriously, Google it) “and they accepted you at a Christian college?” was the typical question from my (former) fraternity brothers. I figured God has a sense of humor.
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I came to PLNU a 22-year-old transfer commuter student with a stalling faith. I split my time in the library, classrooms and home, with very few moments with peers. WHY? While students planned to eat together in the cafeteria for lunch, I stored a blanket to take a nap in my car in the commuter lot.
People need three things from their lives in college. The first is academic rigor. We need to feel like we are learning and growing, that we are not spinning our wheels. The second is the dreaded c-word: community. We need others to be alongside us as we grow. The third is values. We need shared values to gather us together so that we do not fall apart.
SDSU did not have shared values, so my excitement for school and friendship in my fraternity brought me to collapse. Community college granted me a community of Christians that created space for me to heal; but I needed to go somewhere to grow. PLNU gave me the academic rigor through its challenging and thoughtful faculty. My Bible and theology classes provided the spiritual and intellectual foundation upon which I have grown, despite being ridden like a donkey (not a metaphor).
Yet the community was still missing.
~~~
I remember thinking I was going to die. It was summer break, and I was on the Golden Gymnasium roof. Every step I took, the roof sank a centimeter. I made several promises to myself that I would lay off the cheeseburgers (broken within 24 hours). My friend, who strode confidently alongside his girlfriend, laughed at the look on my face, which had a mixture of terror and self-loathing. He waved me towards the ocean-side end of the roof. As I inched along I promised myself I would throw him off just for dragging me up there. I sat down on the blanket and he handed me a cold Dr. Pepper (nectar of the gods!) and began to share his life with me. We talked about where we came from and how we got here. The cold ocean breeze blew about my dark hair that summer night, and I realized that God gave me, in the shape of a kind friend sharing a new view of the school and life, all three.
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