Thankfulness for Where We Are

Hi everyone!! My name is Briannys Marrugo, and I’m currently a freshman at IU Indy.

My journey starts back in Apex, North Carolina. What I consider my home. Even though I wasn’t born there, NC saw me go through my different stages of life and introduced me to friends so close that I consider family. Growing up, I had the “privilege” of being a pastor’s kid, but it was never easy. People had high expectations of me and were often involved in my life when I didn’t want them to be, but I knew that what my parents were doing was for God’s bigger plans. In high school, I was involved in theatre and choir, where I would spend most of my afternoons since it was very time-consuming, but I loved every part of it. My friends throughout it are what made my whole overall experience the best and helped me through some dark times. It felt like high school was the “peak “of my life, and all my worries seemed far.

In my junior year of high school, my parents got in contact with an old Pastor friend who had been offering them a new opportunity to start a Latino Ministry in Nappanee, Indiana, a VERY small town near South Bend. My parents and I decided to come and visit the church for a weekend and connect with the other pastors to see if this was where God was leading us. After long conversations and planning, we decided to move after I graduated in the summer of 2024, and it was one of the hardest goodbyes I had to face. They say that the summer before college is your best summer because you get to be with friends one last time before going your separate ways, yet here I was, moving halfway across the country to a small town that I knew nothing of.

Two months later, I was moving away to college at IU Indy. I always loved the city and heard that they had a great business school here, so I said yes! The whole transition was hard for me because I was moving states but also moving cities all in the span of 3 months.

My first few months of college were exciting but also hard. I got to be independent, but I also was dealing with a transition without my support system which are my family, boyfriend, and friends. In my past, I heard college students speaking about their experiences and how they’ve had to go through valleys before reaching the mountains. I always said that I would stay positive no matter what comes in college but now I know that it’s easier said than done. I felt lost, without a set goal, and no community. I prayed by myself as often as I could, asking the Lord to guide me and help me through these new times.

I’ve always been a more social person; I liked being surrounded with other people rather than feeling alone so I told myself I would be open to trying new things! I had heard that IU Indy was having a club fair so i decided to check it out and found many things that were interesting. Later I got involved with other clubs, one of them being CSF, just trying it out seeing if it was for me. After the call-out meeting, I found out that one of my new friends who I had met a couple days before that was also a Christian and trying out CSF. Once I got more involved within CSF, such as: joining the worship team, joining a Life Group, and participating in the events, I realized that I had found the community I had been praying so deeply about.

Our Savior never lets us down and is always working, even if we don’t see it. For all last semester, through reflecting with his word, I realized that majoring in Business was not my path, and I had to follow my true passion which always has and always will be music. This semester, I changed to Music Therapy and my heart feels at peace. I continue to pray over my unclear future and praying over things that I feel the need to “control”.

I still have days where I sit down by myself, cry and wonder what my purpose is and where do I need to go to follow that. I don’t know where I want to go, or who I want to be, or what exactly to search for that will give me an answer but I know that God is always by my side and will keep his promises. What I always tell myself is that “Everything happens for a reason” and it's all part of a bigger plan; HIS bigger plan. We need to show our thankfulness for where we are at right now and what he has done to get us there. He’s in control and he will lead the way, even if we’re lost or if it is unclear at this moment.

“Everything, WITH everything, FOR everything, THANK YOU Jesus” (From song: How Good Is He)

"He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end." (Ecclesiastes 3:11)

“Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see." (Hebrews 11:1)