Maybe you are like me. 

After several years as an undergraduate student learning every building on campus and many professors by name, suddenly the same drive onto campus to park seemed odd. It was not because the buildings or people had vastly changed, but because I had the same backpack heading to the same parking lots, but was not headed to the same classrooms. 

The difference was I had the new title of campus missionary, a goal that took over a year to accomplish after moving my tassel from left to right on my graduation cap. My new job was to spend as many hours as possible ministering at Middle Tennessee State University, the same place where I met Christ powerfully during my sophomore year. My new role invited me into a similar transformation: to go from being the one served by the university to being one serving the university full-time.

Stepping back onto campus was like enrolling in a different kind of schooling, this time majoring in full-time spiritual leadership with daily tests dealing with faith and obedience! Looking back a little over two decades later, I want to share with you some things I wish I had known as I stepped onto campus that first day: