Room 310, Marrs McLean, Wednesday, December 14, 2022, 4:30 pm. I sit down to take my last final exam of the semester. For most, this moment is dreaded; it’s exhausting; you give up all freedom and sanity for one week while you battle exam after exam after exam with the hope that in just a few days, you can go home without the burden of deadlines and assignments and simply rest. For me, this moment was greatly anticipated, prayed over, and hoped for the past one hundred twenty-five days of classes.

For one hundred twenty-five days, I waited anxiously for the other shoe to drop, my health to decline. For one hundred twenty-five days, I woke up each morning overanalyzing every ache and pain and wondering if this headache was worse than normal. For one hundred twenty-five days, I worked diligently in my classes, anticipating, praying, and hoping that I might just make it to Room 310, Marrs McLean, Wednesday, December 14, 2022, at 4:30pm.

Finals week took everything in me to complete. It’s exhausting and mentally taxing. You are sleep deprived, forget to eat, and so beyond burnt out. However, with each burnout moment, I reminded myself of where I was a year ago: at home, in a hospital bed.

God is good. God is faithful. God is everything He says He is and so much more. He is good when we’re on the mountain, and He is good when the mountain is standing in our way. He’s no less God within the shadows. He is no less faithful when the night leads us astray. He is faithful in the highlands and the heartache all the same.

So, this semester, I praise God for His faithfulness, not because I spent the semester on the other side of the hospital room window, but because amid all sorrow, all pain, all suffering, all joy, all deliverance, and all the firsts, He not just sat with me, but led me through each moment. This is the semester my heart ached for. This is the semester my soul so desperately desired. This is the semester I have prayed for the past three years God might grant me. Thank you, Jesus, for your faithfulness, in the highlands and the heartache all the same.