Who You Want To Be - Caroline Seilstad

Good morning, let's see what my first slide is. Okay, so I titled this my senior chapel, sort of, but I don't go here. I did, and I didn't get to give a senior chapel, so I wanted this to be a bit of a love letter to senior Caroline, and also an encouraging push to you all. I know a lot of you are seniors. So this is an encouragement and a possibility of new beginning, so they all came out at once. All right, so this is Caroline at York. I was a biology major, song fest, R.A., student body president, a million things, and I wanted to be very active on campus, and I think it's very clear what I wanted to be when I grew up, except it wasn't, and I really didn't know. Okay, I have too many things in my hand, give me just a second. I think a lot of my friends had the same problem, and so I wanted to ask them what they wanted to be when they grew up. This is Aiden, and he said, "When I grow up, I will load the trucks, and I will wear a Ninja Turtle costume." And I said, "Aiden is going places." And this is Louisa, and Louisa, at three years old, said, "When I grow up, I will have mint in my water, I will grow bigger and bigger and grow a beard." Yes, you will. High hopes for mint, so try that. I guess I wanted to know what you guys thought. Yesterday, at church, our preacher had the same thought. What do these little kids want to be when they grew up? And he asked one girl wanted to be a professional karaoke singer, which I thought was good. And another wanted to be a plumber, because they said the dirtier the job, the bigger the pay. Yes. But I want you guys to think back on when you were about the earliest you can think that you knew what you wanted to be when you grew up. And then on the count of three, I want you to turn to your neighbor and tell them what that was. So one, two, three. So keep going. The first thing I remember wanting to be, my turn, was a prima ballerina. And that didn't last very long. I can show you my sad pirouette later. Then my aunt, who's a doctor, told me about a pediatric cardiovascular surgeon. And I thought that sounded really cool. So when people ask me, that's what I would say. That sounded way too hard after a while. So by the time I was a senior in college, that's me doing a gel there. I decided I wanted to be a physician's assistant. And after graduation, I went and worked at the assisted living out here, Willow Brook. And I loved the old people. I loved trying to create activities for them and keeping them engaged and active. And it was a great place for me to be at the time. But I realized medicine was not going to be for me. But what I did know, although I didn't know who I-- or what I wanted to be, I knew who I wanted to be. And these, I wanted to share three things with you today, because God had plans for me that I had never dreamt of, that I didn't even know existed. Things that I had never heard of. So for me, it started with trust. God does not promise us a life without struggles, but he does promise to carry our burdens and make our paths straight. My late father's favorite verse was Proverbs 3, 5 and 6. And it makes me think of him all the time. But I didn't write it down. That's stupid of me. Basically, in all your ways, acknowledge him. And he will make your paths straight. Because there will be difficult co-workers. There will be anxiety and depression. And there will be harsh things in this life, because we are in this world. And those are the things of this world, but the peace that God provides. The eternal life in a perfect place, singing and only love, it starts with trusting God and giving him control. Philippians 2, 3, 3, 5 says-- and I did write this down-- do nothing from self-assambition or conceit, but in humility, count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours and Christ Jesus. But why? Why do we need to be thinking of other people? When you start to serve others at maybe a VBS or a soup kitchen, you see others, your perspective widens. You start to see the needs of other people. And when you'd fill those little by little, people see Christ in you. My next one was Salt and Shine. There's a God spell song. You are the salt of the earth, Bailey can sing it for you later. And in Matthew, Jesus is talking about being the salt of the earth. But if that salt loses its flavor, you might as well throw it out there on the snow, so it can melt and be trampled on. That's the best use of it. And again, a city on a hill that's got some people moving around. It's got a light on inside the house. People are going to see that light. You can't hide it. A lamp under a bowl. It doesn't do any good. We are here on this earth to be the counterculture of love and kindness. So trusting, loving, serving. In 2018, so this was two years after graduation, I was out working at the assisted living. I decided to move back home. And my young cousin was diagnosed with cancer. And I knew I needed to go back to grad school. I scoured the internet. I looked for something that would fill this void in me. And also in that moment of trusting God, trusting that God was placing in me this desire to be something different. So I'm going to share with you a secret. And it's very silly. I found this really cool program doing cancer research at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. And I am looking through the application. It's really cool. I only wanted a master's. I thought that might be enough. I could not figure out how to apply for a master's only a PhD. That is a weird problem to have. So I'm graduating in May with my PhD in cancer research. And I learned to trust God in this. And continually, not just what I wanted to do with my life, because I'm still not quite there. But who I wanted to be. Trusting God every day. Learning to serve his kingdom and shining his light. So instead of putting on my focus on what I want to be, I want to encourage you guys to also think of who you want to be. Thank you.