Never Stop Learning
Let’s rewind back to my junior year of college.
I was in a program called New College. It was an amazing college for students who had a proclivity for out-of-the-box learning and wanted to combine multiple disciplines into one major. Moreover, as a result of being in this program, it was also required to take New College courses that combined multiple disciplines. I decided to take a technology class. Among the things I learned in this class, I was introduced to coding.
If I’m being honest, I hated it initially. It literally gave me a headache. Other than because I needed to take a NEW class to graduate, I didn’t see myself taking the skills that I learned in this class into the real world.
About a year later, a friend of mine and I were asked to create a website for part of our internship with a nonprofit organization. Although we used a user-friendly platform to create the website, our knowledge of coding came in handy.
The following year, I worked as a paid intern and my employer partnered with another company to help with its rebranding and relaunch. My supervisors requested my services to help create the partnered company’s website.
Fast-forward to three years later, I got a job as a web production personnel where knowledge of code was beneficial. As a result of the job, I began to understand more about code and began to be able to recognize small discrepancies between lines of code. After working in this position for a couple of years, I was hired in another position that continued to build on my knowledge of code.
The moral of the story is: you never know what insignificant tool/skill God will use to elevate you, whether it’s in life or in your career. When I was 20, I never saw myself working with code on a consistent basis. 9 years later, that New College technology class has been one of the most influential classes from my college experience.
I don’t have a specific scripture to point out to help this blog post, but rather, I have the Story of King David’s early life in 1 Samuel 16-31 to showcase how God will use your talents, skills and things you learn to help elevate you. In 1 Samuel 16, King Saul was tormented by a spirit and requested a musician to play an instrument to help stop the torment. David was a skilled musician and was requested to play for the king. In 1 Samuel 17, the troops were scared to fight the giant Goliath and David, who happened to be present at the battlefield, decided to use his slingshot skills he acquired when protecting his father’s animals to defeat the giant. His time spent in Saul’s army gave him the insight and tools he needed to be a mighty military leader and king.
Therefore, I encourage you to learn everything you can earnestly. You never know when that skill will be needed in your life.
