"Remember, shower daily, use deodorant and floss. Oh and I was thinking, if you really want to make new friends at college, maybe you should try ... well, not to be yourself so much. Understand, sugar plum? Give normal a chance. You might be surprised." - Mrs. Verna Joyce Martin (A.K.A. Mom) the day I left for college.

I was about to leave my childhood home in Washington to attend Vanguard University in Costa Mesa, California. It was scary enough to be making the long drive alone, but when I added the thought of moving to a place where I didn't know a single soul, it started to wreak havoc with my confidence. A million thoughts were racing through my mind; Why did I pick a college so far from home? What if no one likes me there? What if everyone thinks I'm weird? I hadn't even made it out of the family driveway and I already doubted whether I had made the right decision to leave. Finally I took a deep breath and buckled my seatbelt while I simultaneously strapped on my courage. I can still remember the positive message I kept chanting to myself as I watched my parent's house fade slowly in the distance of my rear view mirror. "You're not going to an awful place, Torry. You're just going where the food is better."

The first week of college passed slowly for me and I found myself failing to make any new friends. I knew that going away to college would be a big change; I just didn't expect that the change would be so lonely. I remember feeling like God was too busy elsewhere to introduce me to people or help me make friends and get through my life adjustments.

As a last ditch effort I decided to try heeding my mother's advice for making friends by keeping myself clean and tidy in appearance. But no one even seemed to notice or appreciate my efforts. Apparently, everyone else's mother had told them the same thing so I wasn't the rarity that I had hoped. I tried to act "normal" or at least what my perception of normal was. I was polite, charming and I smiled until my cheeks hurt - all to no avail. I mastered the craft of feigning interest in collegiate conversations that were clearly above my intelligence level. I bit my tongue when I felt myself being tempted to be funny or sarcastic. I refused to pull even one practical joke on anyone until I knew them better. In short, I was bored to tears.

On top of my boredom, it started to rain - for three days - in Southern California! It was such a torrential downpour that some classes were actually cancelled. In fact the Vanguard University campus was so soaked that the huge foundational hole that had been dug for a library extension was completely flooded.

I could see it from my dorm window and it now looked like a small lake right in the middle of campus. I decided to investigate it further so I went outside for a closer look at "Lake Vanguard" when suddenly I heard a voice behind me say, "It's cool, huh?" I turned and saw that the voice belonged to a skinny blonde girl with a mischievous smile. "Way cool. You can practically go swimming in there," I replied. "Naw, it's too cold." She said, "I've got a better idea." She gave a little nod and gestured with her head toward the parking lot where I saw a student's car that had a small row boat strapped to the roof. I turned to her, clearly impressed with her chutzpah.

"You wouldn't," I said.

"Yuh-huh!"

"Yeah?" I shrugged. "I'm game if you're game."

The next thing I found myself unloading someone else's boat with a stranger and then placing it in the huge library lake/mud puddle. I then told the girl to stay put while I ran to the cafeteria, where I worked part-time to get some clear garbage bags and plastic hairnets. When I returned from my quest I handed her a bag and hairnet of her own and she looked at me strangely. "What are these for?" I condescended to her with my reply, "Duh, they're to wear of course. This way we won't look stupid if we get wet." "Ah," she said admiringly, "good thinking." And with that we were off.

For the next hour we found ourselves floating around the library, waving to other students, doing in-boat water ballet, asking people if they had seen a treasure map and screaming from the boat; "Please, someone help us! We don't know how to swim!"

It was all great fun and games until we saw the dean of the college walking towards us with a small group of men in his company. We were more than a little embarrassed when we were informed that they were part of the college board and were coming to see how the library extension project was coming along. You can only imagine their surprise when they arrived and found my new friend and me floating on the library foundation in a boat while wearing trash bags and hair nets and pretending to scream for help. Yep, there's no impression like a first impression.

After that our joint reputation for being "weird" stuck with us throughout our college years. My friend's name was Susan, but she spelled it "Siouxzan," to be different. She turned out to be my best buddy at college - the sister I never had. We had a lot of fun together and in between pushing her to classes in a grocery cart or crashing the homecoming dance together dressed as failed beauty pageant contestants, we actually found time for homework, long talks and prayer. It's a friendship that I still enjoy today, several years later. (Never mind exactly how many years, nosey.)

The point is that through that chance meeting I made a lifelong friendship and I learned a very important lesson about God. He cares about the changes we experience in our lives. He knows what we need to get through changes, and He often chooses to show His love through other believers. The only thing we have to remember is to be ourselves in every situation - to be the authentic person He crafted each one of us individually to be. And of course, allow God to be God - wait patiently for His guidance to safe harbor.

For more information about Torry Martin, click here.