Reflection. Take time to reflect on your experiences and analyze the changes that have occurred over the past couple of years. As graduation season has passed us, we asked Joel to reflect on his time at WVU and share with us one last thought, shout out, or inspiration. We wanted to share Joel’s response with all of you today.

“ "It takes a long time to become young” - Picasso

Know your story. Reflect on all the joys, pain, failures and successes, acts of kindness, words of love, tragedies, and questions that have made you who you are. There’s a story there.
Pursue authenticity. Your own kind of beautiful is the best kind of beautiful.
Start With Why. "He who has a why for living can bear almost any how."
Call a friend at 12:00 pm on Friday afternoon and decide to drive 3.5 hours to a concert.
Chase Lacey, Clayton, and Ginger around.
Dream big dreams and move towards them. Sometimes scared, sometimes audacious. Always courageous.
Always add ketchup. Everything tastes better with it. Watermelons, too? Stay tuned.
Have some real conversations with friends. Shower them with love, chocolate, and honesty. In no particular order. We all need somebody to lean on.
You’re on a journey so cut yourself some slack for not having it all figured out.
Get lost in nature.
God’s purpose will continue to reveal itself. His promise is planning to prosper you, not to harm you. Trust Him to grow you into recognizing His presence.
Get some mentors and voices you can trust. Many have walked the same roads you travel. Grab the nuggets. Be a sponge. Express your frustrations. Figure out what rules to break.
In case you’re stuck trying to figure out what faith looks like in college, read John 15:17 - This is my command: Love each other. Start with lots of that.
Be Humble. You’ll figure out why later.
You might be asked to nurture patience.
You might be misunderstood. You might make uncommon decisions. Good. Keep Going.
At the end of the day, sit around the fire with friends and get lost in the wonder.

Study hard too. Stand for something. Have strong values. Your life is your sermon so go ahead and preach it!

Thanks, CSF. It was a wild and wonderful ride.

“The world is longing to see that Jesus works.” - excerpt from a message via tin cans and string “

This year graduation has looked much different than in the past, but the jubilee and celebration of your accomplishments doesn’t need a stage to make an impact. We want to congratulate our CSF members who will be moving forward and expanding their stories past WVU. To Natalie Adams, graduating with a Doctorate in Physical Therapy, to Kaitlyn Gregg graduating with a BA in Civil Engineering, and Joel Opio, graduating with a BA in Chemical Engineering, Team CSF wishes you the best on your journey. Your stories are still being written, embrace them, reflect, and share them with the world.