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Honk! Honk! Honk!

The persistent honking told me my friend was getting impatient. Each honk seemed to carry a command:

Honk! "Allison, get going!"

Honk! "Al, hurry up!"

Honk! "Don't make us late for the first day of school!"

The first day of another school year. No more summer camp. No more family vacation. No more sand and sunny beaches. No more afternoons at the skate park trying out new and daring moves. All that was over.

What I wouldn't give for that feeling of gritty sand between my toes …

I couldn't help but wonder where the summer had gone.

Honk!

"I'm coming!" I muttered.

But the annoying honking only made me move a little slower. Maybe if I dragged my feet just a little longer, took a little more time tying my shoes, the magic spell of summer wouldn't be broken.

Honk!

No such chance.

"All right! I'm coming!"

I grabbed a handful of new pencils, swept my backpack off the floor, shoved open the front door and dragged myself toward Becca's car. The radio blaring up-beat music and Becca's bubbly smile were almost more than I could take.

"Can you believe it?" she chattered. We finally get to go back to a set routine and see all our school friends again!"

I would have almost preferred more honks to her cheery attitude.

"Yeah, I guess so," I finally groaned. "But don't you wish we were back at camp? Sunning ourselves? Playing endless games of ultimate Frisbee? I mean, what if we could work at camp all year long?"

I actually smiled, thinking about the great summer I'd had. My mind suddenly shifted to all the friends I had made as a camp counselor. Most of the other counselors had graduated last fall and were now getting ready for college. But not me. Not only was summer over, but I was stuck at high school for yet another year. I don't know which was worse: the thought of summer being over or the thought of another year of high school.

"Let's just skip this year of school," I said, only half joking. "Let's drive around visiting our friends at their colleges."

Becca gave me a gentle smile and then slipped the car into park. She no longer seemed in as much of a hurry.

"Al," she began, "I know you wish you weren't here, and I know you wish you were with our college friends. But let's be real. Let's be where we are right now. Let's allow God to use us at our high school."

I wanted to tell her to get real. I wanted to tell her to stop trying to put a "God twist" on everything. But I didn't. I just listened.

"God has a special purpose for you," she continued, sounding a little too much like my youth pastor. "Just be willing to follow what he has planned for you this year."

Becca then flipped open her Bible to Acts 17:26, and handed it to me.

One phrase stood out: "[God] determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live."

God has given me a certain amount of time on earth, I thought, I am where I'm supposed to be right now.

I wasn't supposed to be at camp. I wasn't supposed to be at college. I was supposed to be at my high school, allowing God to lead me, and following his plan for me. That's where was I supposed to be. Right now.

I closed the Bible and looked at Becca. "Well, what are you waiting for? We better get going or we'll be late!"

Now in her senior year, Allison plans to make the most of her fall by joining her schools' powder puff football team, the Cowgirls.

Copyright © 2003 by the author or Christianity Today/Campus Life magazine.
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