Perspective
For Nathan, the world is big, and the world is familiar. Coming back to the U.S. after three years in Japan should have felt like exhaling. Instead, it felt like learning how to breathe again: different air, different rhythm, different everything. And before he could catch up, he was at UNC Wilmington, starting over.
The adjustment back to the U.S. was bittersweet. “Seeing family again was great,” Nathan remembers, “But everything else was different. I didn’t know where to work out, I didn't have a license. I played a lot of video games, but something was missing.” He moved into his dorm room and was overcome with loneliness. So Nathan did the only thing that felt familiar: he went to church. It was there he met Kae and Kaylee. They sat with him through the service and became quick friends. They told him about Wingspan and encouraged him to come to the Wingspan table at the Involvement Carnival. He’d only just met them, but they made room like they’d been saving him a seat. Their kindness pulled a familiar verse to mind: “Live in harmony with one another, Do not be prideful, be willing to associate with others.” (Romans 12:16).
From then on, Nathan was a regular participant in Wingspan. Even when his class schedule conflicted with Wingspan’s meeting times, he would always show up with a smile and gratitude. He has found that being part of a group that does so much service work has been eye opening and has bonded him together with other students, in ways that he never expected. “I’ve grown up as a Chrisitian, but I haven’t always been Christ centered.” Nathan says, “Wingspan was just what I needed to make that shift. I am now considering Christ in every decision I make and I have friends to help me discern.”
If Nathan’s first gift from Wingspan was belonging, his next gift was perspective. At UNCW, Wingspan can seem like a small pocket of affirming theology on campus, where all are welcome. In a season where everything felt unfamiliar, Wingspan became a place he could breathe.
At Montreat College Conference, his world got bigger again. He looked around and realized student after student had a similar story, a desire to welcome all people, faith that cared about justice, faith that wasn’t built on fear. Wingspan had helped him find a home on campus. Montreat helped him see something even larger: this way of following Jesus isn’t small, or rare, or tucked away. It stretches wide, almost as wide as the world he’s already learned to live in.
Nathan came back to UNCW with a deeper confidence in what he believes, and a clearer sense of who he wants to be. Because someone made room for him at a table, he’s learning how to make room for others. So the next student who arrives feeling alone can discover that their world, too, can become big and familiar again.
