Hi!
My name is Jen, and I’m excited to begin my journey as an undergrad Marsh Associate! I’m from Orange, CT, and I’m not sure what class year to put myself in because I’m technically a senior since this is my fourth year, but I won’t be graduating until May of 2016. Either way, I’m a senior at heart! I’m studying Behavior and Health in Sargent and might possibly add a Deaf Studies minor since I’ve been taking American Sign Language classes here, and I love it! I used to think my path was set straight before me and without a doubt was going to become a Pastoral Counselor and go back to my small, Catholic high school and be the counselor there, but things have since changed. Thanks to this amazing university, the people, resources, and opportunities it offers, I now have no idea what’s going to happen after graduation, or what I even want to do with my life, because the paths I could take are endless! And praise God that I can say that because that’s an awesome struggle to have, and I welcome it with open arms (and few complaints)!
I’m excited to start this internship with Marsh not only to hopefully gain some insight and direction, but for friendship, faith and community. I’m at a place in my life filled with a lot of brokenness, and I say “brokenness” in a positive way, not negative. Brokenness in the sense of being filled with questions like “who am I?”, “where am I going?” “Who are my friends?” and the heaviest of them all, “Who is God?” and “What is faith?” and then, “Why bother?”
Why, in the business and bustle of academic life in Boston am I even bothering to search for answers to those questions of God and faith when there are papers to write, friends to see, places to go, jobs to do and grade deflation to fight? Because as St. Augustine says it best, “my heart is restless until it rests in God,” and no matter how much homework I do, how many outings I plan and how busy I become, nothing is enough to distract me from the constant ache of a deep thirst to know God.
That’s why I’m excited for this new beginning at Marsh. I don’t expect them to just give me the answers to my questions, but this internship will provide me that time and space that I need to actively search for my own answers. And that’s a gift I am blessed to be given.