Photo by Håkan Dahlström

By Jerrica Ching

In March of 2011, I hopped on a plane from Honolulu to Portland to attend an interview for George Fox University’s Marriage, Couples and Family Counseling graduate program.  After being born and raised on the island of Oahu in Hawaii for twenty-two years, I felt that the next chapter of my life needed to take place off of the island in order to thrive and grow.  During the final hour of the interview, the chair of the department asked me, “Why are you applying to George Fox now?”  I remember proudly announcing that I felt that becoming a counselor was my calling, and that I wanted to “help people help themselves.”  (I believe that everyone is stronger than they think they are, and that counselors act as guides to help people navigate their journeys, discovering hidden resources and strengths within themselves.)  I had been so firm in my belief that God wanted me at this particular school, and I truly believed that it was at this school where I would undergo an incredible period of growth and maturity.  I was accepted to George Fox the following day.

Five months later, I was back on a plane, but this time with a one-way ticket.  The night before I left, I remember flipping open my bible.  I wasn’t searching for a particular verse, but I just felt that I needed to look at it before I left all of my familiar surroundings of Hawaii to a brand new adventure in the Pacific Northwest.  The verse that my eyes fell upon was Proverbs 3:5-6.  “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight.”  I told myself that this would be my mantra throughout graduate school; that even when things didn’t make much sense to me, there was a bigger picture, and a greater purpose, for becoming a graduate counseling student.

I am about to begin my third year in this program.  A lot has happened between August of 2011 when I attended my first graduate level course and now, as I anticipate searching for an internship.  There was a lot that happened that (at the time) I didn’t understand; I was incredibly homesick during my first semester away, I took on too heavy of a course load which caused me to become incredibly ill for a semester, I did not have many classmates who were my age, and I was literally the only Asian woman in the majority of my classes.  Beginning a graduate program is difficult, but feeling lonely, singled out, and uncertain makes it even harder.

I had to remind myself that even though I felt lonely, I was never actually alone.  My mantra kept playing over and over in my head.  Even though I would ask God, Why am I here?  Was this really the right thing to do?, I somehow always knew that Proverbs 3:5-6 was the answer.  I didn’t need to know why I was the only Asian woman in class, because God already knew that I could offer something to the table that other students couldn’t.  I didn’t need to know why I was struggling so hard by myself, because God already knew how that struggle would increase my independence.  I didn’t need to know why certain things happened, because God already knew what needed to be done in order for me to get to where I am.

Although sometimes I doubt myself, I know that God has never doubted the path he has set for me.  I was called here, and there is a specific purpose for me existing in this particular space, in this specific time.  Just as Proverbs 3:5-6 states, this isn’t about my understanding – it’s about God’s.

Jerrica K.F. Ching is in her third year of study as a Marriage, Couples and Family Counseling student at George Fox University.  She received a B.A. in Psychology and a minor in Dance from The University of Hawaii at Manoa.  She is currently researching the racial ideologies of colorblindness and multiculturalism, and the implications these hold for counselors-in-training who strive to be culturally sensitive clinicians.