Last night, we kicked off the college group for the new semester by gorging ourselves on free spaghetti. *props to Bob and Melody Keane!*

As I hung out with these students I'd missed all summer, and as my belly slowly expanded to contain the vast amounts of carbs I had consumed, I was quickly reminded of all the reasons I love college students.

1. THEY'RE HUNGRY. No, I'm not just talking about food here (although, that's definitely true too). What I mean is that college students in general want to grow. They want to learn. They want to establish or deepen their beliefs. They want find answers. They want to make a difference and for their lives to count. Of course, this isn't true of every college student that comes through...some are quite passive about all of it. But in general, I see the hunger more in college students than anywhere else.

2. THEY'RE FUNNY. Seriously. I just have a blast hanging out with them. College students crack me up. Maybe it's just because I refuse to grow up, but I relate well to their humor. And for them, everything is funny. They're not so uptight...which leads me to #3...

3. THEY'RE EASY-GOING. Frankly, sometimes people who are considered "grown-ups" are quite boring. It's all business. It's all serious. There's no room for adventure anymore and EVERYthing gets WAY over-analyzed. College students don't tend to be like this. They don't need all the frills and bells and whistles. All they want is community...a group of people they can hang out with. Last night, we mostly just sat around. No agenda, no games, no entertainment. We didn't need it. Even without all those things there was this constant buzz in the Keane house, because everyone was just happy to be there, hanging out with each other, catching up and eating free food.

4. THEY LISTEN AND APPLY. Again, this is a generalization. Not all college students are like this, but I find that more than in any other group I've ever led, college students tend to take what they hear and ACT on it! What a concept! If they're convicted about something we talk about in a group, I usually see it in action in the weeks to come. Of course, this is just a result of number one.

5. THEY DON'T WORRY ABOUT WHAT PEOPLE THINK. This is a hard one to grasp for me because it's so rare and against the pattern, but more and more I'm convinced that there's a growing segment of the new generation of college students actually don't care if people think they're crazy or weird. This one certainly is not the majority of college students, but I believe it's more prevalent than ever. And while this can most definitely backfire because it can result in not treating people with love as we should, it's also pretty amazing to me. For so long teenagers (and adults) have defined their lives and who they are by what they think other people think about them. Consequently, they don't actually have any CLUE who they really are because they're also trying to be someone else and live up to what they think is cool and acceptable. But there are so many college students now that seem to know who they are and what they believe and they don't care who knows it.

Oh the lessons we could learn from our college students! Oh that we would be more hungry for truth and apply the lessons we learn. That we would stop being so uptight and live with bold confidence in who we are and what we believe.