RESIDENT CELEBRATIONS!

My college journey did not unfold over four or five years. It began nearly forty years ago, in 1986, at University of Louisiana at Lafayette, which at the time, the University of Southwestern Louisiana (USL). I was a Theatre major with a minor in Dance. I loved the stage. Performance gave me confidence, direction, and identity. At eighteen, I believed I understood who I was and where I was going.

​I didn’t.

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After experiencing traumatic events, I began struggling with alcohol. Treatment followed. I transferred from the Louisiana Army National Guard into the Regular Army and was stationed in Bamberg, Germany. When I left school and left for Germany, I did not just leave the university. I also walked away from the Catholic Church and from Christianity altogether.

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​What followed was not rebellion so much as searching. Over the years, I explored Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, Zoroastrianism, Norse and Pagan traditions, Judaism, and even Satanism. I was not looking for shock value. I was searching for truth and trying to understand suffering, meaning, order, chaos, good, and evil from every angle I could find. That path ultimately shaped both my future ministry work and my academic vision.

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​I stood near the Berlin Wall when it fell. I remember the tension in the air and the vibration of sledgehammers striking the wall. I felt it in my chest and arms. History was breaking apart in front of me. I did not know it then, but my own internal walls were about to crumble. At first, that collapse was destructive. In time, it proved necessary. I would not be who I am today had those walls remained standing.

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​Combat deployment during Desert Shield and Desert Storm, untreated PTSD, and addiction intensified that season of my life. Between 1991 and 1993, I moved in and out of inpatient treatment programs and halfway houses before finally finding stability. In 1994, I returned to ULL (still USL) as a Psychology major because I wanted to help others, fighting similar battles. But unresolved childhood trauma, combined with work, family, ministry, and school, eventually overwhelmed me. In 1996, I stepped away again so that healing could take priority.

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​For many years, family, faith, and work came first. But the unfinished degree remained quietly in the background of my life. In 2021, while in prison, I enrolled at Rose State College (RSC). After my return to society, I began attending full-time on campus and earned an Associate of Liberal Arts with a focus in Psychology. That milestone was deeply personal. It proved that the story was not over.

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​In 2024, I returned to USL, now ULL, as an online General Studies major with a focus in Behavioral Sciences. University College became the structure that kept me steady. Advising was required before registration, but it never felt mechanical. As a 55-year-old returning student, I expected to simply be processed. Instead, I was treated with respect and encouragement.

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​Although I initially hoped to double-major in Psychology and Anthropology, the online format limited those options. My advisors helped me design a Behavioral Sciences focus that integrated Psychology, Anthropology, Sociology, History, and English. As an online student, I sometimes felt distant from campus life. I miss Cypress Lake and the energy of in-person classrooms. Online education is a tremendous gift, especially for non-traditional students.

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​Today, I serve as the Special Projects Coordinator for Hand Up Ministries, a nonprofit prison aftercare and reentry ministry serving more than three hundred residents across four campuses in Oklahoma. Nearly every course I have taken has strengthened my work. Behavioral science is not theoretical in my life. I use it daily to guide, mentor, and help men rebuild their futures.

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​Graduating now means something simple and profound: I did it. I finished what I started forty years ago. My mother passed away two years ago, but she was able to see me complete my associate degree. My father and my brother and sisters will see this milestone. That matters.

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​But I am not finished. My long-term goal is to pursue an interdisciplinary doctoral program integrating Psychology, Anthropology, Ancient History, Mythology, and Religion in order to bridge faith and science, spiritual and secular, not in the sense that they are combined or that one replaces the other, but as both being equal and necessary. If there were no secular, where would the ministry of the Church be?

​Finishing this degree is about redemption. It is about service. It is about demonstrating that it is never too late to return and complete what was left undone. I have crawled out of the mire before. Now, with education, experience, and faith working together, I intend to walk back… not to live there again, but to help lead others toward solid ground.