“God always kind of opens doors and steps in and shows me that there is another opportunity, another place to be going and another place to learn about Him,” Sidney Hegg said.
Hegg is in her last semester of getting her master’s in Christian studies here at Union. Before she came here, she was at the University of Southern Indiana where she earned her bachelor’s degree studying English and secondary education. However, Indiana is not her home state either. She hails all the way from Wisconsin.
Hegg has planted roots in different places doing different things, and as she wraps up her masters, she is getting ready to leave Jackson and go plant roots somewhere new again.
So how has she been able to commit to growing where she is and not feel like she is being uprooted when she moves on to the next place?
- Hegg does her best to bloom where God has planted her.
For the most part, Hegg’s compass for moving from place to place was volleyball and the student-athlete portal. That compass first led her to the University of Southern Indiana. Unlike at Union, Christian community was not a priority there.
“I just felt very, very lost and disconnected,” Hegg said.
Despite those circumstances, Hegg did her best to bloom where she was planted, seeking out community. She looked for different groups she could be a part of and ended up getting involved in a few, including leading in the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
Additionally, while in Indiana, Hegg excelled in the vocation she was called to at the time.
“I student taught the last semester of my senior year of college. I taught seventh grade ELA, and I was good at it,” Hegg said.
She was so good at it that in her short time as a student teacher, she ended up getting awarded Indiana’s Outstanding Future Educator Award.
Though Indiana was a temporary location with a temporary vocation for Hegg, she still managed to grow roots and bear fruit there because that was where God had called her to at the time.
- Hegg leans on community to support her growth.
Community acts as a trellis for Hegg, a frame that provides support for plants climbing in their growth.
“My mom always says it takes a village to raise people so I definitely have a lot of people to thank for always looking out for me,” Hegg said. “Those people are always reaching out, regardless of me having moved.”
Every time she moves, Hegg still has existing relationships with people she can reach out to for support. But Hegg also prioritizes finding community in the new places she has been planted.
“You shouldn’t overlook the people that you’re surrounded by. God calls us to community. We aren’t out here trying to do it by ourselves,” Hegg said. “God puts us all in unique places. God gives us unique talents and gifts to reach out to unique people groups.”
While working in the athletic department at Union, Hegg became involved in a panel event called “Next” that assisted upperclassmen student-athletes in transitioning into no longer being student-athletes. Hegg has experienced this transition herself. Again, volleyball was the compass that led her to Union, but she only played for one year here after playing for four years at Indiana.
In giving student-athletes guidance on the difficult transition, one word of advice was reiterated the most during the panel.
“Through that entire panel we really just talked about connecting. Whether that’s with a church or finding a friend group,” Hegg said.
Hegg expressed that it can be very nerve-wracking to put yourself out there to find friends or a church community, but that once you take that first step to get plugged into one circle, you naturally get plugged into many other ones because those circles often converge.
Proving her point right, Hegg and I discovered that our own circles converge. We both attend Fellowship Bible Church and share a mutual friend there: Miley Baskin.
Baskin is currently working as Fellowship’s College Ministries’ intern, which is how she and Hegg met.
Speaking to Hegg’s intentionality and desire to be involved in a supportive community while she is planted in Jackson, Baskin shared a story from early in their friendship when Hegg was getting ready to go back home for the summer.
“She just reached out to me and she was like, ‘I’m starting this photo book of people that I want to remember while I’m gone for the summer.’ She asked if I would send her a picture of myself to put in it,” Baskin said. “She followed up over the summer with intentional texts asking how she could be praying for me.”
Even while away from Jackson, Hegg was committed to tending to her roots here.
“Reflecting on how short our friendship has been but how fruitful its been is just really special. It’s few and far between to have such a strong connection to somebody even if you’ve only known them for a short time. I think that’s something Sid does great,” Baskin said.
- Hegg carries her growth from each place with her to the next.
Her growth in Indiana led her to Union and her current vocation. Hegg’s time not having a Christian community while getting her bachelor’s led her to prioritize looking for a school that had it when deciding where to get her master’s. Thus, Union stood out.
“It’s just very encouraging to be surrounded by and bumping into people and just start talking about Jesus,” Hegg said.
While student teaching, Hegg found she was better at one-on-ones than speaking to a large group, leading her to decide she was not ready to be a teacher. Hegg was thus also drawn to Union by the new degree she was interested in.
“Having a very broad Christian studies degree was phenomenal,” Hegg said. “I grew up a believer, but there’s only so much I really knew. I didn’t study my Bible when I was in undergrad at all. The first year of my master’s was the first time I read my Bible all the way through.”
Now her growth at Union will be leading her somewhere new: Memphis, Tennessee.
“I have a year-long internship at Bellevue Baptist doing middle school ministry,” Hegg said.
Her roots in education and now her roots in Christian studies will culminate in where she is moving on to next.
“I guess instead of being uprooted, it feels more like you’re being transplanted? Do you feel like everything you’re investing in each spot, you are able to just carry to the next?” I asked.
Hegg paused for a moment and a thoughtful, hopeful smile grew on her face.
“Yeah,” Hegg said. “Like a succulent that you never replant. You just place it on your windowsill and then you take it wherever you go.”
