This past weekend, my wife and I attended our 20th college reunion — which feels surreal even to write, let alone experience. Coincidentally, our reunion marks another milestone: our 20th wedding anniversary. We got married just two weeks after graduating from Emory, and so much of our love story is woven into that campus.

We met many of our closest friends during our time at Emory, and it was great running into old(er) friends and reminiscing about the past. I have so many fond memories of those college years where it felt like my whole life was in front of me. Looking back now, I recognize that young kid who was in such a hurry to get on to the next phase of life, love, and career. Little did I know how fast time would fly.

My favorite part of the weekend was reuniting with friends from our old gospel choir, the Voices of Inner Strength, or VOIS. To be clear, while I can reliably hold a note (for real, I can sing!), I didn’t join for the music alone. Like many Black students at a predominantly white institution, I was searching for a place that felt like home. Having grown up in church choirs, joining a gospel choir just felt natural. What I didn’t expect was how many others were searching for the same thing.

Without fail we practiced every Friday night at 6pm and regardless of what else happened that evening, our weekends always began with VOIS. It was like a respite at the end of a long week where every student needed a good mix of faith, hard work, and patience to make it through. To be able to come into White Hall 101 (a room that where I also sat through Econ 101) and lay our burdens down with friends who became like family, that was a beautiful thing.

You didn’t even have to be overly religious or know how to sing (in fact many of us didn’t). Something happens when you create an atmosphere of praise and worship that pierces the hearts of young people. We came for the fellowship and stayed for the transformation that happened week after week.

Eventually I served as our resident chaplain and my future wife (then girlfriend) served as our gospel choir president. It was the beginning of our own ministry journey. We both led different bible studies, mine was called Saturday Dudes, and hers rotated names depending on the day of the week like Wonderfully Wednesday, Thankfully Thursday. We were both trying to define our own faith identities, stepping out from the more conservative traditions we’d grown up in. What I cherish most about that season is how we found spaces to explore, to question, grow, and find our people.

As soon as I saw our former choir director Maury Allums (who still looks the same by the way!), he immediately yelled out, Saturday Dudes! Apparently the legacy still remains. That evening, we celebrated the 40th anniversary of VOIS and heard stories from its founding members dating back to the late ’70s. Listening to them, I realized how deeply this community has shaped generations of students like us.

I’m so glad Samantha and I brought our daughters along. They weren’t just meeting old friends; they were witnessing the power of community, the kind that sustains you, shapes you, and sends you out into the world better than it found you. My hope is that one day, they’ll find their own Voices of Inner Strength — a place where they can belong, grow, and be transformed too.

SDW3