Rachel Toone: Welcome, my friend. All right, you’re number three, so you’ve had the most time to think. What is your favorite Christmas movie, Rochen?
Rochen: I’ll stay basic. I think it’s Home Alone.
Rachel Toone: There’s nothing basic about that! That is the correct choice;
Rochen: it’s an all-time favorite.
Rachel Toone: Well done, I respect it. So, what’s happening to you in two weeks? What have you studied and what do you hope comes next?
Rochen: I’m studying Accounting, and I actually got offered a job for after graduation with a company I’m interning with. And in 18 days, I’m getting married! So that’s exciting.
Rachel Toone: You’re going to be real busy the month of December. Where are you getting married?
Rochen: In Greenville, South Carolina.
Rachel Toone: Beautiful. Tell us about the job.
Rochen: It’s for a remote company called Van Consulting, and I’ll just be doing accounting stuff
Rachel Toone: math and things.
Rochen: Well, I’m not really good at math
Rachel Toone: So should I be worried? Awesome. You had a long commute to get to North Carolina. Where are you from and how did you get to Montreat?
Rochen: I’m from Cape Town, South Africa. How I ended up here… I actually don’t know! I got a call from a coach one day. This coach is South African and she coached at Coastal Carolina. She called me and said, “Hey, are you interested in coming to the US?” I said, “Well, I never planned on it, but what’s up?” She told me there was a coach at App State who saw my times and stats and was really impressed and wanted to have a conversation with me.
I had a conversation with the coach at App State, but unfortunately, things didn’t work out. Well, fortunately, they worked out because I ended up at Montreat! Things didn’t work out with scholarships at App State, but that coach was friends with the previous coach at Montreat, Coach Lukawitz. He connected me with Coach Lukawitz, who offered me a scholarship. He talked to my family, they said “Sure, why not?” and in January of 2022, I got on a plane and came over here.
Rachel Toone: A very long plane. How long did it take you to get from Cape Town to Montreat?
Rochen: Well, the first time I actually had to go back. I flew from Cape Town to Germany, which was 12 hours. At that time, COVID was still a thing, and it turned out I had to wait 14 days after my vaccine to travel. The US wouldn’t let me in. So I had to travel 12 hours back to Cape Town, wait for 14 days, and then fly again to Germany for 12 hours, and then nine hours to the US.
Rachel Toone: So just a hop, skip, and a jump? Easy peasy. Well, we’re glad you made it. You’ve had a long journey in the last few years and a lot has happened. What is something that God has taught you since you’ve been at Montreat?
Rochen: Most of the time, we like to have a tight grip on our lives or our future. We make this huge master plan for ourselves—and that was me. I was recruited for track and field and cross country, and that’s what I’ve been known for all my life. I’ve been running since I was 10 years old. When I was in South Africa, I wasn’t even thinking about college; all I cared about was running. I was going to be a professional athlete.
After my first semester here, I wasn’t sure if this was the place where I would achieve those goals. I was looking really hard into transferring to a different school because I was obsessed with “making it big.” Then, the summer after my first semester, I got hurt. I had a lower back injury and everything, running-wise, just started going downward. Since that was everything I had based my life on, it was really hard to see myself as anything different.
I struggled with my confidence and adapting to a new culture. I went from thinking I was going to be this great athlete to not knowing what I was doing. I started straining relationships and burning bridges. I blamed people, blamed coaches, and questioned God—asking why He brought me all the way over here if the plan I had wasn’t working out.
Through consulting with friends and family and praying, I had to learn the hard way to turn around and get back to God’s plan rather than my own. It was tough making peace with the fact that what I had planned for myself might not be the best. I had to loosen my grip on that big plan and just have faith. Now, I don’t regret anything. I’m getting married, and I wouldn’t have met my fiancée if I had chosen to transfer at that time. A lot of great things happened because I worked on my faith and my relationships. If there’s one thing I learned, it’s to let go of the grip we want to have on our own lives and just trust God.
Rachel Toone: That’s a really good word, my friend. Last but not least, for the folks coming back in the spring, what’s your word of wisdom for them?
Rochen: Mine is similar to MJ’s: be a lot more intentional. That’s a mistake I made and realized a little too late. I wasn’t intentional enough with relationships. In college, you get an opportunity to build lifelong relationships, and we should really be intentional about our time together.
Rachel Toone: It’s a good word. Will you show some appreciation for him? We are excited for you, we’re proud of you, and yay—wedding!