Pretty much every student who comes through Anderson University will spend time in Watkins Hall (H.H. Watkins Teaching Center). For some of us, it might be one class. For others, it might be multiple classes every semester. Either way, Watkins is one of those buildings that becomes part of the everyday college experience here. We walk through its doors half-awake for an 8 a.m., hurry through the hallways between classes, sit in classrooms for hours, and eventually learn which stairwell gets us where we need to go fastest. And somewhere along the way, most of us have probably passed the quote hanging just inside the building: 

“Today I am going to give you two examinations, one in trigonometry and one in honesty. I hope you will pass them both, but if you must fail one, let it be trigonometry, for there are many good people in this world today who cannot pass an examination in trigonometry, but there are no good people in the world who cannot pass an examination in honesty.” (Madison Sarratt) 

At first, it is an easy quote to smile at. Most of us would probably agree that if we had to choose between failing trigonometry and failing honesty, trigonometry would be the obvious choice. But the more I think about this quote, the more I think it asks a much more serious question than which exam we would rather fail. It asks what kind of person we are becoming. 

College gives us plenty of opportunities to prove what we know. We take exams, write papers, give presentations, complete projects, build résumés, and prepare for careers. We spend a lot of time thinking about performance. Did I get the grade? Did I meet the requirement? Did I impress my professor? Did I get the internship? Did I do enough to stand out? 

But there is another kind of test happening underneath all of that, and it does not come with a grade at the end. It asks: Are you becoming a person of integrity? That question is a lot harder than it sounds. 

Most of us know what academic dishonesty looks like. We know cheating is wrong. We know plagiarism is wrong. We know lying to a professor is wrong. But integrity becomes much more complicated when the decision is not so obvious. It is easy to be honest when honesty costs us nothing. The real test comes when telling the truth makes us look bad, when admitting a mistake could have consequences, when doing our own work means getting a lower grade, when taking the shortcut would be almost impossible for anyone to notice, or when everyone around us has already convinced themselves that what they are doing is not really wrong. College is full of these moments. 

Sometimes integrity is not a dramatic decision. Sometimes it is choosing not to exaggerate a story because you want people to think more highly of you. It is admitting that you forgot an assignment instead of creating an excuse. It is giving someone else credit for an idea even when no one would have known you took it. It is doing your part in a group project when you know you could probably get away with doing less. It is refusing to participate in a conversation that would require you to pretend you agree with something you do not. It is being the same person in a dorm room, classroom, workplace, church, and group chat. 

We live in a world where it is incredibly easy to curate how other people see us. We can choose what we post, what we say, what stories we tell, what accomplishments we mention, and what mistakes we leave out. We can create a version of ourselves that looks much better from the outside than it actually feels on the inside. College can become an especially strange environment for this because we are all, in some sense, figuring ourselves out. We are learning what we believe, what we value, what kind of friends we want, what kind of career we want, and what kind of adult we want to become. There is a lot of pressure to have everything figured out, even when most of us are still figuring out how to manage our schedules, our money, our relationships, and our laundry. But maybe college is not just about figuring out what you want to do. Maybe it is also about deciding who you want to be while you do it. 

That is where integrity matters. 

Integrity is often treated like a synonym for honesty, but I think it goes deeper than simply telling the truth. Integrity is wholeness. It means that the different parts of your life are not constantly contradicting each other. The person you claim to be and the person you actually are are becoming increasingly similar. That is difficult because we naturally want people to see the best parts of us while keeping the worst parts hidden. We want the appearance of maturity without always doing the hard work of becoming mature. We want people to trust us without always being trustworthy. We want to be known as honest without having to tell the truth when it is inconvenient. But eventually, character catches up with appearance. 

Proverbs 10:9 says, “Whoever walks in integrity walks securely, but whoever takes crooked paths will be found out.” There is something interesting about that verse. It does not say that the person who walks in integrity will always have the easiest life. It says they will walk securely. There is a difference. Integrity does not guarantee that you will always get the grade you wanted, that people will always understand your decisions, or that doing the right thing will always benefit you immediately. Sometimes integrity costs you something. Sometimes telling the truth makes you look worse before it makes you look better. Sometimes doing the right thing means accepting a consequence you could have avoided by lying. But there is freedom in not having to remember which version of yourself you gave to which person. There is freedom in not constantly protecting a carefully constructed image. There is freedom in knowing that your private life does not have to contradict your public one. 

And for Christians, integrity has an even deeper foundation. We are not called to honesty simply because honesty makes us respectable people. We are called to truth because we belong to the God of truth. Jesus says in John 14:6, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.” If we follow Christ, then truth cannot simply be something we value when it is convenient. It has to shape the way we live. 

That does not mean Christians will never fail the honesty exam. We will. There will be moments when we choose selfishness, take the shortcut, hide the truth, or make the wrong decision. Integrity does not mean never failing. In fact, sometimes integrity looks like being honest enough to admit that we failed. There is a temptation, especially in Christian spaces, to think that having a strong faith means having a polished life. But Christianity does not call us to maintain the appearance that we have everything together. It calls us to walk in the light. First John 1:7 says, “If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another.” 

Walking in the light means there is nothing we are constantly trying to hide. That might be one of the most countercultural things a Christian can do in college. Because the world around us often tells us to protect ourselves at all costs. Protect your reputation. Protect your opportunities. Protect your image. Make yourself look successful. Do whatever it takes to get ahead. But Jesus offers a different way. Follow truth, even when it costs you. Tell the truth, even when it makes you uncomfortable. Confess when you are wrong instead of building a defense around yourself. Do the right thing when there is no applause waiting for you. Be faithful in the small things because the small things are shaping you. 

Luke 16:10 says, “One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much.” We often think the big moments are what reveal our character, but the big moments usually reveal what the small moments have already been forming. The way you handle a small assignment can reveal something about how you will handle a major responsibility. The way you speak about someone who is not in the room can reveal something about how you treat people when there is nothing to gain from being kind. The way you respond when you are caught making a mistake can reveal whether you value truth more than your pride. 

None of these moments feel particularly significant while they are happening. But that is how character is formed. One decision at a time. One shortcut at a time. One excuse at a time. One honest conversation at a time. One decision to do the right thing when no one would have known at a time. Eventually, those choices become habits, and those habits become part of who we are. That is why the Watkins quote has stuck with me. We spend so much of college worrying about passing the tests that will determine our grades, our GPAs, and eventually our careers. But there is a test being given every day that will never appear on Canvas. 

What kind of person are you becoming? Not the person other people think you are, not the person your résumé says you are, and not the person you present yourself to be online. Who are you when no one else is watching and no one will ever know the answer? Maybe the real challenge of integrity is not simply asking, “Would I get caught?” but asking, “Who am I becoming if I keep choosing this?” That question changes everything. Because the goal is not to become someone who makes good decisions only when there are consequences for making bad ones. The goal is to become someone whose character makes the right decision even when no one is watching. 

College is giving us an education in more ways than one. We are learning things for our careers, but we are also becoming people. And perhaps the most important exam we take here is the one no professor ever grades.