LA MIRADA, Calif. --- Most students' lives are shaped over the course of a traditional four-year college experience. It's often an identity-defining time when maturity is developed. Of course with some, this happens on a much stronger scale and much faster than expected. This is the case with Biola Softball's Maranda Galindo.

Galindo's current path began when she had a life-altering event occur during her sophomore year playing softball at Odessa College. The moment changed everything about for her, and ultimately it put her on the path to Biola and into God's loving arms.

Four months before her 20th birthday, at a time when most students are worrying about "defining their relationship" or how many likes they get on Instagram, Galindo was told she had a football-sized tumor in her stomach and was diagnosed with ovarian cancer.

"At that time I was not a huge believer. My family and I went to church, but it was just kind of one of those Texas things you check off," said Galindo.

Read on to find out more about her incredible journey through adversity and to the Lord.

Odessa College
During her first few years of college Galindo's identity was firmly rooted in her sport. She had aspirations of transferring and playing shortstop at a NCAA Division I school and was well on her way to achieving that. Fittingly, it would be because of her involvement with the sport that she came to find the tumor and ultimately have her life saved.

Maranda started playing softball at a young age with the influence of both of her parents. She was spurred on by an older sister as they became a catcher/pitcher duo and her dreams of going off to play Division 1 softball began to take shape.

"My parents put me in softball at five years old, and since then I've always played," said Galindo. "That's the only thing I ever knew. There was never soccer or dance or volleyball, it was just softball."

She had the desire to go to school far away, but it seemed that the Lord had different plans for her, as she ended up playing close to home at Odessa College for Coach Joel Prickett. Not only was Prickett a coach, but he was also a mentor and a key figure in Galindo's story. Odessa was the local rival to fellow Biolan Kendall Maddox's Howard College.

During her first collegiate season she made the switch from being a power-hitting, right-handed catcher to playing shortstop and hitting from the left side and becoming a slap hitter. A lot of the first year was trial and error, but it was a successful year with a team that went to nationals.

During this period of time, Maranda was settling into her new role well and having a blast living the typical college life and pursuing the sport she was once again beginning to love.

"I was not really keeping contact with my family at this time. I was on my own, living my own life," said Galindo. "It was worldly and I was really proud of it. I was happy the way I was going and saw nothing wrong in everything I was enjoying and where I was headed."

Everything was going right for her, or so it seemed. During the beginning of her sophomore season her stats were the best they had ever been. If she continued to have the season she was having, she would certainly be recruited to the highest level of collegiate softball.

Then came the nine-game weekend that would change her life forever. During the last game on Sunday, Maranda uncharacteristically made three errors, which made coach Prickett take notice.

She felt a little discomfort, but like most athletes she had always pushed through pain. After the last error, her coach saw something off about her and pulled her from the game with the instructions to hit the ice bath immediately, before the game had even ended. The discomfort persisted throughout the next couple days so she decided to go to the doctor to get checked out.

The Diagnosis & Treatment
The doctor initially thought there were there some serious problems with her intestines. She was prescribed medicine to free up any issues, but the pain persisted over the next three days.

On Tuesday night, Galindo felt paralyzed up and down her right side. Instead of practice the next morning she headed straight back to the doctor. After getting an ultrasound, the doctors noticed a massive white spot in her abdominal region and she was rushed to get a MRI as soon as possible.

"Through this whole process I was in denial," said Galindo. "I thought there was no way this could happen."

That night, she got a call telling her that she needed to have a surgery right away. Her mother's doctor, Dr. Lively, was called in to perform the surgery. The next day, she and her mother were called in to his office. He told them that Maranda had an 18-centimeter mass in her stomach that needed to be removed immediately.

At the time prayer was not a part of everyday life for Galindo, but Dr. Lively asked if he could pray with her before this surgery. She accepted, but the true weight of the offer would not sink in for her until years later.

Feb. 24, 2014 was the day of the surgery. Doctors removed the tumor and also had to take out one of her ovaries. She woke up hazy to the life-changing news that the cancerous tumor and other organ had been removed.

Doctors were very concerned that if even a cell of the cancerous part of the tumor had gotten into her body it needed to be dealt with. Coach Prickett went out to the girls on her team and told them that Maranda had cancer and would be done for the season. In this difficult time her team was the family she needed.

Maranda took a month to recover from the surgery and then started down the three-month road of aggressive chemotherapy. She spent almost six hours a day for the first week being injected with medicine.

"I lost my hair the second week. That was so hard for me, definitely the hardest moment of my cancer," said Galindo. "It was part of my identity. I felt like that was part of who I was."

During this difficult time, Galindo credits one woman with being there through it all to support her. Shea Showers was the woman Maranda had lived with since she was 16 years old. Shea took her to appointments, helped her with everyday tasks and comforted her through the constant sickness.

"She meant the world to me," said Galindo. "She was like my second mother. She took care of me and never missed an appointment. Through the whole process she was there."

With softball missing, her social life missing, family connections missing and no true sense of purpose this was the lowest of low times for Galindo, and all she knew was that she was mad at God for allowing this to happen to her.

On June 3rd she completed her final round of regular chemotherapy. To most, this news would be cause for rejoicing and celebration. For Maranda though, it brought a day of tears.

Galindo recalls a conversation with her father and Showers, who asked her what was wrong. Maranda responded with, "I don't know who I am." And a long struggle to find identity and purpose was launched as Galindo began to rebuild and reshape her life brick by brick.

She did not have her friends, she did not have softball, and she did not have any idea of what her future held. Her father assured her that she would figure it out, which helped Maranda realize deep down inside she had no desire to figure anything out at all. This drove her deeper into depression and confusion.

Knowing Maranda needed something to occupy her mind and time, her mentor, Showers, recommended that she attend Texas Tech as a general student that fall.

Maranda tried it for a semester and hated the huge school lifestyle and the impersonal relationships it brought to her. To fill her emotional emptiness, she turned to other mechanisms to numb her pain, but nothing could give her the answer she was still searching for.

Off To California
Around that time she began to regain confidence and took up modeling and acting around Midland. Her pixie haircut was unique and led to her being selected for a showcase in Los Angeles. After signing with a manager, she felt like she had enough of a purpose to move to California and made it happen quickly.

"I was always a doer," said Galindo. "I would not think about consequences. I would just do it. As long as I had at least one person to support me I was all for it."

She thought she had found her new life when she moved to Long Beach. Instead, after living there for six months she began to think her life was over.

She despised the modeling industry and its criticisms. After going from a size four for softball a year earlier, she was now a size zero and still not "skinny" enough for the industry.

The money it cost to stay relevant and earn exposure began to be too much and she was forced to walk away. She quit modeling after four months and was left working two jobs with no different future in sight.

One night she collapsed to the floor crying, not knowing who she was and feeling as though any possible "better" future was gone.

"I do not know who I am," she thought.

A New Path
Her roommates in Long Beach were a Christian couple who saw her despair and asked her to attend church with them. Maranda knew who God was. She also knew she was still mad at what He let her go through.

"There's no way God wants me," she thought.

Finally she gave in and attended a service. Afterwards she was weighed down with huge conviction. That night she sat on her patio, and even though she thought she did not know how to pray, she asked God what she should do and how He was going to "fix" her.

God did not take long to answer. Maranda saw through Facebook that her old high school friend, Maddox, was playing for Biola University and had an upcoming game against Azusa Pacific University.

She connected with Maddox and ended up attending the game. Immediately she began to have thoughts of what it may look like to play softball again. She questioned if that would even be an option for her, but thought it was worth looking into.

She had Maddox ask Biola coach Lorie Coleman about the possibility of her coming to play for Biola. Coach Coleman told Maranda to come out to Biola for a tour and a tryout. Galindo was so nervously excited about the prospect of playing the game again, but she had no idea what kind of school Biola was or the importance of its Christian foundation.

"I don't think she knew how faith-based we are as an institution, or really how faith-based we are as a program," said Coleman. "I don't think she knew how much it was really going to intertwine with softball. She came in wanting to play the game and she found Jesus in the game. I think that's where the miracle happened."

Maranda went on a tour, and then had a brief tryout. After the cancer treatment she got rid off all of her softball equipment and she showed up to the tryout with nothing to her name but a tattered old glove.

That glove did the trick as coach Coleman and her staff determined Galindo to be good enough to fill the final roster spot on their 2016 roster.

"I heard her story and figured this is somebody God wanted to work with," said Coleman. "I just knew in my heart, even though we didn't really have room on the roster, that she was somebody that God had sent and that we could do some work with her."

At Biola
To this day Maranda doesn't understand what the Lord allowed Coach Coleman to see in her at that point, but she is eternally grateful.

"If she really knew the lifestyle I was living, there is NO way I would be there. That was a whole miracle from God itself," said Galindo.

During her first semester at Biola Maranda still had struggles. She wasn't a freshman, but she wasn't a senior either and was struggling to find her place as it became more and more clear that she hadn't been living up to the standard expected at Biola.

Her three Bible classes were continually convicting her and beginning to change her heart. She felt that she was making poor decisions, but she also didn't know who to tell.

At the time her view was still "God, you seem really cool, but you won't like a person like me. I knew how to live for God, but I wasn't yet willing to let go."

She wrestled with God for that whole semester. Then, when she went home to Texas for a small time and spent time with her old group of friends she came to a realization that she did not want to be living that same lifestyle anymore and wanted to make an immediate change.

"I think a big part of her growth was watching her struggle through convictions," said Maddox. "Seeing her be broken down and beginning to understand what Biola stands for she began taking on a more positive mindset and became more sold out for glorifying God."

When she got back to Biola, she called up a teammate, Heather Hall. At Heather's house, Maranda asked her, "Heather, I love the idea of God, what do I do? I need help."

Heather heard her out, comforted her and prayed for her immediately. Heather's loving response gave Maranda the courage to talk to Coach Coleman and confess to her everything she was doing.

Galindo said, "I text coach Lorie and I told her, 'Coach Lorie, I need you as a mother. Is there any way I can sit down and talk with you?'"

Instead of punishment or dismissal, Coach Coleman gave Maranda love. She gave Maranda forgiveness. She told Maranda that the lifestyle she had needed to be dropped or else she would have to be dismissed, but Coleman said the team and the staff would help her.

The spring was a growing period as Maranda was starting to learn how to love the team she was on and began to love herself and who she was becoming.

"I finally hit a stage of accepting who I was and letting God take over," said Galindo. "I started seeking Him. I put everything in Him and completely died to self."

For the first time, she had a Godly future. Hall suggested to her that she change her major from business to Christian ministries. After a week of fasting and praying, she made the switch and felt the immediate relief of the correct choice.

"It's cool, because no matter where her relationship with Christ was when she got here I've seen her grow more than I could have ever expected," said Maddox. "When we were really young we said we were going to go to high school together and we would end up going to Baylor together. It's funny because none of that really worked out. We went to different high schools and rival junior colleges. But the funny part is that we did end up at BU. It wasn't Baylor, but it was Biola. That's the small dream we had when we were little, but what it grew into was something way bigger and way more beautiful than I could have ever imagined."

It's now been three semesters since that talk with coach Coleman and the meetings with Heather Hall and the transformation in Galindo's walk and character has been noticeable. She finished off a very successful second season on the softball team just a few weeks ago and is set to enter into her final year of studies in 2017-18 to finish off her bachelor's degree.

Thankfully she only needs to go in for cancer checkups every six months these days. In her two years at Biola she's only had one serious scare of relapse, but everything turned out clear.

She's come such a long way from where she was when she broke down on the floor of her apartment in late-2014, but she recognizes that there's still more God has in store for her.

"I still struggle with defining my identity," said Galindo. "Who I am now is just rooted in what God has for me. I always tell myself, 'You are the daughter of the Most High King.'"

Time will tell what the Lord has left in store for Galindo, but He's brought her to incredible new places in her journey already, and we're all thankful for that.