To the College Graduate

Congratulations!  You’re graduating from college after four or more years of disciplined growth.  With your Bachelor’s degree in hand, you feel as if you could go anywhere, do anything, and become anyone that you want to be.  The vast array of opportunities and options awaiting you post-college is exhilarating, but as a fellow pilgrim who struggled on the choppy seas of transition, may I offer you a few guideposts for your journey?

Congratulations!  You’re graduating from college after four or more years of disciplined growth.  With your Bachelor’s degree in hand, you feel as if you could go anywhere, do anything, and become anyone that you want to be.  The vast array of opportunities and options awaiting you post-college is exhilarating, but as a fellow pilgrim who struggled on the choppy seas of transition, may I offer you a few guideposts for your journey?

First, college was a very intense and focused period of life in which your main goal was simply to take the classes required to graduate so that you could get a job and support yourself.  But now that you have a job, what do you work toward?  After all, for seventeen years of your life, your schedule and priorities were pre-determined for you.  Without such a concise and overarching goal for which to strive, you may feel aimless, listless, and confused.  

Added to that angst is the fact that we, as Christians, often feel that our work should be meaningful.  We long for it to have eternal impact.  We don’t want to be told that we’re just earning a paycheck or developing marketable job skills.  We want to know that our contributions make a difference—both in this world and the next.  

In so doing, we may confuse our career goals with His kingdom priorities and end up asking, “Why here, God?  Is this all there is?  Is this career really the culmination of all of my years of preparation?”  Let me wholeheartedly assure you—NO.  You were created to know God and to bring him glory, not to hold a certain job title.  

So rest assured that your tuition dollars have not been wasted and that you haven’t missed God’s calling on your life.  If you’re truly seeking God’s direction for your life and striving to submit your will to His, then chances are that you’re exactly where He wants you to be.

But if you still feel restless after a day of filing client cases and need to direct your pent-up ambition toward accomplishing something, why not set an objective for yourself?  It could be anything from taking a cooking class to finding a community of believers with whom you can study the Bible.  You might even consider making it a goal to serve with a local ministry at least once a month.  I assure you that there is no better way to imbue your life with meaning, than to invest in others.

And while you’re working on prioritizing your schedule and setting attainable goals let me remind you that a woman cannot live on Ramen and Starbucks alone.  Seriously.  Although these college staples successfully carried you through many bleary-eyed all-nighters, it’s important to remember to take care of your physical health.  A healthy diet, adequate rest, and moderate exercise improves your overall mood, increases your sense of well being, and give you the energy to accomplish the day’s tasks.

In a similar fashion, it’s imperative that you remember to spiritually nourish yourself.  Yes, you’ll be busy post-college trying to cultivate friendships in a new city, pay all of your bills on time, and prepare a flawless presentation for work tomorrow, but don’t forget to still yourself before the Lord.  In Him, you’ll find rest for your errand-weary soul, comfort for your heart aching to see friends live across the country, and peace that causes the anxieties of this tumultuous transition period to subside.  Take heart in the promise that you don’t journey alone.  Your God is with you.  

And like the echoing footsteps of one departing the halls of academia, may the following two suggestions resound in your heart:

          Give yourself permission to fail.  

                    And most importantly—

                               Abide in Him.