Where God's Word Meets My Mess
It took me two months—two very long months—to find a job after graduating from college. I was definitely giving up hope, but I kept applying for positions and having interviews and receiving autogenerated rejection emails. I felt so...behind. Was my feeling of "behind-ness" normal?
College was a crazy season of life, and I can’t believe that it’s over now. Even though I won’t miss the research papers or exams or presentations, I’ll definitely miss the feeling of community. As a recent grad, I feel like there are so many things that I could tell you about college—not because I know it all but because I made so many mistakes during college that I don’t want you to make! I asked some of my recently graduated friends to share their thoughts as recent college grads, and these are the things that they wanted you to know.
What did you want to be when you grew up? And what did you end up being when you grew up? This is what I realized recently: "Wow, I’m grown up now…and I’m not what I wanted to be."
I already miss college. I’m not ready to graduate. But maybe I don’t have to feel ready. Maybe I don’t have to feel anything. Maybe I just have to do something. In fact, maybe we shouldn’t be so worried about feeling ready. Maybe we just need to do the next right thing.
Some soon-to-be-college-grads that I know already have plans for the future. They already have a job lined up, or they’ve already met Mr. Right, or they’ve already chosen to further their education. But I don’t have anything set for my life after April. And that scares me.
Everyone tells you that college is the best time of your life and that post-college will be the worst time of your life. Perhaps the best time of your life will officially be over in approximately three months. So you panic.
In approximately eight months, I’ll likely join the billions of people working 9-5 (ish) jobs. I’ll collapse on the couch when I get home from the office. I’ll solely look forward to Fridays. I’ll talk too much with my coworkers about the “amazing” lunch I packed. And I’ll completely forget about my dreams because I’ll be spending my days in a lonely cubicle and spending my nights recovering from the workday. That's why I'm so scared about graduating from college.
My freshman year was not long ago, and I can relate to your worry. However, I believe it’s possible to worry less about starting college if you don’t put so much pressure on yourself to succeed.
Last week, we discussed three of the greatest fears of future college students. But most incoming college students have more than three big college fears, so I’m going to discuss a couple more today...
