Graduating university comes upon a person quite strangely. The climax of graduation seems to be stifled with finals and papers and deadlines, goodbyes, job resumes, and planning. Like it's postponed. Or maybe early. I think the climax of graduation for me was at the end of my previous semester, spring 2008, when I realized I would graduate a whole semester early. In essence, graduation took place for me in May - this past semester was simply loose ends that needed tying up. And working really really hard for three little stars that would go beside my name in the graduation program that said I was a really smart student. Three stupid stars. But those little stars next to my name signifying "summa cum laude" meant more to me than the actual graduation I think. I think I would have had a hard time enjoying graduation if those dinky little asterisks hadn't been beside my name. So silly.
and no one will remember the stars.
I have a bachelor of arts degree from a small, peculiar university in the central area of Florida. People these days say that b.a.'s are about as good as a highschool diploma was back in the 90s. I liked the 90s, thank you, and I'm still wondering why there is all this race to complete a double major, a master of arts, an MBA, a CPA, a Ph.D., and double Ph.D. over the time-span of thirty years. Why isn't twenty years of school enough is my question. I've been in a classroom since I barely was potty-trained and wore pull-ups for half days in the Pre-K three years old school. We're graduating thirty-year-olds who have all the knowledge in the world but haven't spent a minute in the real world. No common sense. I'm kind of worried what's going to happen to all those thirty-year-olds who, for the first time, are stepping out into the job market after mom and dad have paid their way through 7 graduate programs. Good luck, is all I have to say. Oh well, at least Obama will pay for all of us to keep going back to school.
change.
Everything's about to change. I keep hearing that. Usually I doubt it, but this time I happen to believe it. I think all the changes upto this point are all hinging on the changes that will occur within the next five years. In college, I think I changed every year, if not every semester. Now I'm at this point where I feel pretty satisfied and comfortable with who I'm becoming. But since everything has developed so rapidly into something else these past three and a half years, I'm beginning to not trust that these changes will stay for long. It's like winters here in Georgia. Last week it was in the 30s, this week it's the 60s and 70s, next week it will be in the 50s. Some said it would snow this week. And then the news said this morning that today is a record high for the middle of December. The only thing that's sure is change. (We could say that for Obama too, but that's a whole other discussion.) College is like this. Change is inevitable, and anyone can predict that. Who you are when you emerge from university is a product of changes that have occurred over the past months and years of your life.
how then are we supposed to make life-changing decisions
When we really don't even know who we are. This is the question we all struggled or have struggled with upon emergence from college. The question of who we are in an unanswerable one. Patience is key during these post-university years. Exploring your options is really the only certainty. Rapid changes have taken place within us during these years spent in university, and taking a few years to figure out what exactly occurred within our hearts and minds can be the most intelligent decision an individual can make. Some people feel they have finished growing, and they marry. This really does work for some. Others jump right into careers. They feel that they know exactly what they want to do, and cannot be held back from pursuing their lifelong career dreams any longer. Some people are wanderers, and this can be good or bad. While some may wander into different opportunities to continue this process of "who am I?," other will begin to wander and get lost and never find where they were supposed to go. With the purpose of the wanderer to discover who they are, what they want, and where they are supposed to go, these post-college years of exploration can be the most satisfying and memorable times in their lives. During these years their minds become more clear on what their purpose is, what the next options are - graduate school, career opportunities, marriage, or a combination of all three. Parents worry that their graduate-wanderers, however, will never decide, and will be sentenced to a life of aimlessness. I think this can be avoided if there exists purposeful wandering, and perhaps better named, exploration.
a journey now begins.
