What are you going to do after you graduate?—a question I get asked quite often as a junior in college. Initially I just want to ignore the question and continue talking about other more fun and exciting things, but my response is always a quirky that is a good question, because well, it is a good question.
Going into college I knew I had four years to figure that out, and by my junior year I thought I would know this by now. But… I don’t.
My major is journalism, and for the longest time I had my mind set on becoming the next Oprah Winfrey or Ellen Degeneres. Of course becoming a talk-show host would be an amazing and fun career, and I still would love to do that in the future if that is my purpose, but realistically I can’t just walk the stage and immediately have a show waiting for me. (If only it were that easy.) For now I will continue in my search for my purpose in life.
What is your purpose in life?—a question all Christians struggle with. It is a constant search trying to find the perfect balance between our likes and needs with God’s wants and plans. How do we find that balance?
During my on-going search, I have found a way to keep me sane: Faith and prayer. I have faith in God that He will show me my path in life if I give Him my full effort with trying and my full attention with prayer.
After my life-changing experience of my car accident, I thought I had everything figured out—He placed me in the most perfect university and showed me my love of writing! In that moment I didn’t have much to worry about other than my deadlines in my classes and applying for scholarships. As a freshman, I knew I had four years between then and my future; I told myself that I have all the time in the world!
In those three years I was able to become a peer-minister and lead my own ministry, become a co-director of our university’s retreat, become the secretary and then president of the Catholic Daughters of the Americas, write for the Logos (school newspaper), be a campus correspondent for the online magazine Student Health 101 and be a DJ for the school’s radio station (DJ DJ here :P). I have definitely learned A LOT in all those opportunities.
During those three years I have learned so much about myself and about life. I have realized that college isn’t just about learning from our professors in our daily classes or getting perfect scores on our exams, it is about the challenges we face during college. Everything we do in college academically and extracurricular is practice for our future. I wish I could stay in college forever and continue to learn and experience. But now it is near the end and I can hardly imagine it. Where did the time go?
Currently, I am still in that situation of the unknown. I still have no idea what I am going to do when I graduate. I have all these dreams, ambitions, and goals but will I be able to accomplish them in this world? Will I be able to make a living? I don’t know, and that scares the bijibbies out of me.
You may be thinking, you still have one more year! You can figure it out, don’t worry. But I know that year will fly by, and it will be over before it even begins– just like all my past sixteen years in school. Time does fly. It flies by faster than we know! I can hardly believe I’m at this point in my life.
As I enter into my final year at the university, I will continue to keep Christ at the center of my life. He is the reason for all my blessings and He deserves all the glory in this world. Only two more semesters and my life really starts. During the graduation Mass at my church a couple of weeks ago, Father Tony told all the graduating seniors that this journey was just the beginning and that they had their entire lives ahead of them—I felt as if God was speaking directly to me through him. College was just the beginning, your whole life is ahead of you. I will always be there by your side Darlene.
In this graduation season, I feel as if I am graduating as well. The reason being is because I will be studying abroad in the fall in Rome, Italy. Next semester I won’t be doing Catholic Daughters or campus ministry, interviewing for Student Health 101, working at the radio station, living with my amazing roommate Iréne, seeing my favorite professors, working in the ministry office with Brenda or seeing all my friends in San Antonio and from all around the world, I won’t be going to the same school as my wonderful boyfriend, I won’t see my family here and there, and I won’t be going to the same chapel on Sunday’s as I had been for the past three years, and I won’t be doing what I’ve become so comfortably with these past three years. I will be in a totally different country when the semester starts with new friends, professors and experiences. When school starts I would have just left from Guatemala—seeing Edwin for only one week after being away from him for three months (YAY for LDR’s)!!! All this nostalgia is hitting me and I don’t know how I will handle it when the time comes. I am feeling this nostalgia because I have realized how fast time goes by, that this year will not be any different, so why not feel this way already?
God places these situations, times of change, challenges and struggles in our lives to help us become the people we are meant to be. And that correlates with our purpose in life. These experiences show us our directions in life. They help us to steer in the correct path, but the only way we will be able to rightfully correspond with these choices is if we keep Christ close to us—if we keep our hearts and minds on Him and keep Him the central point in our everyday decisions.
I don’t think that we are meant to know what our purpose in life is at our first attempt. For some cases that could be true and they could be really blessed with knowing early on. For me, that isn’t the case. I know that my purpose is meant to make others smile as much as I like smiling. I know that I am meant to help others as others have helped me in my life journey. I know those answers but I don’t know what I am going to do with those gifts just yet. For now I will continue to take chances, have faith, go out of my comfort zone, and pray. Because I don’t know what my future holds, but I sure do know who holds my future! (Thank you Tim Tebow)
Keep the faith †
It’s appropriate time to make some plans for the future and it is time to be happy.
I’ve learn this post and if I may I desire to suggest you some interesting issues or tips.
Perhaps you could write subsequent articles relating to this article.
I want to learn more issues about it!
Its like you read my mind! You seem to know a lot about this,
like you wrote the book in it or something. I think that
you could do with some pics to drive the message home a little bit, but other than that,
this is excellent blog. A great read. I will
definitely be back.
Hi there, its good paragraph regarding media print, we all understand media is a impressive source of data.
Good day I am so glad I found your web site, I really found you by mistake, while I was
browsing on Askjeeve for something else, Anyways I
am here now and would just like to say kudos for a marvelous post and a
all round thrilling blog (I also love the theme/design), I don’t
have time to read through it all at the moment but I have bookmarked it and also added your RSS feeds,
so when I have time I will be back to read much more, Please do keep up
the awesome work.
Hello, after reading this amazing paragraph i am as well glad to share
my know-how here with colleagues.
Excellent goods from you, man. I have remember your stuff prior to and you are simply extremely fantastic.
I really like what you have acquired right here, really
like what you are saying and the way in which wherein you
assert it. You’re making it enjoyable and you continue to
care for to keep it smart. I cant wait to read far more from you.
That is really a great site.
I really like your blog.. very nice colors & theme.
Did you create this website yourself or did you hire someone to do it for you?
Plz respond as I’m looking to construct my own blog and would like to know where u
got this from. cheers
Hello i am kavin, its my first occasion to commenting anywhere, when i read this paragraph i thought i could also create
comment due to this brilliant article.
Hi there, just became alert to your blog through Google,
and found that it is truly informative. I am gonna watch out for brussels.
I’ll be grateful if you continue this in future.
A lot of people will be benefited from your writing. Cheers!
Hi there! Do you use Twitter? I’d like to follow you if that would be
ok. I’m absolutely enjoying your blog and look forward to new updates.
I am really impressed with your writing skills and also with the layout on your weblog.
Is this a paid theme or did you customize it yourself?
Anyway keep up the excellent quality writing, it is rare to
see a great blog like this one today.
At this time it appears like Expression Engine is the best blogging
platform out there right now. (from what I’ve read) Is that what you’re using on your blog?
Hi everyone, it’s my first pay a visit at this web site, and article
is in fact fruitful designed for me, keep up posting such content.
Since the admin of this website is working, no doubt very quickly it will
be well-known, due to its feature contents.
Heya i am for the first time here. I came across this board and I in finding It really useful & it helped
me out much. I hope to give something back and aid others like you helped me.
Pretty great post. I simply stumbled upon your blog and wanted to mention that I have really enjoyed surfing around your blog posts.
In any case I will be subscribing in your feed and I am
hoping you write again soon!
My programmer is trying to convince me to move to .net from PHP.
I have always disliked the idea because of the expenses.
But he’s tryiong none the less. I’ve been using WordPress
on a variety of websites for about a year and am worried about switching to another platform.
I have heard excellent things about blogengine.net.
Is there a way I can transfer all my wordpress content into it?
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Greetings from Los angeles! I’m bored at work so I
decided to check out your website on my iphone during lunch
break. I really like the knowledge you provide here and can’t wait to take a look
when I get home. I’m amazed at how fast your blog loaded on my cell phone ..
I’m not even using WIFI, just 3G .. Anyways, wonderful blog!
Hello there! This post could not be written any better!
Reading through this post reminds me of my
good old room mate! He always kept chatting about this.
I will forward this post to him. Fairly certain he
will have a good read. Thanks for sharing!
You’re so interesting! I do not think I’ve read anything like this
before. So great to discover somebody with genuine thoughts on this topic.
Really.. thanks for starting this up. This site is one thing
that is required on the internet, someone with a bit of
originality!