The minute you become a senior in high school, you are asked what are your plans? College? Work? What will you major in? Why? What do you want to become? These questions as an eighteen-year-old are often difficult to answer when they are asked.
Once you choose work or to attend college, or both, you are faced with many more decisions. Should I stay in and study? Go out and party? Call out sick because this exam is wicked important and I haven't studied at all yet and it's tomorrow morning at eight o'clock? Then comes more questions. Did I study enough? Have I picked the right major for me and my career goals? Am I working hard enough?
College graduation. The day that everyone looks forward to. No more homework, no need to study, no more classes to attend. Then, there comes even more questions. Where do I apply for employment? Why am I not getting any interviews? Is my resume good enough? Am I good enough? Did I pick the wrong profession? Will I ever get hired?
Well, these are the things we have all experienced. The nerves surrounding each and every decision. The worry that maybe we will never find our place to fit into the professional world. The millions of prayers for just one door to open, for just one place to take a gamble on us recent graduates and to give us a chance to prove ourselves. But, that's just it. We have all experienced this feeling. We are not alone. We have all hit a struggle at some point since being seniors in high school. We have all floated in the wind like a dandelion seed not knowing where we will land.
But there is a positive side to all of this. We are just beginning to figure out who we are and who we want to become. Maybe you won't walk right into your dream job at that courthouse or that NGO right out of college. Actually, it's more likely that you won't, but in the end you will be better for it. Nothing work having is given to one easily and sometimes "taking the road less traveled on" is the best road to take. Explore all options. Missionary work, Teach for America, paid and unpaid internships to build your resume, to continue your education, or to enter the military.
The most important thing is that you follow your heart and take the road that will get you to where you want to be, even if you have to pack up and move to a new area, it will be okay. Now, being let into the world at 22 and wondering where you belong is always going to be a common feeling. Exploring all of the options around you will help you determine where you can start out, and how to get to where you eventually want to be. Do not make your life decisions based on friends, family, or significant others. Make them based on your heart. Your dreams. Your goals. For, if you "take the road less traveled on" you will come out a better, stronger, smarter individual for it in the end.
Keep in contact with family, friends and significant others and even some undergrad professors. Turn to God through your experience and He will always carry you when times become tough. Always be true to yourself and go outside of your comfort zone. Explore. Travel. Meet new people. Learn, learn a lot, never stop learning. It is important to realize you are never alone and that there is no longer a deadline to accomplish things by. As a wise professor told me, the only deadlines you have to meet now are the ones that you set yourself. It is also important to always remember, you can always find your way back home if "the road less traveled on" becomes to bumpy, to fierce, or too damaging. We are all just finding a place we belong, and it's important to remember, you'll always have a place back home.
