Life after college. While toiling your way through four years of undergraduate work, the question is asked of you at least 150,000 times, mostly by friends, family and the occasional pursuer. Some will go on to get their Master’s, the determined will find a job before graduating, but for most, “I don’t know yet,” is the communal answer. So how can we fix that? How can we know for sure what God is leading us to so that when the question is posed, we can do more than stare at the ground and kick dirt while we answer?
The most important thing that I can think of is to be open. Listen to God and the things He tells you daily. If something sparks your interest, check it out. Do not let occasions pass by you. God has a tendency to push us out of our comfort zones to give us opportunities to a.) learn more about Him, b.) learn more about ourselves and c.) serve the world in ways that we could never dream.
For instance, we all want to get out of college, find a high paying job, build our dream house and start our 1.9 kids per household family, but to be honest, that sounds boring. Sure, it would be great to have bits and pieces, but you have your whole life for that. Besides, none of those are biblically-based anyway.
These things are not said to shove you away from a “real job,” but rather an alternative. Why not join a Christian non-profit for a few years, or the Peace Corps like several of my friends have? How about tutoring kids in low-income homes? Or, becoming a teacher or missionary in another country? All are viable options that most have never even considered. If none of those tickle your fancy, you can always visit the lovely Lauren Land in the Career Services office. She would be more than willing to give you one-on-one advice on any future endeavors you might want to partake in.
After graduating followed by a few months of fundraising, I was able to move to Honduras where I have lived out of my old comfort zone for almost eight months. The decision was challenging and so are many of the shortcomings that Honduras offers, but I would not trade it or these kids for a desk job, my dream home or anything else. God has provided in many ways, most of which were well beyond anything I could do.
We know that the world does not end when we graduate college. In actuality, it gets much larger and scarier if you are unsure what to do when you get through with college and are out on your own. Yet, that’s okay if you prepare, ask questions and seek help from those around you with more life experience. Good luck to the class of 2013 and beyond. n
T.C. Squires is a 2012 graduate of Ouachita. He lives in Honduras as a missionary with the World Gospel Outreach and recently published his first book, “The Struggle for Probana: Shattered Advances,” available at Amazon.com.
