Life Right After College

By:

Emily Miller

Life right out of college can be a very trying and depressing time.

Depression, in turn, can sap the joy out of everything you do to the point where you don't feel like you can do anything at all anymore.

That has honestly where I have been at for most of this summer.

I have hated my job in retail, have hated my decision to even take a gap year from school, and have more than anything wished to just be able to go back to school this month.

Yet, sometimes we just have to deal with what we are dealt with in life based on the choices we make or based on the storms and trials that come in our path.

For example, so far in this time I have decided to take off from school, I have decided to pursue a teaching certificate come fall of 2018 at the other Christian university we have in town. Part of this reasoning is that I want to be excited along with the kids year after year as the new school year starts, as I have missed that excitement of starting a new year this year. Another reason is that I believe that kids of this generation are more succeptable than ever, and need Godly role models to lead them on the path of light.

Not only can these dead zones on your life right after college can be fruitful in helping you decide, with God's guidance, what exactly you want for the future, but it can help you start to pursue activities and hobbies that you may have enjoyed before college, but just have not found the time for since being in college.

In my case, I have really enjoyed delving into and learning more about World War Two. As strange as it may be for a young woman like me to admit, I really have a passion for war history, the people involved in conflict, and the types of strategies undertaken to win a war. Until recently though, I have not really expanded my interests beyond the Civil War era, and have only just discovered that modern warfare is quite a complex matter. This has, in turn, channeled into my creative writing passion, as it has given me a boatload of inspiration for my future writing projects.

When I bring all this into a fuller perspective, taking a gap year was not such a bad idea after all. It has given me the chance to learn how to rely on God in a job that I do not necessarily like as well as further my own interests, something that I would not have had the time to do if I was going to grad school right after college.

If you are like me, being sort of stuck in a rut right out of school, don't give into despair! Instead, take this time to explore what has been given to you at this stage in your life here and now. Work to plant seeds with what you have been given and to further God's kingdom, as the passage below suggests.

4 Pay careful attention to your own work, for then you will get the satisfaction of a job well done, and you won’t need to compare yourself to anyone else. 5 For we are each responsible for our own conduct. 6 Those who are taught the word of God should provide for their teachers, sharing all good things with them. 7 Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant. 8 Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit. 9 So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up. 10 Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone—especially to those in the family of faith.

-Galatians 6:4-10

Blessings-

Emily