As a graduating senior, we are asked at least 7,000 times what we want to be; without fail, we answer with a career choice. Carpenter, lawyer, interior designer, nurse: we plan a future for the version of ourselves we hope to become all based on a job title.
We are criticized, critiqued, and our worth is occasionally calculated by the weight of our answer. We loose sleep, we loose confidence, and sometimes it seems like we have to decide if we're willing to loose a little bit of ourselves for "that" career. It was one major meltdown too many that brought me to a crucial realization-
A life defined solely by a job title is terrifyingly hollow.
Hear me out: education is a gateway to opportunity. The Bible says in Thessalonians that if you don't work you don't eat. Adam had a job to do in the Garden as a caretaker. To work is both a responsibility and a privilege.
However, I'm begging you, don't sell yourself short and only be a politician, a nurse, a teacher. Not when there are so many more worthy things to title our lives by.
Get out of your comfort zone. Be compassionate. Be brave. Be happy. Joyful, playful, invigorating: there are so many things we can be other than an employee that will change the world.
Be brave enough to be so much more than the title you have and the job that you're doing. What is the point of working to make a living if we never live for anything besides the work that we do?
As we graduate and go hurtling towards college, maybe it seems like the pressure to pick a major should be increasing; however, in all reality that couldn't be further from the truth. So much personal growth happens in short amounts of time. High school gives way to maturity as new responsibility and opportunity present themselves-- how much more so do you expect to grow during college?
There's no reason that to start and finish as the same person. There is also no reason high school graduates have to know what they want to do for the rest of their lives. So RELAX. Enjoy the time the passes and all of the opportunities to find out who you are and decide what it is you want to become.
Breathe easy knowing that your joy comes from something so much more significant than where you plan to go to work every day.
Embrace uncertainty- or at least make friends with her, you'll be seeing her often in this life. We don't have to know what's next, the important thing is that we know who we are. Be strong, be full of integrity. Be grateful. Be something worth being. Be a mentor, be an advocate for someone without a voice. Be kind. Be someone who makes someone's world better. Be love.
Be you.
