Entering senior year of college was one of the most stressful times of my life. Sure, the beginning of the year didn't bring the crazy amounts of tests, projects, and papers that finals do, but it began the constant barrage of, "What are you going to do after graduation?" Having to say, "I don't know" over and over again just reinforced the fact that I was going to have to make some decisions regarding my future ... and that they needed to be made soon.
As an English major, I wasn't sure even what I wanted to be doing the next year. (I also said, "No, I don't want to teach," too many times to count). Get a job? Go to grad school? Try to get a fellowship? Screw it all and travel until I ran out of money? Too many options, and the worst part was that no one could make the decision except for me.
Due to my lack of direction, I decided to check out the University of Dayton's "Beyond UD Fair," which is like a career fair, but for service programs. I thought that maybe I could get some professional experience, help the world in some way and save other life decisions for one more year.
I talked to about a dozen service organizations and was just beginning to think that maybe this wasn't for me, when I was directed to go talk to Maura with Vincentian Volunteers of Cincinnati. She told me about St. Vincent de Paul and VVC and gave me some materials. I continued to do research into this specific program, talked to my family about my desires, and sent up more than a few prayers. After months of discernment and many conversations with Maura, they accepted me into their program and I accepted the position.
It's great to finally be able to tell people what I'm doing, but the fact that I could postpone other decisions for another year quickly became one of the least important reasons for choosing to do a year of service.
With VVC and many of the programs, you live in intentional community with other volunteers and only receive a stipend -- hence the "serving." Intentional community is not simply roommates. It's choosing to be a community and to be an active member of a community. We all move into the house with the idea in mind that we will be loving, supportive friends, helping each other on our shared mission throughout the year.
We also live in the same neighborhood as the people we serve. Instead of simply working to try to come up with solutions for what we think is best for those in need, we build relationships with them and listen to them. We do our best to put ourselves in their position (though privilege of all sorts can never be completely negated), so that each day when we go to work, we have a little bit of a better idea of what our neighbors are going through and the problems that they face each day.
I want to orient my worldview and my own mission in life as soon as I get out of college. I don't want to get caught up in a job and lose the lens of service and community that UD has given me over the past four years. By starting "real" life with this year, I hope to be changed for the rest of my life. I don't want to live simply just for the year, but for all of my years.
I haven't begun my year of service yet, so I can only have ideas for what it will be like. But each day I grow a little more excited to begin. I can't wait to meet my new family and to begin to work and experience new challenges each day. I want to blow my comfort zone wide open and open my heart and my mind up to each person that I encounter so that I can learn all that I can.
If you don't know what you want to do after graduation, I strongly encourage you to look into doing a year of service. There are so many different kinds of programs all over the world. What better time than now, when you are young and ready to experience the world, to leave your comfort zone and spend a year working to make the world a better place?
