Dear Alumni,

You've finally made it - not that I doubted you would, but I know that throughout your last two semesters you certainly doubted your present situation, circumstances and self-motivation. You wondered if you would graduate early, let alone on time. You wondered if you would graduate ever because the amount of work it would take to get here seemed far more than you could do, but week after week tumbled by regardless of unrest or crisis.

I'm writing to you, to me, new college graduate, on a humid August day just one week before the fall semester begins. May seems so far from where I am, and I cannot even begin to comprehend the idea that these will be my last two semesters as an undergraduate student at a university I have come to love oh-so-easily. May seems so far from where I am because all I can see right now is my class schedule: the daunting classes I worry I won't understand, the ones I feel like might be a bore and the ones that I'm actually excited about. May seems so far from where I am because as of right now, I'm just scratching the surface of graduate schools and graduate assistantships; I'm merely peering over the first page of a thick bound book that has written down every conversation with a professor, every exhausted look, every early morning work-out, every quick-witted and otherwise un-Christlike remark, every Chick-Fil-A stop, every question and rejection, every defiant attitude and stubborn attitude, every holiday and every joyful moment. What's funny is that I don't even hold the book. I'm standing on my very tip toes trying to see all that Jesus has written, and I know He just smiles and says, "You'll get there." I know I will because He tells me so in Jeremiah 29:11.

So here you stand, diploma in hand and headed off to do whatever Jesus had planned from the beginning - whether it's graduate school, an assistantship, a sonic car-hop or whatever else I couldn't fathom back in August. I'm sure you're laughing at me from August, because that me has grown and hopefully been molded into a person more like Christ, and more mature, joyful to be around, and serving than I used to be.

Know that undergraduate you is proud of graduated you whatever journey you embark on next. Remember to enjoy the graduation ceremony and to let your parents take as many pictures as they want. Remember to keep challenging yourself and to keep working hard. Eat some ice-cream because I'm sure that age-old cure for anything hasn't changed. Remember to hug your dog and thank her for walking beside you again. Remember to cry and laugh and be joyful, for these moments are fleeting and we are too easily caught up in the hustle and bustle of life. Remember to be grateful to those that have helped you, prayed for you, thought of you, and loved you all the way through.

Oh, and though you've likely heard it a few times now - congratulations, graduate!