Dear Class of 2016,
Whether you’ve already graduated this year or you still have a few weeks to wait until your actual graduation ceremony, congratulations on making it to this point! This is a major accomplishment and one that you should be proud of. If you’re anything like I was, you think that you know what you want to do with your life after graduation and some of you don’t — that’s OK. I was in your shoes last year as a member of the Class of 2015, and I thought that I had life figured out. I knew where I wanted to go to college, what I wanted to major in, and what job that I wanted in the future. It was all planned out and all I had to do was work towards reaching those goals . . . until the day that my life plan changed.
As I began my first semester of college, I realized that I wasn’t a big fish in a small pond anymore like I was in high school. Instead, I was a tiny fish in a huge sea of students, faculty, professors, and gigantic buildings. It was easy to get lost in a crowd where nobody knew my name whereas in high school, almost everyone knew my name. By the time I was in the middle of my freshman year of college, I realized that my lifelong dream of being a doctor wasn’t what I wanted anymore. This was devastating and made me feel like a failure until I realized that I wasn’t alone. My friends and family made me realize that changing your major in college is a normal thing. Once people start taking classes that are geared towards their major, it’s possible that they’ll realize that their major isn’t where their passion lies. It’s all right and everything is going to be okay. You’re better off studying something that interests you and makes you happy than suffering through courses that bore you. A wise person once told me, “Find something that you enjoy and you’ll have a career instead of just a job.”
Last night, I attended my first graduation for the year. While watching the new graduates walk across that stage, I thought about how that was me last year. It was so odd. They all seemed like such babies with so much to learn. Graduating from high school made me feel like an adult, but when I looked at those graduates last night with their bright eyes and smiles from ear to ear, all I saw was little kids with such a long road ahead of them full of changes, growth, and life lessons.
Class of 2016, you're at the starting line of the rest of your life. As you turn this page beginning the next chapter, remember that God has a beautiful plan for you and He will never leave you or forsake you. Oh, and ladies, always wear sensible shoes at graduation.
Love,
A Class of 2015 Graduate
