Soapbox

During awkward silences in conversations, my go-to filler is announcing: "X weeks to graduation!"

The only problem is that it is followed by the infamous question: "And then what?"

And then...what?

The truth is, I don't know what I'm going to do after graduation. And that used to scare me, until I figured out no one really knows what they're going to do.

Even if you further your education post-Augustana, there will be a day when school is finished.

We cannot escape the question: And then...what?

Maybe we're not supposed to have our lives planned out to the exact step like a math equation.

When I arrived at Augustana, I thought college would give me all the answers. But now I feel like I have more questions.

We don't learn all the secrets to life in our four years here; we really spend our entire lives learning.

After we graduate we will take a step that will lead us from A to B. But the alphabet doesn't end there, and neither do our paths. Then we'll go from B to C and C to D and so on.

And one day, maybe we'll look back and think it was a good thing that we woke up on Sunday, May 22 not having any idea what we were going to do.

True, there are people who find themselves having not pursued what they wanted.

I think we're afraid we will wake up in ten years feeling regret from not having fulfilled our dreams.

Recently, I interviewed an SDSU student who said his biggest fear was finding himself in ten years feeling like he hadn't done anything since graduation.

So he asked himself: If I could be doing anything, what would it be? What would make him happy with himself?

Now he's going to volunteer in South America for a year right after graduating.

I think it is possible that you can find yourself not having done everything you wanted to do, but I think that comes from disillusionment.

Our generation has this mindset: ‘Why try if I probably won't make it?'

And I don't want to get cliché, but I don't think you'll regret in ten years if you can wake up and say you did your best to go where it was you wanted to.

The truth is you probably won't wind up in the exact place you had planned, but that doesn't mean you should set yourself up for failure.

You will take with you everything you learned from Augustana and do something wonderful.

My point is you won't wake up on Sunday, May 22 with all the answers. Just answer the question: What would make me happy?

You're going to go on living and breathing and loving and working and having fun using the knowledge you took with you from Augustana College. You're going to be OK.

And I am, too.