Sometimes it’s okay to delay the “what’s next?” question

Throughout your college career, you feel internal and external pressures to graduate, find a job and move to a new city. The tension increases when you realize you’re expected to check those boxes in a certain way or by a certain timeframe.

As we reach closer and closer to graduation, the “do you know what you’re doing after graduation?” question seems to pop up everywhere: family, friends, professors, classmates, acquaintances, and sometimes even strangers (yes, it happens). For those who had figured out post-grad plans early, the “what’s next” question isn’t a bad one to answer. However, for a lot of us, that became a dreaded question that immediately made our hearts leap with anxiousness, disappointment and fear.

Whether you know what you’re doing or you’re still hoping to find something, take a deep breath and know that there is no one way to living life. (For more about this, read my previous post here). Whatever happens during this process is your story. And that’s what makes it beautiful.

For me…as of this past week, I now can officially answer the “what’s next?” question. Or rather, give it an answer that works for now. I am excited to announce that I will be completing a graduate-level internship at Golin in Chicago this summer.

When I would be asked what I was thinking of doing, as I explained about the internship, I would catch myself immediately following it up with saying, “but they tend to hire from their interns”. I realized I was trying to justify the fact that I was doing an internship instead of a full-time job. 

But why should I feel any less for doing that? A lot of other graduating seniors will be completing internships this summer, and a lot of past college students have done that before. Who says you must graduate and go straight into a full time job? Who makes these expectations for our lives? Who says we have to follow them?

A summer internship may not have the “security” of a full-time job, but I think it has the flexibility that my soul needs. After leaving what we’ve known for the past four years, it is easy to desire that comfort of knowing what we will be doing for an extended period of time. However, I don’t want to be locked into a decision I made just to feel comfortable and safe.

As of now, all I know is that I will be in Chicago interning at Golin until August 31. And now the question changes to: what’s next after that? The answer is: I don’t know what will happen. And that is okay.  Sometimes it’s okay to delay the “what’s next” question, especially when you honestly don’t have an answer for it. Just because I don’t have an answer now doesn’t mean the answer won’t eventually come.

I guess that’s why they call it “walk by faith”. If I were to be honest, as I sought guidance and counsel, I’ve felt God be fairly silent in my decision; yet, I am confident that I am making the best decision for my future, even if it is only for the next three months. I am choosing to place my faith in God, knowing that He will walk with me. Even if he seems silent, He is never absent.

After God told Abram he was going to bless his descendants, he said, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you.” (Genesis 12:1)

God didn’t say: go towards Egypt. He didn’t even say go west. He simply said go to the land that I will show you. Do you realize how much faith that shows? To just pick up everything you’ve known and loved and walk somewhere, trusting God is going to lead you?

I desire to live like this. I have a bit more direction since I know I will be in Chicago for the next three months, but then I will see what God leads me to after that. I am striving, especially as I enter this new phase of my life, to trust that God will continue to guide me, even when I don’t understand what exactly He’s doing.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.” (Proverbs 3:5-6)