After College (eBook)

Navigating Transitions, Relationships and Faith

Erica Young Reitz (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2016 | 1. Auflage
235 Seiten
IVP (Verlag)
978-0-8308-9436-9 (ISBN)

Infos

'The first year out was one of the hardest years of my life.' -CurtThe years after college can be some of the most uncertain, unstable times of life. Recent graduates grieve the loss of community, question their place in the world and struggle to find meaningful work. It can be shocking to discover that college did not fully prepare you for the challenges you now face.'It's much rougher than I thought. I thought things would just play out, and they didn't. I don't have friends, I don't have a job and I hang out with my parents every night.' -KateBut you are not alone. For more than a decade, Erica Young Reitz has specialized in helping college seniors and recent graduates navigate the transition to post-college life. Drawing on best practices and research on senior preparedness, she offers practical tools for a life of faithfulness and flourishing during a critical, transitional time. This practical guide addresses the top issues graduates face: making decisions, finding friends, managing money, discerning your calling and much more.Discover how you can thrive beyond your undergraduate years. If you feel lost in transition, here are resources to help you flourish as a Christ-follower in a complex world.

Erica Young Reitz directs Senior EXIT, helping college seniors transition into the next phase of life. She works for the CCO in partnership with Calvary Church, reaching out to students at Penn State University. Erica has an MA in higher education from Geneva College, with a research focus on the senior year transition. She and her husband, Craig, live in State College, Pennsylvania, with their two children.

Autor

Erica Young Reitz directs Senior EXIT, a one-year experience that prepares graduating college seniors for the transition into the next phase of life. She works for the CCO (Coalition for Christian Outreach), reaching out to students at Penn State University. Erica has an MA in higher education from Geneva College, with a graduate research focus on the senior year transition. She and her husband Craig live in State College, Pennsylvania, with their two children.

Textauszug

ONE

“GO TO AN UNKNOWN LAND”

TRUSTING A FAMILIAR GOD
FOR UNFAMILIAR TIMES

I dwell in possibility.

EMILY DICKINSON

IN THE COLD NOVEMBER of her first year out of college, Natalia sat by the fireplace in her parents’ home, weeping. Bone-tired, overworked and lonely, she thought, This is not what life is supposed to be like. She was working seventy to eighty hours a week just to stay afloat in a demanding marketing job, she had no time to make new friends and she longed to be in a dating relationship—something she assumed would have happened in college. Her stomach hurt every Sunday evening when she thought about facing another week with her impossible boss, catty coworkers and overflowing inbox. Stuck on a treadmill, Natalia felt desperate for just one of the luxuries she had enjoyed while she was a student: an hour to sit in a coffee shop with a friend or to play the piano alone. She said leaving college felt like the “world had been ripped out from under me.” Nothing felt settled or familiar. Natalia confessed, “I felt inadequate and incapable of making life work.” Desperate for something familiar, Natalia made frequent trips to her parents’ home on the weekends. She longed for something known in the midst of so much upheaval and uncertainty.

As we step into the great unknown of life after college, it’s important to know we are not alone. We journey forward in the footsteps of a long line of leavers—an ancient history of God’s people who have abandoned all that is familiar to follow a call into uncharted territory.

Consider Abraham—a man called by God to leave his country, his people and his father’s household in Harran for a new dream.1 At the ripe age of seventy-five, he hears God say, “Go.” Give up everything.

The LORD had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.

“I will make you into a great nation,

and I will bless you;

I will make your name great,

and you will be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you,

and whoever curses you I will curse;

and all peoples on earth

will be blessed through you.” (Genesis 12:1-3)

When we understand the cultural context, this ask is huge. God calls Abraham to abandon all he has ever known and everyone who knows him. He must say goodbye forever to his kinship group—his entire network of relationships and social support.2 There’s no technology that will connect him to his people or hometown ever again. Instead, if he says yes to God he will be separated from all he’s ever known by approximately five hundred miles—that’s a one month journey by caravan (at a twenty-mile-per-day clip).3 He will never again walk the dusty paths his feet have travelled every day, smell the salty air after a hard rain, see his aging father’s smile or hear the roar of laughter as he and his friends throw their heads back in the glow of a night fire. It is goodbye for good.

As the male heir, Abraham is slated to inherit everything from his father, securing his place in society and in the family line.4 This too he must give up in order to follow God. Will he choose to forsake everything in order to heed God’s call? Will he cut ties with the land, his family, his inheritance and his people—a bond built over seven dec­ades? Leave his whole life behind to embrace God’s promise?

The Scripture says, “Abram went” (Genesis 12:4). He decides to trust God—to take him at his word. Abraham has faith that God will provide anew everything that he has asked Abraham to give up.5 As we step into life after college, we too are called to forsake the familiar to embrace something new. As exciting as this time may be, it’s also marked by great uncertainty.6 We trade a familiar place and our familiar purpose within it for a new reality. Leaving college may mean we have to let go of certain ways of doing things, embrace new roles, redefine relationships and say goodbye to people we care about. As we enter the unknown, we can look to Abraham and be encouraged by his faith in an uncertain time as well as by God’s faithfulness to him.

We can also take comfort from Abraham’s example when our expectations don’t match our reality. Abraham steps out in faith only to find his path littered with trial. He encounters plagues, persecution, detours and doubts long before reaching the fulfillment of God’s plan. At one point he has to reroute to Egypt because the very land God has told him he’ll possess is brittle with drought. Not to mention that the wife who is supposed to bear him a child is still barren at age sixty-five. The fruition of God’s plan is not looking so good.

The oppression and struggles cause Abraham to disbelieve God and question his character. Can God really be trusted to deliver on his word? Abraham wonders, “O Sovereign LORD, how can I be sure that I will actually possess [the land you promised]?” (Genesis 15:8 NLT). Perhaps you too may question whether the God you followed during college can be trusted in this time of transition. Maybe you find yourself throwing your hands up, wondering, How can I be sure you really have a plan, God? In Abraham’s fears and frustration, God is gracious and patient. He reminds him of his character and promise:

Do not be afraid, Abram.

I am your shield,

your very great reward. . . .

I am the LORD, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it. (Genesis 15:1, 7)

The same God who led him in Ur is also the God of Abraham’s transition. Likewise, the God of your college years—the God of Abraham—is the same God who leads you in the joy and challenge of the transition into the next phase. He doesn’t change his tune when our circumstances change. His character and promises are constant, even in dynamic times. Everything may be shifting around you, but God, our rock, remains the sure and solid place we find our footing. He is the God who pursues, promises and provides—even after college.

Preparing to Enter the Unknown

Looking to God and his character is a crucial part of preparing for any transitional time. So are the practices and perspective we choose in the everyday. Though there are many things we cannot predict as we enter the unknown, we can manage our expectations, choose intentional actions and adopt healthy heart attitudes.

Before we address these, it’s important to realize that our day-to-day actions, attitudes and expectations are always connected to a bigger picture: our core beliefs, our worldview. Whether we’re aware of it or not, we all believe in something, value something, worship something. Every day we direct our affection and desires toward something, and often we do it without even knowing it.7 We may be chasing money, power, influence, comfort, pleasure, fame, good looks or smarts. Why? Because of our deepest beliefs. We may claim we love God or have a Christian worldview, but we must examine our lives to see what our behaviors say about what we really believe.

If we don’t know what we believe or if our claims don’t carry into our everyday actions, then we’ll likely adopt the worldview of those around us or fill in the blanks with something insufficient. If we’re going to thrive beyond college, we need a robust worldview that makes sense of our deepest pain, greatest dreams and everything in between.8 It is our Christian worldview—shaped by the biblical story of creation, fall, redemption and restoration—that fully prepares us to expect difficult life experiences without losing hope in the midst of them.

Not sure what you believe or what it means to have a Christian worldview? Check out Christian Worldview: A Student’s Guide by Philip Graham Ryken.

Accurate expectations. “The first year out was one of the hardest years of my life,” reports Curt. He moved to inner-city Baltimore for a job with Teach for America, a position that stretched him in ways his college classes and student teaching stint did not. Curt also left campus at the height of his social game with a strong support network. President of his Christian fellowship group, he had countless friends, an active community life and college ministers who invested in him. Then he moved to a city where he knew no one. In addition to the adjustment to an unknown place, he faced significant challenges in his family life that year. Everything seemed to hit him at once.

Another alum, Kate, describes her first year this way: “It’s much rougher than I thought. . . . I thought things would just play out, and they didn’t. I don’t have friends, I don’t have a job and I hang out with my parents every night!” Upon graduation Kate could not find a job, so she chose to move back home with her parents. She struggled to find friends with similar values, to connect to a vibrant church, to make ends meet financially and to keep proper perspective.

My own experiences as a graduate validate what Curt and Kate say about their first few months out of school. I moved to a small town called State College in what felt like the...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 8.7.2016
• Verlagsort: Lisle
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Gesundheit / Leben / Psychologie ► Psychologie
• Themenwelt: Religion / Theologie ► Christentum ► Moraltheologie / Sozialethik
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Pädagogik ► Berufspädagogik
• Schlagworte: Adversity • Alumni • calling • campus ministry • Career • Change • Christian • College • college senior • Community • Dating • Decision Making • Discernment • early 20s • Early Twenties • emerging adult • Emerging Adulthood • Finances • Friends • Friendship • Graduates • Graduation • graduation prep • graduation preparation • Job • late 20s • late twenties • life after college • mid 20s • mid twenties • Millennial • NaviGate • Real Life • real world • relationships • seniors • Sex • Transition • twenty something • twenty-something • Twentysomething • Vocation • Young Adult
• ISBN-10: 0-8308-9436-5 / 0830894365
• ISBN-13: 978-0-8308-9436-9 / 9780830894369