by Tyler Fransen

The semester is coming to a close, and I encourage you to embrace it. You took the chance with this experience, with your education and you stuck with it. Whether you’re graduating, continuing your college career or just starting your journey, it’s important to know college isn’t a requirement or necessity anymore; it’s a choice, and you made it. Embrace this next step in your life, move forward unafraid and stand firm.

College does strange things to people and brings out even stranger thinking. We start our first few days considering all the possibilities of our future. We toss around the ideas of what our major will be, if we should take 20 credits or if we should do that double major our advisor is encouraging. We throw the ideas of possible careers around and what we want to do with the rest of our lives even though it’s unreasonable to make such big decisions in such a small amount of time.

If you’re completely unsure of what path you want to take, it can be overwhelming and discourage to feel like you have to make those big decisions now; they will define your future.

But what if I told you that you don’t have to do one thing for your entire life and that you shouldn’t compromise? According to a recent poll conducted in 2013 by The University of Phoenix, only 14 percent of students said they have their ideal job, while over half of the students stated that they would like to see a career change.

If you don’t know what you want to be doing, it can be debilitating to feel directionless, aimless and lost. To see your peers map out their futures from A to B then to C, as if they’ve accounted for every single event that will happen in their life, can feel especially disheartening. It’s like those around you appear to know exactly where they’re going and how to get there, while you don’t.

It’s okay to be lost and without a map. Look around you and explore the opportunities that surround you. Just because you’re lost doesn’t mean you need to run around trying to find your way. It takes patience, effort and an open mind to grasp where you’re standing.

Maybe you knew where you were going, but lost your bearings along the way; something may have shaken you and derailed you. Whatever it was, failing a class, a traumatic experience or losing someone dear to you, give yourself the time to find your way again.

There are people I miss and those I wish who could be here today. My grandmother was someone who was always beside me, loving me and helping me make sense of my world. I remember her smell, soft touch and her penny tossing skills that left me broke most of the time.  

Without her, I sometimes find it easy to feel lost, confused and discouraged. It causes me to get stuck in time and to be beside myself.

But even with all of the bumps in the road, there’s time to muster up the strength to keep pushing forward and living your life. Those who left an impression on you are always in your heart. Their story still exists within you.

When things come to an end, like a class, career, a relationship or the loss of a loved one, it’s easy to find yourself trying to recall the good times and trying to forget the bad times. We start worrying about the future and question where we are and where we’re going. We invest our time looking back at everything that has derailed us, hurt us and changed how we see the world.

You can let those moments define you, or you can define them. The experiences you faced and the tribulations you overcame all brought you to this very moment.

Instead of building up the anomalous future, be at this time and smell the flowers.   

Even though it’s true some experiences will cut you deeply and leave you feeling vulnerable; there’s still beauty to be found.   

Look where you are and embrace where you stand on this blue rock in space. Take the time to explore, to find a new interest and to discover yourself.

I know it can seem like you lost that jigsaw piece that will make the big blue sky appear but knows that you didn’t lose it. It might be that you haven’t faced a milestone in your life that will give you the piece you need to make sense of what’s up or down. It’s possible you had it but disregarded it because you believed it wasn’t part of your picture. Maybe you thought it disappeared after losing a loved one.

The truth is you may have to rediscover it, dust it off and fix its edges. But sometimes you may have to find a different piece entirely.

It takes time to complete your picture, so be patient, be calm and hear me when I say it’s all going to be okay.