Endings and Beginnings

It happened.

I graduated college. Say whaat?! It is insane to even say. But it happened! And I am so happy!

The cousins!

On Saturday I walked across the stage and officially became an Alum of Trinity Christian College. The weather did not cooperate at all, but it helped to make the day unforgettable. We had a magnificent lady, Donnita Travis, as a speaker. She is the founder of a really cool organization for kids in Chicago (who knows, maybe we'll be working for some of the same people!). She gave a speech entitled "It's the little things you do, not the big things you say," and ended her talk with a resolute "GO GET 'EM!" which I thought was awesome! (Note to self: do that when you give graduation speeches.) I think I wouldn't mind getting lunch with this lady sometime. Then I grabbed my diploma and called it a day! 

Mi familia. Good lookin' crew, if I do say so myself. 

The whole morning was a blur. I kept looking around at my fellow classmates and thinking to myself, "How are we all here right now? How did we get to this point? Are we really in these hats and gowns right now?" It was one of those out-of-body things. We ended the day running around trying to get pictures in between downpours and navigating the chaos of all those people on our little campus. 

Daddio.

I left the event kind of all over the place, but the one thought I kept coming back to was this is a huge deal. This will be one of those days that I'll forever look back on as a watershed in my life. 

It's a lot of endings. The end of my college life and the amazing memories that define these four years. The end of my education (for now). The end of living with my five best friends. The end of my undergrad classes. The end of taking 3 hour naps in the middle of the afternoon. (I shall miss those with all my heart, believe me.) The end of familiarity. The end of this little comfort zone. The end of a lot of hard work. 

But it's also a lot of beginnings. The beginning of the "real world." The beginning of educating others. The beginning of my journey at Teach For America. The beginning of making new friends and living in a new city (no, attending Trinity does not qualify as living in Chicago). The beginning of growing up and becoming more independent. The beginning of going to sleep and waking up early. The beginning of uncertainty. The beginning of a huge new challenge and adventure. 

Siblings, laughing at Dad trying to take a picture. This is the 5th try. He's an expert. 

So. As I'm starting to prepare for Teach for America's Institute (more on the details of my job through Teach For America will come later) and search for a roommate and apartment (anybody wanna live with me on the west side? I'll make you cookies?), it is cool to keep in mind that I've reached this point - I've made it to this huge milestone. I'm really proud of myself. I'm really humbled at how blessed my life has been. I'm really anxious at the thought of how the next few years are going to turn out. But really excited too. All the great stories have a little bit of mystery. That's what makes them great! 

So what shall we do? Where do we go from here after such a big day? I think there's just one option: Let's go get 'em!! 

Get On My Level

For those of you not running the streets with myself and all the youths (to be read as Schmidt would read it), the title of this post corresponds to what I would say to you if you need to step it up. For example, if we're racing bigwheels in 1996 up the driveway and I beat you every time, I would now have license to yell "Get on my level!!" to you in a taunt of my superiority. Now that you know what it means, I should let you know that it has nothing to do with the topic of my post. Oops. But this post does have a lot to do with levels. 

I'm sitting in beautiful Cedar Grove, Wisconsin for Easter weekend for a short little calm before the storm. This is our last break before a whirlwind five weeks of classes, interviews, packing, planning, exams, and goodbyes. It's coming. Graduation. A lot of countdowns have been popping up. However many days everyone has until ________. You fill in the blank. Graduation Day, Wedding Day, First Day on the Job, Baby's Due Date, Vacation, even little weeklong countdowns to Friday Night, you name it. A lot of people are at the thresholds of significant life stages right now.

The pic is borrowed from one of my favorite blogs these days. Check it out.

We do these countdowns because we always are looking ahead to the next life level. Are you single? Well you must be itching to get into a relationship. Are you dating? Well then you OBVIOUSLY are considering caterers for your upcoming wedding. Married? When are the kids coming? Working? When does the big promotion come along? While planning and foresight is a necessary part of living a responsible life, maybe we could ease up a bit on the countdowns. There's too much pressure to rush forward for some sort of delusional idea that we're all in a race to the finish. What we don't talk about is that they don't hand you a trophy when you "win."

I do it too. I had my own countdown in Spain last spring. I kept track of how many more days I had left in Sevilla. I viewed it in different ways: on homesick days the countdown was a glimmer of hope to remind me that family/friends were waiting back home, on I-love-my-life days it was a reminder to cherish every second and squeeze every bit of Spanish goodness out of my time in my city. While I had fun tracking my time in Spain, maybe it wasn't such a great idea to check that number every day. It made me fixate on May 5th, 2011, my return day, all too much. Each and every day in Spain had a huge value to me, but my countdown kept me focusing on one of the many.

When you finally reach the destination of your countdown, you can always start the next. From birth until death, you will have the next life level to look forward to. But what we forget sometimes is that there are wonderful things about every stage. There are things that you might miss. After you cease to be single, you won't be able to make big choices independent of considering a significant other. After you have kids, you will never be able to have the freedom to spend money/travel/chill out with your spouse free from parenting responsibilities. After you graduate, you'll never have the luxury of free time between classes and a large group of people constantly around with whom you can pull shenanigans. The list goes on.

I could use a lesson in living within the day I'm in right now. As a compulsive lister, planner, and tell-me-what-is-going-to-happen type, I often look back and see how I missed exciting, wonderful things that were going on in every stage. The pace of my timeline of life has nothing to do with catching up or beating anyone else to the punch. It's a constant effort to live in the tension between being aware of the long-term, while always savoring the right now.

I think, now, more than ever, I have to look at where I'm standing and appreciate it for all it's worth. No need for jumping to the next level before its time. To quote a wise, wise soul: "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in awhile, you could miss it."