Graduation Anxiety (not mine)

     In about another week I'll have a group of friends who will be graduating from college. I graduated exactly one year ago and watching them as graduation day creeps closer puts me in an awesome place where I can offer some advice that stem from my own experiences.

     Last year I graduated with a Bachelor's in Exercise and Sports Science. At the time I had some HUGE unanswered questions on my plate. I had successfully finished my curriculum in Athletic Training but had yet to take the national board exam, which I had scheduled in June. To say I was nervous about it would be an enormous understatement. I also had been rejected from all the physical therapy schools that I had applied to the previous Fall. At the time I believed that it would be difficult to watch as most of my friends left Athens and went about their jobs, grad schools, etc but the honest truth is that this past year has been a perfect time to reflect, relax, and enjoy the little things in life.

     My concerns from last May have almost all been solved; I passed my board exam the first time, I got a job that I really enjoy, took a summer chemistry class to bump my GPA up, and eventually was accepted into PT school. So my message to all my friends who are currently looking at the next few weeks/months/years and have no idea what to make of it, I want to encourage you to take a step back and just be glad for the circumstances and experiences you have been given and know that good things come to those who are patient and diligent.

Starting with the Man in the Mirror

I'm reading the book Blue Like Jazz and the author writes about the selfish nature of all mankind. He really does have a point when he talks about almost every action being self-centered. He shared a poem by C.S. Lewis that got me thinking-


All this is flashy rhetoric about loving you.
I never had a selfless thought since I was born.
I am a mercenary and self-seeking through and through;
I want you, God, all friends, merely to serve my turn.

Peace, reassurance, pleasure, are the goals I seek,
I cannot crawl one inch outside my proper skin;
I talk of love- a scholar's parrot may talk Greek-
But, self-imprisoned, always, end where I begin.


Sometimes I feel like I know all the right things to say and do, but there's not much passion behing any of it. Ever since I read Wild at Heart a few years back, I have done my best to live according to a Latin phrase "Esse Quam Videri" which means "to be, and not to seem." That to me is true character and faultless integrity. A man who is the same no matter who is watching him- that's a man after Gods heart.