#GladGrads #graduations #LifeAfterGraduation #graduation #CollegeGraduation
It’s the time of year to celebrate graduations.
The grads will come in all ages, ambitions and desires.
For example, Teresa Eckart was a prosecutor and judge, who wasn’t doing what she loved. So, she went back to Kennesaw State University in Georgia to become a ballet teacher at age 59.
Hers and the profiles of other graduates were part of a package of articles in the May 5, 2019, edition of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Another profiled grad is Marc Anthony Branch, 27, who leaves the day after his graduation from Emory University in Atlanta for Cambodia, where he will do urban development programming and assessments work with Habitat for Humanity.
Antoinette Charles, 20, will take her passion for helping the homeless with her when she graduates from Georgia State University, where she participated in the student organization Pads for Princesses, which assisted the homeless.
Meanwhile, Haley Evans, 21, learned to push herself at Oglethorpe University outside of Atlanta, and wound up studying abroad in Ecuador. She was able to use social media to successfully win a leadership spot on the student government organization at Oglethorpe while in Ecuador. She plans to teach in early childhood education.
Trayvon Truss, 22, was a self-described social outcast who battled depression. He was homeless much of his childhood. He also had dyslexia and was bullied. Now, he’ll earn his degree in psychology from Morehouse College in Atlanta.
Regardless of the path one takes, graduating college is a big step. Many will come out of college with degrees that won’t always yield the kind of results in the job market that they want. That’s OK for some, but for others, particularly if they are graduating with a lot of debt, that situation will present difficulties.
If that describes you, or if your passion doesn’t yield profitability, don’t fret. You can still pursue your passion, pay down your debt comfortably and live a very good life by devoting a few, part-time hours a week to one of the many vehicles out there that can create a potentially lucrative income for you. To learn about one of the best such vehicles, message me.
It’s a relief, which you may or may not yet feel, to be done with school. Think of it as a step toward what comes next in your life.
You may not yet know what that will be. Or, you may have something in mind that may or may not pan out for you.
The grads featured in the profiles all made decisions, pushed themselves and fulfilled at least some of their dreams.
Some grads tend to focus on the practical, rather than their dreams. It’s certainly OK to want to make a good living, and not have to live at home with mom and dad forever. It’s good to want a house, marriage, children etc. in your future.
Yes, some practical thinking is in order. But always have your eyes, and your mind, on something bigger.
You can get there sooner, or you can get there later. It all depends on whether you are willing to look at something you may not have considered doing before, and whether you have the ambition to do whatever it takes to get what you want.
Be glad, grads, that you’ve taken that step. Be wary of what’s out there, but also open to new things. Skepticism can be good. Cynicism never is.
Peter