For The Graduates...There is More

What is graduation? When we graduate we move to the next level. It’s a time of celebration because we have the opportunity to declare that we have mastered where we were previously and now we have enough knowledge to move forward. It’s natural to feel like a conqueror after graduating to the next level, standing on top of a mountain of pride, driving a flag into the ground with your chin held high. What a glorious feeling! We should take time to enjoy the view on the top of that mountain and even invite some of our loved ones up to share the view with us. Being at the top of that mountain feels good, and though you worked hard through blood, sweat and tears to get there, I am here to tell you that you cannot stay there. You see after you have climbed a mountain and reached the summit you must come down because there are an infinite amount of other mountains for you to climb. It’s time to make a transition and begin preparation for a new climb. Transition is the point in your journey where you are no longer in the familiar past, but now you are tiptoeing into an unfamiliar future. Transitioning into the future can be exciting and motivating, but who wouldn't admit that sometimes it can be intimidating and scary? What happens when you are in the middle of a transition and things start to get a little shaky? It’s funny how we can sometimes have incredible drive to reach something new, but once we reach the new, that drive turns in fear or doubt just because the new it not familiar. You see, our emotions have a sneaky way of trying to throw us off during transitions when we were initially excited about our future. Our emotions can pull us back to the past because there is where we felt safe, there is where we were sure of ourselves, and there is where we were answering questions instead of asking them. You see, life has taught me that though you should definitely take things you have learned the past into your future for tools, but after a while, you must try not to reference back to the past as a whole. It is time for a new thing. I recently witnessed a person who had worked in their profession for a number of years with one organization start the same type of work with a new organization. This person had a wealth of knowledge and could probably write a bestselling book about how to perform every task perfectly…at their OLD job….I observed this person getting frustrated as they struggled with opening up to learning new things. This person started to reference things from their old job trying to make it fit at their present place of employment. This person was still picturing themselves standing at the top of the previous mountain they conquered while trying to climb a new one. “Well this is how I used to do it”, “When I was at my old job we used to it this way”, “Where I was before it didn’t take that long to get it done”, "I am not used to this pace"….Listen, you can either fight through transition or you can grow through it. I want to encourage you to push past those emotions that may come during this in -between time; the time between knowing something back there so well and not knowing what's ahead very much or at all. Transition is preparation, and whatever we do, we must fight not to turn back because it stops our growth. We must fight not to mentally keep ourselves bound to that mountain that we already concurred because that cuts us off from all the other amazing mountains there are for us to climb. When I was younger I used to have a Nintendo 64 and every day after school, I would always play this game with this little character (I believe he was a turtle) called, Yoshi Story. Yoshi Story had a number of levels and after you concurred one level, naturally, you moved on to the next. After countless afternoons of playing this game, my skills began to get better. I knew how to dodge danger, I studied the characters in the game, so I knew how to deal with them to avoid being devoured, and I could easily sniff out hidden treasures. On one glorious afternoon I gave my all to Yoshi Story and realized that I had finally reached the last level and concurred it! It was so exciting. There was even a little parade at the end of the game and Yoshi and all of his character friends would come out and sing this little celebration song. So after basking in the glory of my victory and waving my flag high at my own Yoshi parade I took the game out of the console and searched in my box of games for something new to play. The next game that caught my attention was called Zelda and it was about a prince whose job was to rescue a princess in this enchanted world. So I loaded Zelda into the game console and I waited for my character to pop into this little world for me to explore. I loved how this game looked, it was beautiful. There were huge green trees and flowing streams of sparkling blue water with cute little huts sitting nearby. The scenery was just so amazing to me, so I was excited to explore the rest of the game! I picked up my game controller, cracked my game playing thumbs and set out on a virtual adventure. First I made my character, Zelda, run around a huge rock because I wanted to see what was on the other side, and then suddenly the game paused and some words popped up on the screen, some instructions of some sort. So I read the instructions and said, “Ok, got it! Let’s play...I got a princess to save and hopefully another victory parade to attend so there is no time to waste!" I continued playing and about a minute later, I came upon a little troll looking character and the game stopped me again and more words came up on the screen. “More reading??? I wanna play”, I said to myself. So I took a deep breath and read whatever this character had to say, I’m sure it was some good advice to help me win that level, but I don’t remember because I was trying to play not read! So I keep going running through the forest, hoping over the sparkling blue streams until I got to the entrance of a cave. "Oh this is going to be good", I said. Yoshi story didn't have caves, Zelda has caves this is about to be EPIC...Then suddenly the game paused AGAIN and more words popped up on the screen. I threw that Nintendo controller and said, “You know what, I’ve had about enough of this. I can't even play the game because it wants me to read! I just came from school where I was reading ALL DAY. I think not." Frustrated and in need of a pick-me-up, I pulled that Zelda game out of that Nintendo and quickly found Yoshi Story so that I could beat the entire game in 10 minutes and have a song and parade without having to read ANYTHING becasue I knew that game like the back of my hand. I lost count on how many times I beat Yoshi Story after my attempt at Zelda. Had my parents known that I was only going to play that one game they could have saved a lot of money. But I wonder though… what I might have encountered if I would have stuck it out through Zelda…How great might my game playing skills might have been if I pushed past that uncomfortable feeling of not knowing and understood that Zelda was a more advanced game than Yoshi Story, so it required more reading, and more patience. I don’t know if there was a parade at the end of Zelda because I gave up before I got there. I was uncomfortable with the transition from one game to the next so I ran back to the one that was familiar. I wanted a victory at a new place using the same skills from my past but I needed new skills and that was going to require more work. I had to leave my old mountain behind to climb a new one. Sometimes we don’t get the promise that is in our future because we refuse to go through that uncomfortable phase of transition. Graduates, while you prepare to climb this new mountain, make sure you put pride aside, push past fear and discomfort, and allow yourselves to be divinely molded during this transition.

I would like to give you a quick 5 point life check list that may help guide you through this transition:

✓ #1. Always stay open to learning new things even if you feel like you know all there is to know about a subject matter.

✓ #2. Never be afraid to ask a question. People who want to see you succeed will respect that fact that you seeking knowledge and clarity.

✓ #3. Don’t be afraid to say, “I don’t know”. Trust me, you’ll wish you had said “I don’t know” if someone starts a full conversation with you about something they think you know when in reality you have no idea and all you can do is sit there smile and pray they don’t ask you any deep questions about the matter.

✓ #4. Be kind and polite, it goes a long way.

✓ Last but not least, #5. If you go astray on your journey, remember that God is ALWAYS with you and he can help you get back on track. He is the ruler of the universe and he commands it to work in your favor when you allow it to.

Now, as you prepare to climb this new mountain, please take all the tools and skills you used to help you climb the one before, but do not be fooled into thinking all mountains can be climbed the same way. It will take some new skills, but just like you mastered skills that were new to you before, I have 100% faith that you will be able to master the ones to come.