Some advice I got when starting out as a newly-minted second lieutenant: the most important job you'll ever have is the one you have right now. In other words, if you don't do your best where you are, you probably won't get the chance to move on to something bigger. "He who is faithful in little..."

And - SAVE more than you SPEND! Don't get trapped by the credit card mentality into debt because you want to maintain a certain standard of living. Start with less, be content there, and you can learn that there is so much more to life than material things. In fact, make it a regular thing to go through and give things away to those who might need them more than you. None of it's ours, anyway - hold it with an open hand.

Lastly, don't be afraid to stand out from the crowd, to be "set apart" by your morality and the fact that you don't curse, get drunk, sleep around, etc. You may get teased a bit, but most people will really respect you for standing firm for what you believe is right... and it will lead to some great conversations.

Ok, I only took one assembly language course. I think I'll program a 3D printer to make my punchcards... :P

(Aside, my favourite binary quote, of course:
"There are 10 types of people in the world, those who know binary and those who don't").

(Great Ravi Z quote)

Next you'll be telling us that you had to walk your bits to the computer, uphill both ways, in the snow. (Hmmm - come to think of it, back when we used IBM "do not bend, fold, spindle or mutilate" punchcards carried around in decks held in boxes half a metre long, and got "printouts" on wide green stripey paper, that was kinda sorta true. But I doubt you graduated from college in those days.)

So you're right, in a way; post-graduation it's good to reflect once in a while at how far you've come. As Ravi Zacharias likes to put it, "The only thing worse than nostalgia is amnesia."

P.S.: Those punchcards and printouts could give you nasty paper cuts. Kids these days; don't know how easy they've got it; had to make our own ones and zeroes by hand; etc., etc.

It may not need to be said because it is said too much these days, but any wisdom has got to start with Proverbs 9:10. Past middle age now and a Christian since I was five I am still amazed by God as he reveals Himself in scripture. There is nothing in this world more exciting, more awesome, or more beautiful.

Good advice all.
I'll mention 2 quick things.
1) Don't be afraid to fail (because if the fear stops you from trying, you're worse off.) I'm sure I had been told this, but didn't "know" (internalize) it.

2) Back in the day, we didn't have new-fangled Internets (at least, www) when I graduated. So today's grads are probably much more savvy. However, I advise young adults probably being bombarded with new ideas to not take the internet personally. It can be a good tool/social place (look around), but don't feel like you must (or can) change those who dissent from your views. You will waste a lot of time on the internet if you don't learn this lesson. :)

You might not get that "great" job just out of college. Especially in this crummy job market.

So if you have to do any honest work (i.e. waiter for instance) (no matter if so called "menial" stuff) do it and don't be ashamed.

Consider lots of ways you can live lean esp. if you must pay off loans. Maybe live in walking distance of your job. Not having a car can help your pay off loans (or save for a good car) MUCH faster!

Maybe do two jobs (especially if you're single)...Also...consider starting a small side business OR consider how you may do a ministry on the side. (Of course your job is a ministry, but I mean volunteer work to do two things:

1. HELP others...(check with Habitat for Humanity, Salvation Army, your local church (yes you should be going to church)...other organizations.
....when you're married with kids a few years from now, much of this VOLUNTEER time will be taken up by your family)

2. Your helping others in some ministry might help you in the job market also. And/or in "finding" yourself.

Maybe you will eventually find MORE about yourself, your skills, your passions..
.than in college...which is just a STARTING POINT anyway!

The Oracle at Delphi had that right. How can you go forward if you don't know the direction you should be heading?

From a more Christian perspective, I had a friend whose son's mentor taught his son:
Find your Master
Find your mission
then Find your mate.

He insisted that was the proper order.

Next: be patient. 20 years is a long time to an 18 year old. But it doesn't seem that long to a 38 year old. And knowing yourself and where you are going helps a lot with patience.

.
I would tell the graduate what I tell myself virtually every day: that the most wonderful thing possible can be true if it is what I really want, and it is this: that any (and all) of us can be, literally, God’s absolute closest friend -- if that is truly our utmost passionate and persevering desire. (And God knows, God knows (Matthew 6:6 cf. John 1:48)).

The heart that has burned with longing at the impossibly-happy ending fairy tale needs to know – to know – that Christianity is THE fairy tale that all the others merely hinted at – and that they are its central character, if that is what they really want, if that is the one thing they cannot live without.

I wish I had been clear on that 40 years ago. But I’m thankful that it can still be true; as long as we still have breath and consciousness it can ALWAYS still be true, because it is what God wants for each of us, and the ONLY thing that can keep it from being true of any of us is us.

As I love to say, Christianity is a fairy tale………..come true.


The Fairy Tale
-- © Rolley Haggard, shameless recycler of poems

We might have known we knew it all along,
This Fairy Tale that now is fully told;
For every other mythic verse and song
Was merely tarnish over precious gold.
True, we found doubt a stubborn thing to shake
And feared the tantalizing feast too good
And us too undeserving to partake
Or trade our meager crumbs for better food.
But when our charming Prince at last appeared,
No more fantastic did our fables seem;
For in His death He slew the foes we feared
And gave us title to our wildest dream.
The Fairy Tale no fairy tale shall be:
We shall live ever after happily.



------------------------
*”if it be consistent with the laws of nature.” -- Michael Faraday

Study something on your own. Most of what I know I learned out of class. Class is all very well but if you wish to be a scholar you cannot depend solely on it.

Don't leave your career dependent on your college. Get a job as soon as you can even if it's only as a waiter.

Kristiiiiiiiiiine! Fer cryin' out loud! I was so incredibly unwise both at high school and college graduation that to pick only **one** thing is nearly impossible!!

But OK... (deep breaths) :-)

I was astonished the other morning to realize that there's a formula for commencement addresses, and a mainstay of that formula is the notion that this graduation is some kind of hurkin' big milestone along the road of life. To hear most speakers, you'd believe it's the first major milestone of the graduates' lives. But the fact is that even a high school graduate has already passed several significant milestones:

Consider, first, that they survived infancy. In many countries of the world the infant mortality rate is 5%, 10%, or even 20%. So just making it through that first year is a pretty significant milestone.

Then, there was starting school. Lots of areas don't allow girls to go to school, so they spend their lives illiterate. (I think this has been the case for the haunting green-eyed Afghan girl so famously photographed by National Geographic; she's now a mature woman, but IIRC has never learned to read or write.) In some areas it's difficult even for boys to attend school. So even kindergarten is a relatively big deal, in the global scheme of things.

(I could go on a rant about how easy we make it to finish school, but I'll refrain. What starry-eyed graduate would want to hear that, anyway?)

And per the commencement formula, graduates are told that now they should go out and change the world. (They might feel inspired, after the above, to reduce infant mortality or open a school.) But we need some graduates to keep the world as it is. Farmers, for example, carry on a tradition - often a family tradition - of feeding people, and there's a need to keep doing that for the foreseeable future. Military service is described as defending and preserving. Conservation can be every bit as important as transformation. So those graduates who aren't setting out to have some huge impact should feel good about themselves, and those world-changers might consider a small slice of humble pie.

So the wisdom I'd impart would be for graduates to ignore most of the lofty rhetoric, and instead strive for perspective. Graduation recognizes an achievement, but only one out of many already achieved and many more to come. That achievement should be savored just enough to motivate the graduate on toward the next achievement, even if that next achievement would be to maintain the status quo as much as possible. They should be encouraged that God has been with them until now, and will continue to be with them.