After High School

Well the school year is pretty much up for all high schoolers throughout the country, so I thought it would be a good time to share some of my experiences with you, especially Seniors who have just graduated, and give some advice.

Life is going to start moving very quickly now that you are finished with high school. The atmosphere that we have been used to as high schoolers: a place filled with young people, seeing many of our friends everyday, same teachers throughout the year, being dependent on mom and dad, this is all going to change.

Whether you decide to go to college or decide to go to work, or any other path within or outside of these, that atmosphere is going to change. That vibrant, life-filled environment that we were once in (high school) will disappear. I remember after my graduation (in 2008), life quieted down tremendously. Graduation was like a movie coming to its climax and resolution toward the end. I remember a student who was in front of me in the line said as we entered the stadium for the ceremony that she felt like she was on a really high roller coaster about to go down the track really quickly. Commencement was like one of those big musical scores at the second to last scene of a movie, where the entire orchestra holds a note (fermata) and then fades away.

I haven’t seen the majority of my class since graduation; the same is true for many other graduates. I remember a couple of weeks after graduation I was sitting with two of my closest friends from high school at a Starbucks we often used to go to during our Junior and Senior years, and we were talking about friendship and if we didn’t see or talk to each other after high school, then was that friendship a Christian friendship, or was it just because we happened to be in the same geographic location for a while? This is one example of a question we should ask ourselves.

Afterward we saw a student we had known from high school, same class, and she also remarked that “everybody disappeared” after graduation.

It makes us think, why do we have friends? Is it just because we don’t want to be called loners and we want to run with a pack or be included in a circle? If these are the reasons, maybe that’s why this country is getting spiritually sick, because there is no real basis as to why this friendship exists other than a fear of exclusion (a type of selfishness). And these “circles of friends” become major influences in our life whether good or bad.

Our Lord Jesus Christ gave us the example of friendship; He Himself called us His friends in the Gospel of John (15:14-16). We see from His example that He gave us what He had. This brings up the reminder that love always gives. The type of friendship we should offer, as Christians, should be like that of our Lord Jesus, we should give, and not just take. And just like His friendship is lasting, we should try to make our friendships last. With the advent of such facilitators as e-mails, cell phones, text messaging, and facebook, we can make our friendships last better even if our friends are far away from us. Most importantly we should be very concerned with the salvation of our friends as our Lord Jesus was with us.

About a month and a half before my graduation, I started thinking a lot about the future. I started thinking long about things I had only given a couple of seconds at a time in the past such as my future career, marriage, and having children. I started thinking about marriage a lot more than any other subject. I had not really contemplated on the subject until this wave of thinking started.

Marriage is not a small thing, it is very important in the Church; it is one of the Seven Sacraments. Someone was arguing with me about Monasticism and Marriage, and accusing the Church of glorifying monks more than married people, and I answered him, “Marriage is a Sacrament; Monasticism is not.” Also there would be no monks without marriage. I also listened to a set of sermons delivered by Father Anthony Messeh about marriage to high schoolers and he said something very profound, he said that the time to start preparing for marriage is not during the engagement, but it is now. He said this because if we start thinking about this VERY IMPORTANT subject now, then we will prepare better for marriage. These thoughts of the future then are a blessing.

But we shouldn’t dwell on it as our Lord Jesus said, “Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble” (Matthew 5:34). His advice for us concerning life is simple “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness” (Matthew 5:33). If we do this, then we will be led by Him.

I feel safe to assume that while in high school these sorts of thoughts never really cross the minds of students on a profound level such as this.

Some things, however, will not change in life. There will still be groups of people you will hang out with, people who will cause drama, people who will become really good friends of yours, and people who will hate you, people who will like to show off, and people who will cause you to change for the better.

Always remember that your faith is the most important thing.

Focus on God this summer (both graduates and non-graduates alike). Thank God, glorify Him, pray, read your Bibles, go to Church, grow in your relationship with Jesus Christ, and enjoy the beauty of the wonderful creation of God.

Let us also take St. Augustine’s advice, "Pray as if everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you."

God will do what He knows is best for you.

I will leave you with the words of this following quote, let it be a guiding principle, and a source of encouragement, “Don’t worry about tomorrow; God is already there.”

Glory be to God forever. Amen.