Post Grad Anxiety
Post grad anxiety is a real thing.
You graduate with dreams for a successful future. You have desires and plans for the path you want your life to take. But very rarely does it fall together like you had hoped. A lot of people encounter post grad anxiety. When your current reality doesn’t match up with your desire plans. How are we to think about this stage of life? What comforts can we lean on when we navigate this path?
As with any journey, a helpful first step is finding out where you are. Only when we understand the context in which we find ourselves can we start learning more about it. When you were in college you've been in this phase of your life that has opened your world to greater amounts of vulnerability and greater amounts of authority. Certainly more than you had before college. There are still guardrails in college. Systems. Structures. Things to keep you on the right path, moving along. Your authority hasn't been unhinged from people looking out for you, neither has your vulnerability.
You're still swaddled in a sense. Being protected.
But post-grad. Most people enter into a new stage of life. One where the swaddling falls off. No schedule is given to you about how you can spend your day. Your social circle usually shrinks and with that certain structures and rhythms you had become accustomed to. The world stands before you. And you, perhaps more than you ever have before, feel the weight of authority and vulnerability on your shoulders. Authority in that, your future is dependent on you. Your health, stability, and plans rely on you. Vulnerability in that a lot of the systems and structures that were there should you fall are now gone. There’s no free counseling center for your apartment complex. You don’t have immediate access to trusted adults or professors to guide you. In a large way, you are on your own. Vulnerable.
That’s a scary place to be for the first time. I've been learning something about myself and about God. When a child is first born, they are swaddled in a blanket. Wrapped tightly, held by the cloth, and the parent. Protected. Think about how vulnerable a little baby is. They need the swaddling and the protection. They need someone to exert authority over its life because it doesn’t have any. But there comes a time when as a child matures you must begin to relinquish your authority over your child. You must start letting him or her grow. Andy Crouch says in his book Strong and Weak, " A healthy childhood is one where both capacity for action and exposure to meaningful risk are meted out in measured doses, gradually increasing as the child matures." (Pg 74)
Andy Crouch is right. If a child is never exposed to meaningful risk and given a greater and greater capacity for action, the child will not develop. Too much swaddling is a bad thing for the development of a child.
Do you think God knows and understands this? Do you think God ever swaddles someone too much? Shielding them from meaningful risk and action? Or is He, in his perfect wisdom, aware when your capacity to act and vulnerability need to grow?
Perhaps all the feelings you feel in post-grad life are not as useless as you first perceive. Perhaps this is God's way of helping you grow up spiritually. Moving you into greater aspects of taking ownership of your life and your faith. The question for us is, how will we steward these increases in authority and vulnerability? Will we abuse them? Or will we steward them for the good of others? Think of Peters words in 2nd Peter 1: 5-8
For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue,[e] and virtue with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, 7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. 8 For if these qualities[f] are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. 10 Therefore, brothers,[g] be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall.
In the fog of post grad anxiety, know that you are being stretched. It’s not a meaningless season. You are growing. You are learning. You are becoming the man or woman God has called you to be. That never happens overnight. It takes the day to day faithfulness in the mundane. Lean on your God. Who is wise, loving, on time, gracious, powerful, and the master planner. Trust Him in your post grad anxiety. Know that he will provide for you. That you are not alone. And that if you are following Him, you’re right where you need to be. He is growing you.
Josh Powell
Josh is studying for his M.Div. Josh loves to read, write, and create content for those hurting & helping.