“So what are you doing after college?” the man asked.

I delay. “Umm, I’m not quite sure how things will shake out… umm… I’ve got some options… umm… maybe go to grad school?”

“Sounds like a good plan. Education is always a good investment,” he said very seriously.

To the graduating class of 2008, this conversation probably sounds familiar. I barely knew this man, yet by asking this simple question he immediately had me under his thumb. If you’ve got no solid plan for post-college life like many other seniors, you might be able to identify. Here we are nearing the end of our educational odyssey, yet the very day we have planned for and worked toward (graduation) is about as far as many of us have gotten. Like a war in Iraq, going to DU is one thing, but what we do after conquering it usually lacks any real planning.

But in spite of only minor preparations for the next step, I tend to look at life after college with some excitement. I remember leaving high school with a similar feeling – like I could “change the world” – and I’d be lying if I said this feeling was much different now.

After a summer internship with a financial institution a few years ago, I wasn’t so sure. I could see myself succeeding there, but after experiencing firsthand the corporate mechanism that tends to dehumanize both employees and customers, I realized that I didn’t want to succeed at something like that. That’s no place to change the world, at least not the kind of change that I’d like to be a part of.

But I still think I can change the world. I mean, don’t you?

I know I should know better, that I should be more cynical after opening my eyes here in college to how the world really works. But I don’t want to be cynical. I don’t want to know better if it means giving in to negativity. I want to hope, and I want to work for a better life.

So maybe I’m just stubborn. But if being stubborn keeps me from accepting some previously inevitable doom of a cubicle and the farewell to freedom as I know it, then God bless such stubbornness.

Perhaps the problem is that when we are asked so often and by so many people what our plans are for next year, after a while we start to really worry about such things. Before long the mere question brings on tension, but we must realize this tension is not placed on us by the folks asking. To be sure, many of these people are asking because they care about us and want to know about our lives. We place this tension on ourselves. We end up listening to their voices more than to our own inner voice. We choose to listen to another source instead of our own, which will never guide us astray.

Still worried about next year? Stop it. Things will work out for all of us. Whatever you put your mind to, you will accomplish. It’s as simple as that. If you need proof, just consider what you’ve put your mind to and accomplished while at DU. Whether it was achieving academic success, increasing your bench press or attaining spiritual enlightenment, if you really gave it your best effort – and only you can really judge that – you have probably reached your goal, at least in some way.

Be sure to remember how strong you are when you decide to do something. Forget tomorrow and forget yesterday: they don’t exist. Be here, enjoy now, and receive this moment as a blessing, not a punishment. As long as you’re fully present in your life here at DU, tomorrow will take care of itself!

For those of us entering into our last quarter at DU, let’s enjoy every moment of it we can.