Step into the supermarket with me. As we chat about our upcoming graduation, we find ourselves in the brightly colored cereal aisle met with hundreds of smiling anthropomorphic faces enticing us to go crazy for their cereals. Now reach out and choose just one for right now. But which one?! All of them are delicious and we are prepared to eat all of them right now, but just one? And right now?

Graduating is a little like that aisle. Each step down the aisle brings us to another choice: Where will you live? What job will you have? Will you go back to school? In what sector will you work? For how long? These choices may grow more pressing, but remember: Union College has prepared us for this.

Throughout our semesters here at Union College the theme of change has stood constant and unchanging. We lost and gained both a president and student life president. We swapped an old building filled with memories (and asbestos), with a wonderfully new building filled with new memories and beautiful equipment. New faculty and classes populated our already lively campus.

Some dear trees and dear friends left our campus.

The point is, this new lunge of change—from the college world to the adult world—has been preceded by little steps of change that we have all survived. We will survive this next step too.
If Union was a river of change, then the world would be a 40 year monsoon of change with frequent tidal waves. Whether those waves are new leaders, improved foreign relations, or the most recent act of utter violence, the storm never stops. But Union has prepared us for that too.
Within this wild political climate, we have found a place of activism here at Union College. Clubs that stand up for social justice, celebrate our differences of culture while celebrating together, and even provide spaces to heal from injustices are all here for us to participate in.

Union College has hosted many a social justice event, has a diverse set of students and faculty, and has kept the world events on the tip of its tongue when holding chapel events, in religion, and philosophy classes and elsewhere! (If you haven’t experienced these yet, talk to Marcia Nordmeyer, Dr. Ben Tyner and Dr. Holdsworth … but maybe bring Tyner some coffee.)

Through all of these experiences, we have learned a simple lesson—everyone is a person. Take, for instance, our future employer: a person looking for another person to be a part of a team. She is not looking for a robot who knows how to do one particular task and that’s all, she is looking for a wonderful human being who will better the company and make work enjoyable. And that’s you!
So what are we waiting for? It’s time to bring home the stripples! But wait, what is it that still holds us back? Despite being equipped for change, and equipped to work in diverse settings with amazing new people, why are we still nervous?

Maybe we forget about the common string between all of our classes, the one thing that should be present in our head, even before PEMDAS: We have an almighty Father who looks and longs for the best for us and has all the connections that anyone could ever dream of. Most importantly, He wants to be connected to us. Forever. Besides, isn’t He the reason we ended up here anyway

Well … that or IRR.

Alexander Leonor is a senior studying international rescue and relief.

Prepared or Not, Here We Come!

Questions or comments?