You’ve graduated! What’s next?
Download the Leaving University booklet HERE

‘What’s next?’ is a question I hated when I graduated from university. It felt too abrupt, and glossed way too quickly over the effort, struggles and joys that infused my degree with meaning. ‘What’s next?’ implied that everything to do with my life at university was... well... done.
   
Of course on a most basic level this was true! However, all the things I had learned, the friends I had made, the values I had discovered, the gifts I had cultivated, and the adventures I will forever laugh about weren’t just done... they were coming with me into graduation, and into my life after university. I wanted to tell people “Don’t just ask ‘what’s next?’... ask me where I’ve come from! Ask me how I’ve changed! Ask me what I’ve learned through my time at university – through the coursework, friendships, experiences – and how they are helping to give shape to my future!” (Yes… I may have overwhelmed a few people with my response to their innocent question!)
   
However, it is also true that a part of me loved the question  ‘What’s next?’. As much as it gave me pause to think back, it also implied something fresh, something new, something to come. I had spent years preparing for ‘What’s next?’ I had spent years becoming a person ready for ‘What’s next?’ ‘What’s next?’ meant I was at a threshold – I felt eager, expectant, and though not totally ready... ready enough to jump into ‘What’s next’.
   
Here’s the thing: Life after university is a continuation of the life you’ve lived up till now, but it is also the beginning of a new season marked by new routines, new work, new colleagues, new friends, new activities. This means that it is a season of transition, which can be uncomfortable and exciting all at once.

As a continuation of your life, life after university involves the ever-present call to embody God’s care and love, and to minister through word and deed.  All that has been part of your life up to this point has been shaping you. The prayers you’ve prayed, the care you’ve shown to others, the praises you’ve offered to God, as well as the times you failed, the doubts you faced, and the suffering you’ve endured.... all of it has been part of the moment by moment building of your faith, and your life of faith, that does not end with the completion of your degree. Your life, and God’s call for your life, continues on.
   
As the beginning of a new season, the ways that you now continue to embody God’s care and love, ministering through word and deed, will inevitably change. You might live out your missional calling exactly where you are – with family, friends and colleagues, at your workplace, and through the presence of your local church.  You might be uniquely passionate about living and serving abroad, in other cultures and in places where Christianity is not well-known or embraced. Or, you might desire to focus your time in specific contexts, such as the university campus where you have just completed your studies.
   
Whether you have trained to be a high school teacher, lab technologist, electrical engineer, or journalist... and whether you plan to work in your field or pursue other interests, remember this: we are all a part of God’s mission for the world, whether or not we are employed as a ‘missionary’. 
   
Whatever direction you are now considering as you stand at this brink of graduation, BC Campus Ministries wants you to know that we are committed to walking you through the transition. As you spend the next few years transitioning from university life to life ‘After University’, keep in touch. This is a significant life marker; may it be one you experience with the fullness of community.