UC seniors figuring out the future

During students’ senior year, there is a lot of stress in figuring out the next step of their lives. Almost every senior struggles with planning the future, especially when their ideas aren’t working out the way they imagined. Soon to be graduates are wondering and worrying about the future while they’re waiting to hear back from their dream jobs or graduate schools.

David Poore, a biology major at University of the Cumberlands, is one of those students. He is waiting to hear whether or not he got accepted into medical school. According to Poore, not knowing which door is open or closed can be extremely scary, but he’s learning to be patient and trust God during this time.

“It’s an everyday thing,” Poore said. “Being in the limbo of nothing’s open and nothing’s closed and you don’t have 100 percent assurance that you’re doing what you’re supposed to be doing is where I’m at.”

Many students don’t know what exactly comes next. Not only because of the fact that no one can predict the future, but also because some students don’t know exactly how they will use their major in the real world. Shantel Buchner, a human services and Spanish double major, is one of those students who doesn’t have immediate plans after graduation.

“Weirdly enough, I’m okay with it,” Buchner said. “I always looked at other seniors and thought they were crazy for not knowing what they’re going to do when they’re graduating in eight weeks. It seems like you should have a plan, but God has given me a lot of peace about not knowing what is happening next because there’s never been a time where He hasn’t provided a way of knowing what to do next.”

Buchner has many ideas of how to use her degree, gifts and knowledge in the field of international missions, social work or a combination of both. After living in Ecuador, she found a desire to share the gospel and glorify God in all she does. Another human services major and also a missions major, Kaitlin DeJarnette, has learned a lot from her majors’ departments and have put them to use during college through relationships and UC’s Appalachian Ministries.

“You get opportunities to meet a lot of different people on a spectrum of life,” said DeJarnette. “AM has allowed me to use that knowledge. There are a lot of kids dealing with different things in their families like drugs and divorce. The missions and ministry department helps me to share the gospel and human services does well to help me see their struggles, help them cope and let them know they’re not alone.”

DeJarnette encourages fellow students to experience as much as they can in college because there are so many good opportunities that could help them get a job in the future and have lots of fun.

            Although not knowing what is going to happen next is stressful and scary, Dejarnette says it’s also freeing and exciting because anything can happen.

“God has been teaching me a lot through this,” said DeJarnette. “His plans are going to happen no matter what I do. I’m not going to be always this stressed out and confused about it. There’s eventually going to be a time where I’m doing something that He has led me to do, that I love doing.”