What Would You Do?

Hannah Lawrence

We have 81 days until the Class of 2019 will be on the stage in Harbor Hall, being told that, in a few moments, we will be Dalat Alumni. It will be a completely surreal moment for everyone. Hold up, though. Rewind. Close your eyes. Breathe.

                                                              Questions.

Questions just filled your mind. Questions can fill our lives. They can cause stress, anxiety, fear, excitement, confusion, etc. What are you going to do after you graduate? Where are we going for lunch? Why are they doing that? Are you going to uni? What uni are you going to? When are you leaving? Do you know what you want to major in? Do you have senioritis? How does it feel? Have you started packing? Are you sliding? Do you have a dress for JSB? Who are you going with? Do you want to play CS GO? Did you see the game last night?  Where do you want to go? What do you want to be? Who are you?

The reply to most of those questions can be answered in a small amount of time, but some of them are the harder questions of life. Questions are not wrong; that is not the point of this Scribble. In fact, as a senior, I think that it is inevitable for a senior to have at least one of these questions on their minds throughout their entire year. As seniors, though, I think that we have this unsaid expectation that we are supposed to know the answers to all questions asked of us. Even when they say, “It’s okay. You don’t have to know right now,” we are still expected to know, somehow.

Some seniors can get “addicted” to answering these question during the senior year. It can become the goal at the end of the year: to know the answers to all the questions that have been swimming in our heads (or, at least, the ones that we can remember). Of course, there is always that one question for a senior: “Where are you going after this?” That is THE question that can consume everything that we do. But, there is an alternative…

Be Still.

I want to remind all of us that God does call us to “be still” (Psalms 46:10). So often, we forget that we can have times of peace when we can just think and reflect. God tells us to do so regularly. All it takes is just to sit/stand/walk and be in the moment. There is so much on this island that we taken for granted. Simply don’t do it anymore. And if one needs to ask a question, ask, “How much time have you had for yourself? How much time have you thought about your future? What do you think might be your future?”

Here is the reality: in 81 days, our lives will change dramatically into one of the most eventful moments of our lives that we will most likely remember forever.

“You know there are like 45 school days left,” exclaimed Lauren Lee (12) correcting me.

There is a long list of things that can vary from now till then. Great extremes that we will remember forever, and spectacularly minimal things that we really won’t remember five years from now. This is the lesson that I learned last week. To remember the reality and recognize that peace and trust lie in the One who calls us to be still, who told the seas and the wind to be still!