Plans Unfold

Oh hey!

Today was truly a wonderful day - let me tell you why...

So for the past few months, I have been freaking out about everything - just life in general. Realizing that I will be graduating college in a year has stressed me out a bit, to say the least. Everyday I wake up wondering what exactly I am supposed to be doing with myself for the rest of my life. I am the type of person that likes to have most things planned out, so not having any post-graduation plans has brought on countless anxiety attacks. I have spent so many nights laying in bed asking God to point me in the direction of what I am supposed to do.

You would think that college might have given me some idea of what I want to do, but it has only made me more confused. I know that I do not want to be a doctor or an engineer but each day I am discovering different career paths that sound interesting. Not only have I been stressed about having no idea what I want to do, I have also been stressed about what to choose, and then not being able to do anything because of my lack of experience in whatever I decide that I want to do.

With that being said, everyone has stressed getting an internship. Now, that is much easier said than done. Not only is it extremely difficult to find someone to look past your resume and cover letter and actually give you an interview, but it is even more difficult when you don't know what you even want to apply for!

While I was in Italy, I started applying for internships. Since I have no idea what I want to do, I was applying for all sorts of internships - PR, communications, marketing, event planning, etc. However, it didn't seem to matter where I applied - no one wanted me. I thought that having work experience was good but I guess it wasn't what anyone was looking for. It didn't matter what I titled emails, said in my cover letter, or put on my resume because no one seemed to want to give me the time of day.

I was getting discouraged by the lack of responses to internship inquiries, so I committed to working as an Orientation Leader again just because I knew that it was a guaranteed job that would pay me good money. This way, at least I had something to do. When I applied, I had no other summer plans, so I figured that it was better than nothing.

Little did I know that it would get in the way of my internship search… When people would finally respond to me and ask for my availability, they did not like the fact that I would be gone for an entire month. I'm not saying that my time commitment to orientation was the only reason that I was struggling with finding an internship, but the chunk of time taken out of my summer definitely didn't help.

It was beginning to seem like I was going to have to choose: unpaid internship or paid summer job - not both. I was getting really stressed out because everyone was telling me that all employers care about is internships so that should be my top priority. However, I didn't want to back out on orientation and burn that bridge for an internship that I didn't even have. It just seemed like no matter what I did, I was not going to win. At that point, I had pretty much come to terms with the fact that God didn't think I needed an internship so I should just hold tight. His plans for my life have not led me wrong thus far so I figured I should trust him and not stress too much.

After giving it all up to God, I became much more at peace with my situation, realizing that He would take care of me. Once I accepted that, I was a lot less stressed. I kept applying for internships hoping that something would work out, but being okay if nothing did.

On a whim, I decided that wedding planning could be fun so I emailed a couple companies in Portland, explaining my time commitment issues, and asking if there was any way that I could work with them after orientation. Yesterday, within an hour of emailing one company, I got a response saying that I emailed them just in time; they were finalizing their summer interns at the end of the week. Today, I had an interview. Twenty minutes into the interview, I had an internship.

Turns out God was looking out for me the whole time - He just wanted to make me sweat a little. With His help, I am able to not only keep my job with orientation and make a little money, but I am also able to gain some experience - and a resume booster - to see if event planning is something that I might be interested in pursuing.

I have always been a firm believer that life never goes according to our plans; God always has His own ideas for how He thinks we should live. However, I have never been a fan of the whole waiting for His plans to unfold part. These past few months have just been a reminder to be patient and know that God is good. I'm just happier that now I can sleep easier knowing that He is working His magic and is looking out for me.

Here's to trusting in His process and watching our lives unfold before our eyes.

Sincerely yours,
Just Another Original