Dear College Senior -

In 2008 when the market was crashing, I was a college senior at The Ohio State University. I had been interning with the same Fortune 500 company since my sophomore year. By the time my senior year arrived, I was taking evening classes so I could maximize my work time at my internship company during the day. That year, the department I worked for was rolling out a big project and wanted me to be a part of it. It would require me to travel with my supervisor for two weeks. I worked with all of my professors and made arrangements to make-up the assignments and tests I would miss. A couple of weeks later, I was off traveling the country rolling out the department’s big project.

I sacrificed for my internship. I worked my ass off for my internship. I made my internship a priority so that offering me a job wasn’t the question. The question became, “Which job would I be offered?”.

It was February 2008, and I was graduating in a few weeks (I graduated a quarter early). I scheduled time with the head of my department to discuss working for the team full-time post-graduation. It was during that conversation she told me the company could not offer me a full-time job because they were preparing for lay-offs. This reality turned my world upside-down. I had never considered the possibility of doing anything else, and now I had to completely reassess what I wanted to do with my life. It was overwhelming.

One day, I was walking on my college campus and saw a flyer for Teach For America (TFA). I had never heard of the program and decided to go home and research it. The mission of the organization resonated with me because of my own education experience, so I decided to apply before the final deadline. A few weeks later, I graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Textiles and Clothing, I found out I was accepted to TFA, and received my first preference of placement. I was assigned to teach high school math in Charlotte, North Carolina. I sold everything in my apartment, packed up my life in my Ford Focus, and moved to North Carolina to become a teacher.

I look back on that time in my life and it was scary AF….and as scary as it was, I am grateful for the door that closed with my internship company. That closed-door led me to my purpose. I would have never considered becoming a teacher had that moment in my life never happened.

Becoming a teacher changed my life. I fell completely in love with my students and learned very quickly that fighting for educational equity was my life’s mission.

Since graduating from The Ohio State University twelve years ago, I have been a high school math teacher, an instructional coach, an assistant principal, a middle school principal, I obtained my Master’s in Education, I launched my own education consulting business, and I am currently a full-time doctoral student in education leadership at Harvard Graduate School of Education. None of this would have happened had that door not closed.

Here are three lessons I have gleaned from that time in my life, and some of these lessons have even repeated themselves in other life chapters.

It’s okay to be scared AF.
Right now there are many unknowns, and the unknown can be scary. So if you are feeling scared right now, it’s a totally valid feeling. If you aren’t feeling scared, that’s okay too. Whatever emotions you are feeling right now are valid.
I grew up in Columbus, Ohio and went to college in Columbus, Ohio. Columbus had been all I knew. I knew absolutely no one in North Carolina. When I learned I was moving to North Carolina, I remember suppressing all of the insane emotions that come with leaving the place you’ve known as home. It wasn’t until the day I was leaving for North Carolina, and I was saying goodbye to my mom in front of my childhood home, that I broke down into tears. The moment I arrived in North Carolina, I met the most amazing people, who are still my friends to this day, and knew I made the right decision.
I’ve learned the power of acknowledging and embracing your fears. The quicker you can embrace your fears, the quicker you can give yourself permission to think about all of the new possibilities. Our fears will have us thinking about all the things that could go wrong. Considering the new possibilities allows us to consider all the things that could go right. You might still end up crying in front of your childhood home, but acknowledging the possibilities will build your confidence in your new life decision.
You can make grand plans for your life and sometimes they fail.
I am a long-term planner. For three years, I was planning on my internship leading to full-time employment. My plan didn’t work out, but the life plan that has happened as a result is so much greater than what I could have pictured for myself. I know now that the job I was planning on with my internship company would have made me unhappy. Now, I am so clear on my personal core values and I know that job didn’t align with what is most important to me.
Since that time, many plans I have made for my life have failed. Moving to North Carolina wasn’t a part of my plan, becoming a principal wasn’t a part of my plan, going to Harvard wasn’t a part of my plan. We make plans to give us comfort, and sometimes they fail. If you have been building a professional plan that is now starting to fall apart, that doesn’t mean something perfect for you isn’t headed your way.
Failed plans open the door to self-discovery.
When the job opportunity with my internship company was no longer a possibility, I had to think deeply about who I was, what made me happy, and what I wanted out of my next chapter. I found myself interrogating what it was about the job with my internship company that was a fit for me. I realized that I wanted it only because it was what I knew for three years. It was a comfortable move for me. I actually had not spent extensive time exploring other job fields. With the job opportunity I was so focused on taken off the table, it opened up a new world of options.
In order to figure out my new direction, I had to engage in deep reflection. I realized that there were imaginary rules I created about the type of job I would have after graduation. It had to be in Columbus, Ohio, it had to pay a particular salary, it had to be in a certain industry, and it had to be at a certain level of an organization. No one said I had to follow these rules, I made them up. My failed plan allowed me to question all of my imaginary rules to determine which ones were really necessary and which ones I could let go.
Closed doors provide the opportunity to rediscover yourself and question your imaginary rules. What imaginary rules have you created about your next chapter? Which rules are no longer necessary?

This moment is temporary. You don’t have to have all the answers, and it’s okay if you are overwhelmed. Be gracious and kind to yourself. You have accomplished something incredible. You are about to graduate from college! Give yourself the space to celebrate how dope you are for running your race through to the finish line!

"In every crisis there is a message. Crises are nature's way of forcing change - breaking down old structures, shaking loose negative habits so that something new and better can take their place." - Susan Taylor

Your something new and better is on the way...

Sincerely,

Erica Jordan-Thomas

Founder & Principal, EJT Consulting LLC.

Doctoral Candidate, Harvard Graduate School of Education

A letter to college seniors...from someone who knows what it’s like to graduate when the economy is collapsing.