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This coming week at the University we will mark the diamond jubilee of someone who has dedicated his entire life to service and to faith. Sixty years in any walk of life is a milestone to celebrate. At the celebration will be some of our students who are about to enter a new chapter in their respective life journeys. For some it will mark the completion of their under-graduate studies and their first steps towards finding a career and their vocation in life.

Celebrating 60 years and looking back in grateful thanks and gratitude contrasts with students poised to set out at the beginning of their 60-year journey. Or does it?

When we look back on our own life do we communicate the full journey? The indecisions, the uncertainties, the failures and the disappointments alongside the joys, celebrations and successes? Perhaps the needs and asks of a professional life and culture demands that we present a more seamless and positive image and life trajectory in the professional space. That results in many of our doubts or uncertainties being more confined to chats with family and friends. So often in the world of work we only present a part of who we are.

This week a student asked me if I found it easy to decide on what I wanted to do when I was his age. I told him that I didn’t and that it took me a while to figure it out and what I thought I wanted to be at 21 is not what I am now. I thought about his question and how we can over emphasise the professional side of life and focus on the successes alone, and give a misleading impression about how complex and hardgoing life can get at times.
That can leave young people thinking that they’re the only ones experiencing uncertainty about life choices or lacking in direction or confidence when it matters most.

Most likely at 21 or 22 many of us faced such thoughts and today find ourselves in positions and places that we could never have predicted. Some might put it down to chance, talent or providence, depending on one’s belief. I’d be surprised if there weren’t lots of people listening who didn’t pinch themselves from time to time and ask how they ended up in jobs they love.

Not knowing how something will turn out is part of the normal human story and mystery of life. It is intertwined with human agency, potential, creativity, and for religious believers, God’s grace. It’s simply normal. And it’s a message students need to hear.

Because maybe then those setting out in the world might find it easier to gain the confidence and freedom to discover their own unique and authentic purpose.

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