Are you a planner? Do you like everything mapped out ahead and well organized? Do you have a well-planned itinerary for a vacation?
Or are you more laid back? Perhaps you “fly by the seat of your pants” and like to plan as you go—to be more spontaneous in participating in activities, vacations, and adventures.
If you are a recent high school graduate (or the parent of a graduate), you may be preparing for college. It’s NOT a vacation, but going away to school is most definitely an adventure. And while some of your preparation this summer should include spontaneous fun with family and friends, it’s also a time to prepare for this new adventure of college—to get ready to “know and grow” and engage in some specific preparation for the fall.
Below is an excerpt from Stay the Course: A Devotional Handbook to Survive and Thrive in Your First Year of College (and Beyond). You’ll find tips for parents and students to help prepare for the exciting (and sometimes terrifying) adventure of college.
Getting Ready to Know and Grow
So that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way; bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience. Colossians 1:10-11.
Graduation from high school is a major milestone in your life—one more step on the road to adulthood. You’ve needed endurance, perseverance, and patience to achieve this goal. Congratulations!
Those same traits will serve you well as you continue your education. College is like merging onto an interstate highway. It’s an accelerated and more complicated path toward your future. Navigating on this road requires necessary equipment (more than just a car).
For your journey, you will need:
- Adequate preparation (your academic foundation)
- A good map (plan) to reach your destination
- Careful observation of obstacles, roadblocks, and pitfalls
- Perseverance, hard work, and support to keep you on the road (and not lost)
- Adequate fuel (good nutrition and healthy habits)
- To keep your eyes, mind, and effort on the destination
Whether you live at home and commute or move away for college, it’s a huge adjustment. The better prepared you are for academic rigor and challenges, the more likely you are to achieve your goal to complete your degree.
Part of your preparation should be some self-analysis. What areas might you need to work in this summer?
Consider these actions:
- Take a summer class to ease your way into college coursework.
- Visit your campus and get familiar with the layout—location of classrooms, resident halls, library, cafeteria, health center, resources for academic success, fitness center, etc.
- If you already have your schedule, get a head-start on purchasing textbooks—are they online resources or hard copy? Where are the best prices?
- Are there orientations? Summer readings? Do you need an on-campus job?
- If you’re living on campus and have a roommate, check into making contact so you’ll know each other prior to the start of the semester.
Prayer:
Many of us are getting ready for college. Like me, most students are probably confident and terrified at the same time. We probably don’t know what we don’t know. Please help us know what we need to do to help prepare us for this new journey.
I hope you’ll join me in prayer for our high school graduates. It’s a tough world out there!
Order link for Stay the Course: https://mybook.to/QQq3h
Dr. Katherine Pasour’s Bio:
Dr. Katherine Pasour is a retired college professor, an author, and a speaker. During more than four decades of teaching, greater than half at the college level, Katherine has taught and mentored thousands of students.
Katherine has degrees in health and physical education and religion, and a PhD in education. She has taught health and physical education to children, wellness to young adults, general education courses, and research classes for honors students, and she’s prepared students to be teachers.
An outdoor girl at heart, Katherine enjoys her farm animals, gardening, and hiking. Although pulling weeds or spreading mulch in her flowers aren’t her favorite hobbies, she finds these outdoor tasks are great stress relievers, especially in the spring when the fruits of her labor display their glorious blossoms.
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Matthew 28:19 “Therefore, GO and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.”
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