What’s my path after high school?
I didn’t know what I wanted to do after high school graduation.
I was interested in art and music, so my college and major were settled when a state school offered me a small stipend for private lessons as a music major. But during the two and a half years that I studied music, I still didn’t know if I wanted to perform or teach.
I transferred to a big university in my hometown and changed my major to art, earning a bachelor’s degree. Still, I had the nagging question, “What will I do?”
I had resisted the thought of teaching because I didn’t see myself as a classroom teacher. But that summer, I took all the required education courses, and the following fall, I had an internship teaching art.
I wondered whether this would be my career after five years of college.
The internship was rough, mainly because I had no experience in teaching three full classes of sixth graders. I frequently spent my free periods praying to see each student as an obedient, interested child of God. This was important to me as a Christian Scientist. And this spiritual outlook proved to be especially helpful when a student took an item of value belonging to me and then spontaneously returned it the next day with an apology (see “Peel off those labels,” Sentinel, February 19, 2018).
When the semester ended, it was midwinter, and I decided that I would rather start teaching in the fall—if I wanted to at all. I moved back home and went to an interview for a bookkeeping job at a local factory. But when I arrived, the personnel director apologized and told me there had been a mix-up; there was no job. She said, however, that they could use me on the assembly line. I agreed. It was physical work, but the factory was clean, and my coworkers were friendly. As the weeks went by, I wondered whether this would be my career after five years of college.
I’d heard that the university in my town had opened an art museum to house art collections donated by alumni. They had not yet hired someone to train volunteer guides and manage tour requests, and I thought that job would be perfect for me.
As I worked at my factory job, I began to pray. I knew from my study of Christian Science that my job was to represent God, who is good, and to express attributes of God—such as joy, artistry, consistency, and grace—as I understood them. I could do that on an assembly line or anywhere. And I knew that there is always a place for me because infinite God, Soul, expresses infinite individuality and needs each one of us to complete His infinite expression. My path was God-determined, not me-determined. I felt at peace with that and stopped worrying about what the next months or years of my life might look like.
My path was God-determined, not me-determined.
After a few weeks, the museum director held interviews, and I was hired. I later learned that I was chosen because I had taken education courses—which meant that my time in school had paid off.
As for my music training, I played the organ in church during and after high school and college and in every place I have lived over a span of nearly sixty years.
This experience taught me that my real employment is to represent God, good, in all areas of my life and that it can be done in a wide variety of ways. We can express and serve God wherever we are led, enabling us to bless and be blessed, many times over.
