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Vieraskieliset / In-english

Blog: A future with one deadline

Vieraskieliset / In-english
2.1.2023 6.00

Juttua muokattu:

28.11. 14:07
2022112814071120230102060000

Text: Hel­mi Yr­jä­nä

Trans­la­ti­on: Sirk­ka-Lii­sa Lei­no­nen

This fall I star­ted my fifth ye­ar in uni­ver­si­ty. My stu­dies have re­ac­hed a point where there is on­ly an un­comp­le­ted Mas­ter’s the­sis bet­ween me and gra­du­a­ti­on.

Right now I am pret­ty sure I will not sign up for any ot­her pro­jects apart from my the­sis. For many ye­ars I have been stu­dying a num­ber of things at the same time, but now I de­ci­ded to con­cent­ra­te on one thing on­ly. Why should I take on new things that may turn out stres­s­ful if I have the op­ti­on of not ta­king any? By wor­king less hard, I can main­tain my men­tal wel­l­being and strength. I al­so think I may not have anot­her op­por­tu­ni­ty like this for qui­te some time, so I want to try it. It is very li­ke­ly that wor­king on one and the same to­pic all the time may turn out a bit bo­ring. But I will deal with that prob­lem when it co­mes up.

Last ye­ar I wor­ked re­al­ly hard on my stu­dies. I suf­fe­red from pro­lon­ged stress, and there were mo­ments when I was so ti­red that would have been re­a­dy to quit stu­dying al­to­get­her. But I sur­vi­ved. And I would li­ke­ly sur­vi­ve again if I had to. But I do not feel any need to put my co­ping skil­ls to a si­mi­lar test again, un­less ne­ces­sa­ry.

In May I tes­ted a new wor­king sche­du­le. I on­ly wor­ked on my the­sis and ot­her as­sign­ments for four hours a day. If I be­gan to feel ti­red du­ring my mor­ning ses­si­on, I had a twen­ty-mi­nu­te nap and then con­ti­nu­ed with more fo­cus. I found that, when I did not even try to work for eight hours a day, it was much ea­sier to con­cent­ra­te on wha­te­ver I was doing. I felt more op­ti­mis­tic and was ab­le to think more cle­ar­ly be­cau­se I was wor­king at my own pace wit­hout stress.

Right now, I have one de­ad­li­ne, by which I should ac­comp­lish so­met­hing. One sing­le de­ad­li­ne. Af­ter that, ho­we­ver, there will be anot­her de­ad­li­ne, which should be the last be­fo­re my gra­du­a­ti­on. When I am done with those, I should be a lit­t­le more grown-up and should find a nic­he for my­self all on my own. That thought seems stran­ge and even a bit op­p­res­si­ve. I feel perp­le­xed about the fu­tu­re that is emp­ty, open and comp­le­te­ly unk­nown.

So many pe­op­le have al­re­a­dy as­ked me what I will do af­ter gra­du­a­ti­on. It is a good qu­es­ti­on, but I can­not ans­wer it. I have of­ten been as­ked first ”What are you going to do?” and then ”Where are you plan­ning to set­t­le?” The lat­ter qu­es­ti­on is so­met­hing I can ans­wer: ”I would not like to set­t­le down anyw­he­re north of Ou­lu or south of Jy­väs­ky­lä.” I have drawn these li­nes on­ly be­cau­se I would like to stay wit­hin a re­a­so­nab­le dis­tan­ce from my child­hood home. In re­a­li­ty, I do not know where I will end up.

When I have been as­ked about these things, I have re­min­ded both the per­son as­king the qu­es­ti­ons and my­self that I do not need to know about my fu­tu­re yet. Thin­king about the fu­tu­re seems so stres­s­ful that I have de­ci­ded to post­po­ne that stress un­til I feel bet­ter pre­pa­red to think about it. There will be plen­ty of time for me to think about those things when I have my dip­lo­ma in my hands. Up un­til that time, I can free­ly an­ti­ci­pa­te my fu­tu­re wit­hout any plans. I trust that God has plan­ned a sui­tab­le path for me, and I do not need to wor­ry about it ahe­ad of time.

If there is so­me­o­ne among the re­a­ders of this post who is wor­ried about the fu­tu­re cour­se of his or her life, I would like to say to you: Dear friend, don’t wor­ry! The He­a­ven­ly Fat­her has plan­ned a good and sui­tab­le rou­te for you. On­ly trust in the pro­mi­se that you will find yo­ur way. The way to go may seem long to the hu­man mind, but just be­lie­ve that there is a good and safe place and life si­tu­a­ti­on wai­ting for you so­mew­he­re.

Help yo­ur dream grow

gent­ly,

stro­king it light­ly

and whis­pe­ring lo­ving words,

ca­ress and che­rish it

tend to it with com­pas­si­o­na­te thoughts

wa­ter it with warm

sum­mer rain.

That will make yo­ur dream grow

roll

in­to a sui­tab­le nic­he

find its own story line.