Kimberley Ellison

As a hopeful graduate-to-be (four weeks, two days and counting), things are changing rapidly for me.

At least, it feels like they are.

Actually, if I think about it, ‘things’ aren’t changing at all. Not yet. I’m still at college, still editing The Voice, still struggling to balance work and assignments and friends.

But something is changing.

Is it me?

There is a lack of certainty; a feeling that my world is flat and I’m coming to the edge of it. There is a strange, torn feeling between the present and the future — as though my time machine has malfunctioned and I’m stuck with one foot in each era. It’s difficult to connect my actions today with the seemingly inevitable (yet very vague) graduation and career to follow. I feel as though I’m in one of those dreams where I’m running, running, running, and not getting a step ahead. I may have found my inspiration at college in a broad sense, but it certainly seems to be eluding me at the moment. Which makes it difficult to complete tasks. Which makes me feel like I might fail. Which makes me think I might not graduate. Which throws me for a minute (or ten) into a spiraling descent of panic where I imagine my eyes turn into that happy, rainbow-coloured Spinning Wheel of Death that Mac users are so accustomed to.

Of course, I am the sensitive artistic type (hence the Mac reference). It’s more than possible that everyone else is completely calm about their future. (Ha! I made a funny! Shame I couldn’t think of a good PC joke to slip in there too.)

Change is not easy, but it’s necessary, and can be good (see Chani’s article).

The other day I was in the pottery shed working on the wheel. The formless lump of clay I was moulding slowly became a stout teapot, turned into a solid mixing bowl, then a tall jug-like vessel, then a large vase, and finally ended up as a delicate little vase suitable for holding one or two long-stemmed flowers. Apart from being a testament to my lack of planning and/or skill, I felt that the process was a powerful metaphor. We can’t expect things to stay the same. We change, others change. Cycles end (see Josh’s article). Just because something’s different doesn’t mean it’s bad. A teapot is no better or worse than a vase. It’s just different.

I think I’m finished with the formless-lump-of-clay stage. I’m shaping up to be something that just may be useful after all. It’s a good feeling.

The trick now is staying on the wheel until the Potter is finished with me.

Chani Heise

After each phase of life there is a period of uncertainty or ambiguity as it transitions into the next. Often these phases are seamless, and happen without one quite knowing or being aware of them.

I am very aware of the changes occurring in my life. I have also had the dreaded task of making decisions about some of these changes, most unwillingly at times.

Graduation. Career. Marriage. In the space of one week I went from a anticipating a future as an unemployed squatter at my parents’ house, happy in a long-term relationship, to being employed in another state, needing to be somewhat responsible, and engaged. WOW.

Throughout all the advice, sayings, and meaningful quotations I have received this year in regards to the future and possibilities of work, life and other exciting ventures, the common thread from each caring individual was this: “Chani — you do really need a change.”

Granted, living in the Cooranbong/Bonnells Bay area for the last sixteen years has led to a little bit of cabin fever within this body and soul of mine, but I didn’t think it was that resoundingly obvious.

Since that week of change, a sense of panic has overcome me. I know there are other potential graduates (I say potential because let’s face it guys, we haven’t passed everything yet!) who are feeling a similar vibe. In the face of all of these daunting, yet exciting opportunities rising to meet us, there are a few ways we might approach and deal with them, no matter what genre of ‘change’ they might be.

We can do the ostrich: tell ourselves we don’t need change, put our heads in the sand, pretend like we don’t know what is happening around us, and that because we can’t see the events passing our way, they can’t see us.

We could hurry to experience every last moment of friendship, fun, service and social networking in hopes of slowing down the ever-increasing pace of the day.

Or, we can pause. Enjoy the company of those around us. Contemplate the opportunities and decisions coming our way, ask for a bit of guidance from the One who gives us those chances in the first place, and just keep living.

Life doesn’t end after college. It doesn’t begin after college either. You’re living it now, and whether you like it or not, a change might just do you some good.

Josh Zyderveld

A friend of mine told me recently of how she used to bush doof almost every weekend; popping pills, drinking litres, smoking pounds. She went on to say, however, that she’s still in contact with her friends from those days, and as far as she can tell, they’re still doing exactly the same thing they did ten years ago. Every weekend they’re still popping pills, drinking litres, smoking pounds… and nothing has changed for them. Life has remained as it was.

One always has to know when a stage comes to an end. If we insist on staying longer than the necessary time, we lose the happiness and the meaning of the other stages we have to go through. Closing cycles, shutting doors, ending chapters – whatever name we give it, what matters is to leave in the past the moments of life that have finished.

You can tell yourself you won’t take another step because nothing could be as good as where you’re at right now, and you’ve had such good times doing what you’re doing. But such an attitude will be stressful for everyone involved; your parents, your boyfriend or girlfriend, your friends, your sister. Everyone is finishing chapters, turning over new leaves, getting on with life, and they will all feel bad seeing you at a standstill.

Things pass, and the best we can do is to let them really go away.

That is why it is so important, however painful it may be, to destroy souvenirs, move, give lots of things away, sell or donate the old books you have at home. Everything in this visible world is a manifestation of the invisible world, of what is going on in our hearts – and getting rid of certain memories also means making some room for other memories to take their place.

Let things go. Release them. Detach yourself from them.

Nobody plays this life with marked cards, so sometimes we win and sometimes we lose. Do not expect anything in return, do not expect your efforts to be appreciated, your genius to be discovered, your love to be understood.

Closing cycles. Not because of pride, incapacity or arrogance, but simply because that cycle no longer fits your life.

Shut the door, change the record, clean the house, shake off the dust.

Stop being who you were, and change into who you are.

Kirsten Bolinger

Jimmy’s first day at Avondale College was pretty awful.

“People were so rude and pushy, it was just terrible,” says Jimmy.

He didn’t know what to do or where to go. It all started at the college cafeteria for him, where two guys dressed in white escorted him to the front door and told him to stay put.

“I felt like I was spinning out of control, people pushed me and shoved me, but the worst part was not one person talked to me or even looked at me. They just pretended I wasn’t there and pushed right past,” says Jimmy.

You may think this wouldn’t happen at Avondale but it’s true. Most of us on this campus have pushed Jimmy, sometimes we even team up to push him, even though we know we shouldn’t.

But the thing is, Jimmy is beautiful. He has a shining disposition and is always dancing in circles.

We all know him. Some of us hate him.

The reason I’ve chosen to tell Jimmy’s story is because last week he told me something interesting he’s learned from his time at Avondale.

He said to me, “I’ve seen a lot of people at this campus, and I’ve heard a lot of things I probably shouldn’t have heard, but I know that even though I am stuck here forever, I served a purpose here. I remember every face that pushes me and I notice every word that is spoken, even though I can’t speak out myself.”

If you haven’t guessed it by now, Jimmy is that lovely turnstile at the entrance of the cafeteria.

Whether you’ve been at Avondale for years and are about to graduate or you are just finishing your first semester, take time to sit back and notice the people around you. Appreciate them and remember them. Even the ones that push you around.