Though my future self did not feel inclined to answer such questions at that time, I am now in a position to do so.  And while my younger self may not benefit from this practice, I find there is something rather fulfilling about knowing that the questions I have in the present can and will be answered in the future.

Since the particulars of my past year are of little consequence to my readers, I’ll forego giving you my personal highlight reel; however, I do want to share a few things which I think are relevant to anyone who’s facing their last month of school before the proverbial breaking of the academic chains and facing an uncertain future.  That’s right – I timed the release of this article so that you still have a month to heed my advice.  You’re welcome.

So what should one expect after graduating with some sort of arts degree?  Of course everyone is different, but I’d say that if you’re a go-getter type, you should expect a pretty adventurous year.  My year took me everywhere from glamorous trips to Disneyworld and Chicago to sleeping on a friends’ couch for two months and having basically no job. I had exciting things happen such as getting an agent and shooting a commercial, but then there were things like having to understudy the majority of the characters in a show and learning all their instruments and vocal parts and then not actually performing at all.  It’s highs and lows, but nothing insurmountable.

So what tips and tricks would I offer to soon-to-be grads as they prepare for the real world?  Here are my thoughts…

1. Keep the mentality that you’re actually ALWAYS in the “real world”.  School is not an excuse to be lazy or hide in a bubble.  Almost everything I ended up doing this past year can be traced back to something I auditioned for or a connection I had during school.  I continued to work my two school jobs for a few months after grad, then performed two consecutive shows for which I had auditioned during my final semester.
2. Write down specific names and websites of people and businesses in your profession that you want to be working with, and keep them handy.  That’s actually how I got my agent – fishing in my notes from film class junior year and sending an email basically just saying “hey, one of my professors worked with you, wanna work with me?”
3. In fact, don’t throw out any of your notes.  I know it seems terrible, but you never know what might be useful (AKA MONOLOGUE EXERCISES).  It just so happens that a Gen Ed class I took my freshmen year is actually relevant to the documentary I’m currently working on, and I might even be interviewing that professor.
4. Add as many college connections as possible on facebook (but like don’t be too creepy).  There have been countless times where I’ve vetted future work partners by interrogating people on their mutual friends list.  You never know when a connection may come in handy, so keep your options open and do your best not to burn bridges along the way.
5. Get an alumni ID.  They’re super underrated – no one told me how to get one; you have to go to the library and ask.  And to be fair, I didn’t set foot on campus for about half a year.  But now I’m on campus pretty frequently and check out books and videos from the library all the time.  In fact, I’m actually on campus as I write this. Heh.
6. To counter this first point – stay far enough away from your college that you don’t keep thinking like a college student and wishing you could escape back into the bubble.  The world has no need for a 22-year-old has-been.
7. Have a heart-to-heart with at least one professor.  Just do it.
8. Don’t despair about the future.  Fun fact: that feeling of uncertainty doesn’t actually go away.  At least, I don’t think it will.  But if you find purpose in your work, you can learn to deal with it.  And, in fact, you may eventually find it exhilarating.

The year after grad will likely be full of periods of uncertainty followed by bursts of elation.  Hundreds of emails, a dozen opportunities, only a handful of gigs that actually happen.  Desperation for money counteracted by a deeper longing to create something meaningful, smattered with wistful proclamations that “it shouldn’t have to be this hard”.

Please don’t be discouraged; this is all part of the process.  A Winston Churchill quote I’ve had on my whiteboard for the majority of the year is: “Success is not final, and failure is not fatal.  It is the courage to continue that counts”.  It’s gonna be worth it.  Honestly, even with all the uncertainty, I’d take this over college any day.  Student loan payments and all.

So hang in there, almost-college grad.  If you stay committed to chasing after your dreams, I somehow think that things are just going to turn out.

And if you were wondering, no one did notice the stolen tassel.

They make glorious shipwreck who are lost in seeking worlds.

-G.E. Lessing

You may have noticed this is my first post in a year.  This is because I suddenly had a problem with the name of my site.  Or rather, it had a problem with me.  It’s not that I didn’t have things to write about; it’s more that every time I would think of something I wanted to write, “live it real” would stare me in the face and say “say what you’re actually thinking.  That’s why you started this site, wuss”.  To which I would reply, “no, it’s too radical, nobody is going to like what I have to say, I don’t know how to say it”, etc.

However, I recently came to terms with the fact that “disliked radical ideas” are also often the seeds of revolutions.  So with that, I pose to you the following questions.

Do you want to make the world a better place?

At what cost?

What if it costs you your reputation?

Your friends?

Your family?

Are you willing to pursue truth and goodness no matter what the cost?  No matter where it leads?  Really?

And WHY do you have this odd ambition?

Ok.  Once you’ve got those answers, read on.

A Pew research study in November reported something that many of us may already have been aware of: the US public is becoming less religious.  http://www.pewforum.org/2015/11/03/u-s-public-becoming-less-religious/

Since 2007, the amount of religiously unaffiliated adults has risen 7%, church attendees have dropped 4%, those who say religion is “very important to them” has dropped 3%.  It’s a long report, and not entirely bad news for churchgoers, but it should be enough for us to take a good, hard look at the future of the church.  I’d also like to add that a 2010 survey found that it’s those under 30 who are most religiously unaffiliated (25% of the total population).

Being a 25-year-old senior theater major at a secular college in Philadelphia, I have had a front-row seat to understand the issues that today’s millenials have with religion.  This was, in fact, one of the reasons I came to college – to understand how the secular world worked.  Having grown up in the Mennonite church (my parents were both pastors for a time), gone to a charismatic Bible school in California for a year, and traveled on numerous international missions trips, I couldn’t understand how something I had found so great could be so disdained by my fellow young folks.

Well, I do now.  At least, I understand it a lot better than I did before.  And it’s turned my world upside down.

See, the church teaches you that the reasons people don’t want to become Christians is that Christians are hypocrites, gay-haters, pedophiles, shysters, and so on.  But from sitting close and listening to what people actually have to say for themselves, I’ve realized that the world’s view of Christianity is much more complex than I ever imagined.  As such, the answers to the questions I’ve had are also complex, lengthy, and not altogether pretty.

But I do have some answers.  And with the articles I’ll be publishing over the next few months, I’m going to share them with you.

I’m committing this next phase of liveitreal to Christians who have felt perpetually frustrated by the fact they were told that they could turn the world upside down with their faith, but have realized – when they’re truly honest with themselves – that they generally feel ineffectual, confused, and stagnant.  I’m writing for people who felt like the “thrill of the hunt” disappeared when the responsibilities of adulthood came crashing down on them.  And I’m writing for those who have felt alone in their walk because they’re felt that maybe they’re the crazy one for thinking that maybe there’s something wrong with church.  You’re not alone.  So come what may, I invite you on this journey.

One more thing.  Since the articles to come are intended mainly for Christians, I feel it necessary to outline 10 characteristics of truth according to the Bible, so I can show you how I’ve arrived at my discoveries.  I hope to show you that nothing I’ve discovered falls outside of the calling of the Spirit.  You may think this is overdoing it, but I’m saying these now so that you won’t come crying to me and calling me a heretic when I start to say what I have to say.  All I’ve done is take these ideas and run with them…a little farther than I think many of us have been willing to go.

You can find these characteristics at the link below:

Ten Characteristics of Truth.

And with that, we take our first step.  This journey will certainly lead us into the unknown, but if there’s one thing through all this that I have come to believe in even more, it’s that when we know the Truth, it will set us free.

“Though it cost all you have, get understanding” (Proverbs 4:7).