For those of us who are going down from the hill this second semester, I am sure we’ve all been asked this question at family gatherings and events: What are you doing after college?

Some of us may be lucky enough to have already figured things out. There are those of us who are heading off to medical school, law school, or graduate school. There are those of us who are taking a year off to volunteer in far-flung places. And there are some of us who already have job offers waiting after June 26, 2016.

Then there are those of us who are still trying to figure things out.

Frankly, I am terrified of graduating, and I am sure that I am not the only one who feels this way. I do not think I am ready to leave the Ateneo, a place that I have called home for the past few years. I am not ready to leave the friends that I have made, who have become family to me. I am not ready to step out into “the real world,” and start working for my own money.

There seems to be an immense pressure on us graduates that we should already be well aware of what career path we should take. That we should already know what our calling or vocation is. That we should be able to find careers wherein we contribute to the world on a larger scale.

Throughout our college stay, we have been taught that vocation is about finding where our greatest passions meet the world’s needs. For those in pre-med and pre-law, that was mostly easy. For those of us still trying to figure things out? Not so much.

Maybe it is because of how we have defined vocation in our heads. I am sure that for many of us, vocation is about changing the world in big ways. It is about starting sustainable businesses that not only help your employees but the environment as well. Maybe for some of us, it has become about finding a cure for cancer. And maybe for some of us, it has become about sacrificing our own happiness for the happiness of others.

One of my favorite readings from my Theology class in the previous semester refutes this last statement. Perhaps in our desire to save the world, we have forgotten to look at what will save us from ourselves. We have a tendency to think that in order to make a difference, we have to look outward.

But sometimes, maybe, we also have to look inside ourselves as well. The aforementioned reading, which is Frederick Buechner’s “The Calling of Voices”, says, “We have to listen to the voice that we listen to least, and that is the voice of our own gladness.” Vocation is not only about making other people happy, but it is also about making ourselves happy.

So for those of us who have not figured things out, maybe we should not stress so much. We may not be saving lives or winning criminal cases like some of our batch mates in the future, but surely we can find our own ways of contributing to the needs of the world, whether it is in large ways or small ways. There is no single way of serving the needs of the world, much like there is no single path to happiness.

Buechner says, “In a world where there is so much drudgery, so much grief, so much emptiness and fear and pain, our gladness in our work is as much needed as we ourselves need to be glad. If we keep our eyes and ears open, our hearts open, we will find the place surely.”