Members of the community of Yorkin, on a canoe of the STIBRAWPA association. Photo used with permission from https://enstibrawpayorkin.wordpress.com/images/

I have seen a saying around campus in the past few weeks, in the Student Life Administration window, in the Valparaiso University Center for the Arts Box Office: “Fall is proof that change is beautiful.”  It’s true, fall is beautiful.  However, I was thinking that perhaps we need the reminder by way of a catchy saying because we don’t often feel that change is beautiful.  In fact, it can be downright scary.

Everywhere I turn, people are reflecting on change.  The Institute’s Listening for Purpose podcast Season 2 Episode 2, an interview with Valpo senior Reahlyn Bryce (which was released on November 12, 2024), is all about change and beauty in inspiring songs.  Reahlyn and Listening for Purpose host, senior Simeon Klepac, discuss the impending transition facing seniors as they finish out their time at Valpo and make plans for the future.

Whenever I attend higher education conferences, colleagues discuss changes on their campuses that make the future uncertain and require adaptation.  A change in national administration always brings uncertainty, and many people from all sides of the political spectrum expect the upcoming administrative change to be paradigmatic.  

How do we discern our calling and vocation in such times of change and uncertainty?  How will our calling change in the impending future?  Does impending change bring us hope?  Fear?  Is the change one that we wanted, or one that was forced on us?  Does it bring us deep happiness, or is it full of sadness and regret?

For many people, the question of vocational transition is not merely intellectual or emotional, but real and material to their lives.  

During the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, I wrote about women that I know in Costa Rica and Northwest Indiana who responded to uncertainty and crisis with creativity and grit that opened up new possibilities for their families and communities, despite great hardship.  The loss of tourism income, the decline of fish populations for island dwellers, the need to take a step back from college – all were setbacks, but the vocational resilience of these women made survival possible for their families.

I want to sit with the stories of so many who have gone before us, who have passed through intense and frightening times, and who survived, even when many others didn’t.  From American Indians in my home state of South Dakota that survived boarding schools and are still here today, to refugees who passed through the Darien Gap after leaving behind everything they once knew; from Black Americans who migrated to the North during the Great Migration to escape Jim Crow, to individuals with health diagnoses that set them on vocational paths they would never have chosen for themselves.  All of these folks lived a vocation of survival and resilience in the face of change, and forged paths forward.

When economic and political systems are in upheaval, changes and uncertainty affect us all, and we are called to consider how our vocations meet the specific moments we find ourselves in.  Big changes mean that our vocations are going to shift, and we may or may not find deep happiness in that transition.   Deirdre Egan-Ryan, Professor of English and Director of faculty development at St. Norbert College recently wrote for the Network on Vocation in Undergraduate Education blog:  “Even if we don’t want to admit it, we can all feel some degree of fear as our vocations shift. It’s natural for transitions to be times of uncertainty, sometimes so intensively that we fear losing our very sense of self in the process. This is especially acute when changes are ones that we did not choose and that feel out of our control.”

Despite the fear that can come with change, new vocations are also opportunities.  In the ILAS student staff read this year, Your Calling Here and Now by Gordon T. Smith, the author encourages us to face questions of change and vocational discernment with an intentional thoughtfulness.  Smith describes this thoughtfulness as “critical, confident, creative, and compassionate” (p. 82): we see past the hype (critical), we speak for ourselves (confident), we are capable of adaptability (creative), and we have empathy for others (compassionate).  These are postures that we can intentionally practice in moments of uncertainty, and will help us to move forward.

In her podcast interview Reahlyn Bryce reminds us that change and transition are a part of life, as fearful as uncertainty might make us.  She reminds us that we will not be able to accept the gifts of a new future if we cling too tightly to the past.  May we all, in times of change, embrace the vocation of moving forward.

The Institute for Leadership and Service, we are currently accepting applications to our summer fellowship program called the Calling and Purpose in Society (CAPS) Fellows Program.  This is an opportunity to live out a calling in the moment, but also to practice the steps of discernment and deep listening, to learn about situations in the world that require attention and response.  The experience will prepare students to approach future issues of calling and purpose with tools of reflection, community, and a responsive attitude.  

If you or someone you know are interested in the CAPS Program, you can find more information on our website (www.valpo.edu/ilas), or write to us at lead.serve@valpo.edu. 

-by Deaconess Kat Peters, M.Ed., M.A., Assistant Director of the Institute for Leadership and Service