There was the sound of wood creaking as I shifted uncomfortably in my seat in the old coffee shop. The student friend sitting opposite me held the silence that had stepped into the conversation the moment she had asked the question. Now it hung in the air, the biggest question-mark of her life. We both took another sip of coffee, not really knowing where to go next.

“What am I going to do with my life? What happens after my degree?”

I was getting sick of just how often I heard this come out the mouth of one of my friends. Students and graduates, Christians and people who don’t know Jesus alike, our generation are getting paralysed by the dreaded question that every well-meaning friend and family member seems to be fixated on: “What are you going to do with your life?”

I've fine-tuned a number of responses to this question, so common is the occurrence of sitting opposite a frustrated friend with their future and its lack of clarity sat like a huge, dripping sponge of energy-sucking heaviness between us. I usually try and ask some “helpful’ questions. ‘What are you passionate about?’ ‘If money didn’t exist, what would you love to spend your time doing?’ ‘Has God ever said anything that would indicate how he’s made you and what that might be for?’ I’m not saying my questions are right, but at least they provoke a discussion that helps us find a way through the dead-end silence and possibly spot some things the person might actually care about. 

In the end, it was sitting with a friend one Saturday during term time, discussing and praying through the dreaded question, that I decided to take action. There and then I began writing a piece of spoken word poetry that could address some of the struggle and emotion we all face when we don’t know where to go next and can’t hear what God is saying to us about career and future, if he’s speaking at all. I tried to put myself in the shoes of the graduating student beside me and an hour later, the following spoken word piece was born.

So take a look, our brand new film for every student and graduate wondering about the future and struggling to navigate the ‘not knowing’. This is dedicated to every friend I've sat with wrestling through the lack of answers. This is dedicated to every graduate who hasn't found a job and doesn't know where to go now.

This is for you.