Swimming Against the Current
The phrase I heard most often throughout my senior year of college was, “No one told me just how hard post-grad life would be”, and, “The year after college was the worst year of my life.” While I hoped that those were merely strong opinions, it honestly scared me. At the time, I was deeply rooted in a comfortable life in Boone – familiar with the ins and outs of class, work, church, and friends. While I knew college wasn’t going to last forever, I was mildly afraid of how the next step would look. In the widespread uncertainty of post-grad life, I found myself coming back to two common questions: What made life after college for these people so hard? How do I want my life to look differently post-grad?
A simple answer to the first question might be any combination of student debt, job searching, living in an unfamiliar city, fear of the unknown, etc. However, almost everyone I heard from, even Christians, expressed the pains of the perpetual loneliness they felt after college. And that was my fear. I was okay with the uncertainty of a job or the burden of new responsibilities, but I was terrified at the thought of the L-word.
Through God’s grace, I had already committed to the Fellows Program, and had been drawn to Chattanooga's program via the evident community that was without a doubt being nurtured there. As summer kicked off, I received our Fellows summer reader in the mail, Made For People by Justin Whitmel Earley. This book uncovers why and how we drift into the “current of loneliness”, and the necessity of fighting for covenant friendship throughout it all. Reading this, coupled with the God-given desire for intentional relationships, prepared me to dive headfirst into this year of friendship and swim hard against the deathly current of loneliness that Justin warns against.
Genesis 2:18 reads, “Then the Lord God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone...” In this moment between God and Adam, we are taught that we were quite literally made for people. We were made to be in relation with God and with others. As Justin Earley explains, “The reason we can be lonely with God is not because He is insufficient. It’s because He, as our all-powerful, perfect Creator, designed us to need other people to experience Him fully.” Loneliness is not due to God’s lack of anything, but because of His good design.
Entering this year as a Fellow, I was faced with the truth that loneliness happens not just because we don’t interact with people, but that true loneliness arises when we are not known. Since being in Chattanooga, I have experienced firsthand the joys, challenges, and rewards of fighting for covenant friendship and seeking to know others and be known. Through working hard to swim against the current, sharing and holding stories with care and compassion, creating a culture of vulnerability and intentionality, and pointing each other back to Christ again and again, I can confidently say that this has been (contrary to popular opinion) one of the sweetest and most rewarding seasons of life thus far. It surely hasn’t been without challenges, but the Lord has been faithful to surround me with community and friendships that reflect His character daily, and allowed me to experience my relationship with Him more fully.
Written by Gianna Spada, Chattanooga Fellows Class of 2025