It is August of 2021, and the silent summer hallways of YDS began to fill up with first year students, a second year Zoom-based cohort, and a returning/graduating class. As a member of that returning class, I also shared similar sentiments with the 2nd year “Zoom class” and the first-year students. It was good to be back, but it was awkward. Many students were meeting professors for the first time in person while some were re-introducing themselves, after all, some of us forgot each other’s names and maskless faces. But we were back, and there was a general sense of relief along with a myriad of other emotions we can possibly imagine. There seemed to be a collective awareness that we were living in uncertain times like never before with an overwhelming sense of anxiety about the future. A common phrase that rang throughout various conversations went something like, “Things just cannot return to the way they were.” So, what’s next? This question was frequently posed to seminary students concerning their post-graduation plans. 

 

The challenge with answering this question is rooted in the reality that many students found themselves attempting to navigate what’s now! What was is no longer, but what is to come is being shaped by our now moments. Students returned to campus and attempted to figure out what it means to engage in the practice of theological education while living through a global pandemic. What’s next after all this grief and possible survivor’s guilt, isolation, and trauma? This question requires the use of our imagination to plan for the next steps and live into a greater hope for the days to come. While students did their best to show up for class, conversations, and chapel, the demand for community was of utmost priority. The search for community was difficult, sometimes exhausting but relentless.  The impact of the pandemic left a longing to reestablish old ties and create new bonds amid deadlines, paper submissions, student leadership demands, and the incessant interrogation of what’s next. 

 

As I reflect on this past academic year, the challenge of answering this question led me to ask, what now?  I am reminded that we can only be in the present as we prepare for the future. By asking this question we are encouraged to be present with ourselves and with one another. We are charged to be in community, with the community, and where the community is now. We are called upon to the now moments of uncertainty, grief, confusion, hesitation, fear, longing, and the accompaniment of other feelings as we hold space for where people are in the here and now. As a social worker, I am reminded of a motto that teaches us to meet people where they are but to not leave them there. How can we meet each other where we are while continuing to ask what’s next? By meeting people in the here and now we acknowledge the space between us and offer the gift of presence. 

 

What’s next is determined by the ways in which we live into our now moments within our hearts, our bodies, and our minds. What’s next will become clearer when we can meet the community where it is. What’s next for our community, the graduating class, newcomers, and even prospective students will reflect the seeds sown throughout this year. As we anticipate creating a different future because things just cannot return to the way they are, may we find rest in the assurance that what is to come is presently being shaped by the act of meeting our community where it is now. After all we won’t be here forever. As we reflect and look forward, may our questions bring us to question where we are now. 

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