One Semester In.
This probably won't be a long or terribly insightful post, but I've completed my classwork (except finals after Thanksgiving) for my first semester in seminary. It's grown me a lot, to be sure, and truthfully things back "home" in TX feel somewhat like another life. Maybe they are, now.
This time of year is always one that's sort of melancholy for me. Things are ending, people move away, it gets cold (18 degrees outside right now) and Christmas sneaks in under the auspices of commercialism for most people.
This year I'm away from family, pursuing my own path at long last. Being here's completely erased myths I believed previously, and grown me up in the faith quite a lot. Classes here aren't mere classes - there is real meaning to them. Sometimes it feels like the point of classes ISN'T learning for academic sake, but something more real and relevant. The semester was hard corusework wise, don't get me wrong - and we'll see if I survive my first outing with Greek - but as I come home to my cozy little dorm room while it's still cold and quiet outside, it'd be a crime to talk more of academics.
It's funny looking back at the past, as is my habit this time of year. The things I worried about, the stresses and fears that are common to life in your early 20's. I think I might just end up growing up afterall. One thing I've noticed for certain - being here's made me both stronger and more gentle. When I lived in Abilene it was easy to feel isolated, like you're one of the only people fighting for what was true and right in the faith. Here, I'm one of a vast amount - something I've not really ever felt. I was always unsettled, always suspicious, and always somewhat grieved. Here... it's simply not that way. Sure, there are some frustrations, but that's life. My church here doesn't trade truth for anything: unity, success, or pleasure. My professors are men who bathe in prayer, and lavish students in spiritual headship and guidance. There's a real "center" on campus, something that just feels spot-on.
I am definately a Texan, but rather than go through a hundred describtions trying to grasp a meaning, I think one thing above all can be said about going to Southern. It feels like home. Not physically or culturally - there's that Texan creeping out. :) But "home" in a sense that I feel like I'm finally in a place where everyone's finally on the same side; going for the same thing. Maybe that'll change, and maybe as I spend more time here that sense with dissapate. But as this Christmas rolls in - that's the story.
This time of year is always one that's sort of melancholy for me. Things are ending, people move away, it gets cold (18 degrees outside right now) and Christmas sneaks in under the auspices of commercialism for most people.
This year I'm away from family, pursuing my own path at long last. Being here's completely erased myths I believed previously, and grown me up in the faith quite a lot. Classes here aren't mere classes - there is real meaning to them. Sometimes it feels like the point of classes ISN'T learning for academic sake, but something more real and relevant. The semester was hard corusework wise, don't get me wrong - and we'll see if I survive my first outing with Greek - but as I come home to my cozy little dorm room while it's still cold and quiet outside, it'd be a crime to talk more of academics.
It's funny looking back at the past, as is my habit this time of year. The things I worried about, the stresses and fears that are common to life in your early 20's. I think I might just end up growing up afterall. One thing I've noticed for certain - being here's made me both stronger and more gentle. When I lived in Abilene it was easy to feel isolated, like you're one of the only people fighting for what was true and right in the faith. Here, I'm one of a vast amount - something I've not really ever felt. I was always unsettled, always suspicious, and always somewhat grieved. Here... it's simply not that way. Sure, there are some frustrations, but that's life. My church here doesn't trade truth for anything: unity, success, or pleasure. My professors are men who bathe in prayer, and lavish students in spiritual headship and guidance. There's a real "center" on campus, something that just feels spot-on.
I am definately a Texan, but rather than go through a hundred describtions trying to grasp a meaning, I think one thing above all can be said about going to Southern. It feels like home. Not physically or culturally - there's that Texan creeping out. :) But "home" in a sense that I feel like I'm finally in a place where everyone's finally on the same side; going for the same thing. Maybe that'll change, and maybe as I spend more time here that sense with dissapate. But as this Christmas rolls in - that's the story.
posted by Robert at 6:45 AM
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