Seven weeks in six minutes or less

So, I just got done taking my Church History midterm for my online Church History class. It was...well...moderately difficult.

Anyway...life, up to this point. I'll give you the abbreviated version, and will probably end up throwing in memories and stories later on because if I gave you the full version, it would take several days of reading to get through.

So, I moved to Chicago on August 23 with the help of my mom and dad and aunt Alida and uncle Don. We drove all morning, stopped in Valpo to eat at the Strongbow Turkey Inn (best turkey in the world in my opinion) and got here early afternoon. My apartment is on the third floor, with no elevator, so we got the joy of climbing up three flights of stairs in pretty hot weather. In any case, we got me all moved in and then they left. My roommate hadn't arrived so I spent the first few days of my life in Chicago relatively secluded because no one else had yet moved in either.
Finally, Orientation and New Student Retreat started, and I got to meet my classmates. My incoming class has about 50 students in it, and about half of us are MDivs. The rest are either PhD students, MA students, or already have their MDiv and are doing their "Lutheran Year" at LSTC. It was a pretty overwhelming 6 days of ice breakers, worship, more ice breakers, diversity training, learning about Hyde Park, worshiping, walking, ice breakers, and worshiping. Every single one of us was exhausted every day so we all took naps, then hung out at night and got to know each other. It is so much easier to learn about people in an informal setting than through ice breakers. We built community on our own, got to know each other, and bond in that first week. Then Labor day hit and school was about to start.
Our first day was September 7th, and my first class of the day was Greek. All my other classmates had to be up at 8am for Church History, but I elected to take it online because I had never done an online class and was curious. Greek was hard, Church History was hard, Pentateuch was hard, Intro to Pastoral Care was hard. I felt pretty overwhelmed my first several weeks of seminary. I wasn't alone, all my classmates felt the same way, and one of our admissions directors, Dorothy, told me "I would worry about a person who was not feeling overwhelmed and unsure of themselves after 3 weeks of seminary." As comforting (??) as that was, it was still not the best feeling...transitions are never easy. It has since gotten much much better as I've gotten into the swing of things, and I feel God's call permeating through my life here.

Fast forward a couple weeks, and my phone gets stolen. Then my hard drive crashes. that's pretty crappy, but such is life in Chicago. Don't text at bus stops on the South Side. It's just not a good idea. And always back up your computer. But, you live and learn, and it was an opportunity for me to prioritize what was important in my life. Was it my 5000+ songs I've spent my whole life collecting? Was it my shiny new iPhone 4? or was it my good health, great friends, new community, new "family" of classmates? Now, being human, I have to say "both/and". Yeah, 'things' are important to me...as they are to everyone, but I found how to put them into place and into perspective in relation to other, more important things.

Fast forward a couple more weeks and it was our reading week. That is the week where we don't have classes (some might call it a fall break) but still have a ton of work to do. It is not truly a fall break where we don't have to worry about work, but it helps to get caught up, and (hopefully) get ahead in reading and work for classes. I spent my reading week in Columbus, doing work, visiting friends, and doing more work. Then the next week I got the opportunity to represent LSTC's admissions department on a 4 day, 4 college tour of Ohio and Michigan. That was great! I worked with admissions directors from the other seminaries of the ELCA and talked with students about prospective interest in seminary as a future possibility. Plus, it didn't hurt that my meals were paid for, etc!

Finally, here I am. Just having taken a mid-term, and still working hard at learning. I feel like I have left so much out, like my trip to a Greek Orthodox worship service, and how beautiful and interesting it was. Or how I have not worshiped at the same church twice on a Sunday, and don't plan on it for while because God is present in very different ways at so many different churches.

EDIT: This is now a week later...and here I am...just finishing up. ahhhh, seminary.