I'm Mak'n It

Thanks to those who have encouraged me these last few weeks since my Pentateuch mid-term. I reread it now and cringe at how discouraged I was. I still haven't received it back but I'm not as worried now. This week was a little easier because I didn't have anything due and was able to get started on some upcoming papers and studying. It's going to be busy but I should be okay. I thank the Lord for you all and your encouragement to me!

The Worst Exam of My Life

In the past, I've heard of people who would cry after extremely difficult exams and I could never understand why. Until today. I just took the hardest exam I've ever taken before in my whole entire academic life. It was in my Pentateuch class. I basically put in about 20 hours of studying this past week and still felt totally unprepared for the exam. The questions I felt were the most difficult on the study guide were the exact questions on the exam. With only ten minutes left in the test I basically gave up because my head hurt so much from thinking and trying to recall different facts and verses on people like Laban & Jacob, the order of Creation and their elements, the role of deception in the Pentateuchal narratives, and a host of other stuff I hope I got credit on. I hope I got half the points on that exam. And you know this is bad since I don't usually whine about how poorly I did on exams. I just can't believe how hard it was. I seriously wanted to cry afterwards. Oh, and whoopee for me, I still get to take the final in a few weeks. Lucky me.

And now, why am I here? Why am I spending and taking out loans of thousands of dollars per quarter to subject myself to such pain? Why did I return to America for this? I knew going back to school was going to be difficult and now it's turning out to be exactly as I had expected. I wasn't built to do school, I was built to work.

Thankfully, next quarter will be better. I'm taking only two classes and doing my internship. I look forward to be back in the working world (albeit as an intern) and working and talking with people. I just need to get through this quarter and my time of being back in school. Only a few more weeks.

Mid-Quarter Time

I'm now in the middle of my second quarter and I am swamped with work. I'm taking four classes right now and I don't think I'll be making such a decision like this again because it's just turning out to be way too much.

However, I am very hopeful for next quarter. I recently got an internship with a local hospital to do an internship with the Spiritual Care team there. I'll be working with the hospital chaplain for the quarter learning what a hospital chapliancy is like. I'm super excited about this internship because I've been thinking a lot about chaplaincy as a career after I graduate from Fuller. I love the idea of being a pastor in place where the people I minister to are not all Christians. But I know it's going to be difficult because the patients there are facing serious things like sickness, life, and death. These are hard topics to confront and discuss. I hope to be someone who is available to listen and to help guide them through their questions. I can't wait for it!

Otherwise, I've just been studying. It's definitely not been as fun-filled as last quarter where I was sailing and having tons of fun on the weekends. This quarter I've definitely been trying to keep my head above water on the assignments. I was taking sailing at the beginning of this quarter but I injured my finger pretty bad the first day of class. It was enough to stop my sailing for these last few weeks. I look forward to starting back up again once I'm all healed up. And plus, the wind will really be blow'n as the spring and summer approaches!