Starting grad school....

I just had one of those weeks that deserves to be marked, remembered. It was my first week at Mars Hill Graduate School: full of classes, orientation, meeting new people. Looking back on the week I think that the thing I feel most distinctly is that I was welcomed really well into that community. Starting with walking in the door Tuesday morning all the way to the Vespers service tonight, everything fit together really well and gave me the feeling of being taken care of. It seemed like all the little details had been thought of, and there was meaning attached to everything.. There was much time devoted to connecting with all the new faces--meeting new students as well as meeting the faculty. I told Amanda today that I wished there were actually LESS people I wanted to connect with at school; I start to feel overwhelmed at all the potential relationships... That's a good problem. It just seems like it's a solid group of people who I have a lot to learn from.

Tonight during the Vespers service we had time to consider what we were hoping for as this time at MHGS commences. It's a good question, and a scary one to answer because there's something really vulnerable about exposing hope. Failing doesn't appeal all that much to me, so the idea of my failing being exposed to everyone is frightening. I guess the converse of that would be that my success would be exposed as well... I'm hoping that the disruptive, painful, and good process of going to school gives me more confidence, and in turn gives me the courage to trust myself. I think I could be a good counselor. And even more important to me, I think I could be a good friend. But I have this deep belief that I need to spend some time examining what's deepest inside of me before I can help people understand the core of themselves. There's no doubt that this program will help me achieve that goal--whether I want it to or not. Stay tuned for the details...

PS-here's a picture of Zara sneaking a peek inside one of the classrooms.