I have made it home as most of you already know. The past twelve days have been stressful, challenging, fulfilling, and overall a whirlwind experience. Just about a week ago I two normal final essay due in both Greek and OT and I had a three hour timed final essay for my history class. We were given several options for our final history paper and one of options was a three hour timed essay, which is similar to a standard General Ordination Exam, or GOE, session. By the end of our first semester of our third year those students pursuing ordination must take the GOE. This test consist of three hour session in seven canonical areas: Holy Scripture, Church History, Christian Theology, Christian Ethics, Contemporary Studies, Liturgics and Music, and Theory and Practice of Ministry. So, our professor thought it was a good idea to expose students to these similar situations to ease our general anxieties about the whole experiences. On a side note, in some dioceses the GOE score is taken under very serious consideration when they decide whether or not to advance a candidate for ordination, while in other diocese it means nothing at all. Anyways, by Tuesday of last week I had finished my two papers and electronically submitted them and looked towards preparing for the history paper.
I spent a fair amount of time with the texts and my class notes that the professor distributes before each class. I had a good grasp on the topic and I used a good amount of references to both the texts and the notes. I sat down, started my timer, and began to type. After about three hours I had a nine page essay on about salvation in the middle ages and I thought it was pretty solid. I sent it off to the professor and will get my grade soon. I took care of that on Thursday and had Friday to get ready for my flight home to Boston at 11:15 that night. Friday was a relaxing day and by six Jason, Lauren and I loaded up my car and made our way to SFO, Jason was flying out an hour and half after my departure and Lauren was taking my car back to school. We did stop for dinner at Sizzler. It was a classy place but it did have decent food for the options that they had. It was good to have a full meal before getting on a red-eye flight. I was at the airport by 9:30 and in the air before 11:30.
The flight was uneventful even though I did not sleep. It is not that I could have fallen asleep, it was that I couldn't even if I had wanted to. I was sitting two rows from the back in an aisle seat. I had two people to my left, the aisle and then a set of three more seats. The flight was full, every seat was filled with a body. Now there were two bathrooms at the rear of the plane, two rows behind me, and one up front by the front door and the cockpit. My shoulders are fairly broad and my should extended beyond my seat and into the aisle. every person that went to the bathroom on that five and a half hour flight, including the flight attendants, hit my shoulder as they walked by...twice, one for going and one from returning. Not one person went out of their way to try and squeeze by so needless to say I didn't even bother to try and sleep. Other than getting knocked around a whole bunch the flight went by quickly. We landed in Boston around 8:00 Saturday morning and I was asleep in my bed by 10:00.
My first semester is done and I have five more until graduation. While I am taking my time and trying to explore and take advantage of every opportunity that comes my way while I am in Cali, am always looking forward with my eye on the future. I have a goal and like a good puzzle every pieces has to line up and fit together to get the desired result, so too for me as I put all the pieces together and move forward. It is amazing to think how quickly the semester went by. It was a full three months but it didn't feel like it. I can only imagine what three years will feel like.
I am home now and ready for a break. I may post while home but I will be relaxing and getting ready for my next semester. I fly back to Cali in January so you will definitely hear from me by then. Merry Christmas.
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