My how time flies... I think I've made just 2 new posts in the last year...
Two years ago I re-started my journey in pursuit of FINALLY finishing my B.A. in Communication. Last Thursday I finished my last official on campus class! Let me repeat that...(ok I'll spare you) but honestly, it doesn't seem like it has really quite set in for me yet! I have 2 units of an off campus internship to wrap up (due in part to a costly oversight on behalf of the advising office...) In actuality, those 2 additional units will give me another 6 months to figure out what I am going to do when I grow up! Just wondering...do they pay people to test out spa services at luxury resorts??? I should probably have a back up plan if that options doesn't pan out for me :)
I was looking back through my old posts and stumbled upon one I posted my first day on campus at CSUCI. In it I commented on how I was getting teary eyed driving onto campus, overwhelmed at my opportunity to complete my degree after nearly a quarter of a century. I wish I could tell you that was a one time occurrence and that I managed to be tear free for the next 2 years, but alas, I found out I was going to find myself on the verge of tears on numerous occasions.
Odd things would routinely prick my heart as I was taking the 45 minute drive to or from campus. At times I would just revel in amazement that I was really back in college and the tears would start, but more often than not, I would be thinking about the students, some of whom I had the pleasure of getting to know a bit, and others I mainly knew through class interactions. I would ponder the world they are growing up in and just how critical it is these days to engage passionately in things that will make a difference, not only in the here and now, but to mindfully engage in those things that will make an eternal difference. I thought often about the obvious political agenda being infused not only through lectures and course offerings, but integrated in the re-framing of history as spelled out on the pages of text books that were required reading (often at a cost of $150 or more a piece.)
Maybe it is because I have spent a good deal of the last couple of decades getting to know, what I know that I know; understanding why I believe what I believe and convicted not of my "rightness" but in the divine order of things in this world - that my heart at times would ache at some of the messages being proclaimed; those in particular that ran in polar opposition to what I hold passionately in my heart regarding what is true and good. I so very much appreciated the professors who were able to balance their perspective with a genuine ability to "hear" and "value" opinions that ran counter to their own, but those were the anomaly. I question professors who earnestly seek to preach a world view rather than inspire students to take in information, search for wisdom and formulate their hypothesis - without the fear of getting a less than desired grade on a paper for doing so. For the most part, I was fortunate to have professors who permitted (or tolerated) dissension and graded on merit, but that is not always the case.
This generation is faced with challenges not previously forged - I'll continue to pray that their hearts would be open to those things that have eternal significance and pray that their minds would be alerted to destructive influences that run counter to the will of God. Well, that is about it for now...guess I haven't forgotten how to ponder... Much love xo
