This summer between high school and whatever happens after high school has been a long one. A wedding, a funeral, a trip to Europe... and a lot of work. I guess more than anything there has been time to think and plenty of food for thought, a wonderful combination indeed. Like Jojo, I have many thinks, although I suspect they're not quite as interesting as his, but I am no Seuss.
Summer is not my best time of year. I figured out why in the middle of church one Sunday when my mind was wandering. Oops? At the end of this past school year, my class took a three day camping trip to French Creek, and as a part of that little jaunt we spent quite a large amount of time around the camp fire. Turns out that Pennsylvania is frigid in mid-May. On our final evening there, Mr. Cote addressed each person individually, naming a strength that he or she had. For me, he referred to the Luke 10 passage where the legal expert asks Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus points him back to the law of Moses, which says to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind. According to Mr. Cote, I worship God with my mind. Enter summer time, the brief and dull period of mental lassitude when I have a bad tendency of filling my head with well-written, beautiful, and ultimately unchallenging fiction. I suspect that my dislike of summer stems in part from the fact that I don't do anything more mentally rigorous than the occasional crossword puzzle. Also, there is the self-serving and the lack of purpose that seem to govern my days, but this is an introductory post on a blog that is supposedly intended to contain updates about life and learning at Impact 360, so the learning thing seemed more relevant.
Does all of that pondering actually go anywhere? Well, er, not really. I guess the point of that was to prove that I have been thinking (in church, no less *gasp*), and that I am so, so ready to be back in school.
Over the past few weeks, I have had the joy of being introduced to several of my classmates for the upcoming year as well as a few alumni. I'm not sure which group is more daunting: the classmates because I'm going to live with them for nine months or the alumni because they're so terrifyingly exuberant and friendly. Or the fact that somewhere in the space of those nine months we are probably going to end up like them. Not that this is a bad thing... I think.
It's been a progression of sensations, from the overeager impatience of the fresh graduate to the delight of the bookworm who had just received her first taste of the year to come to the plodding anticipation of an unending summer. And sometimes a little fear nips at my heels, but tis best not dwelt upon. After all, "I have set the Lord always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. Therefore, my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope." (Psalm 16:8-9)
Oh Impact 360, can you please be here now?
