Finally Final
T.B. and Me in Class - Oct 2010
As action starts to pick-up along the job front, this week I've started in on what will be my final, Final Semester at Yale Divinity School.
Looking back at posts from the Spring of 2009 (during what was then my first Final Semester at YDS), a certain phrase appears regularly in brackets - 'for now.'
This time that finality is 'for real.'
One year certainly makes for a short (and intense) degree.
Last semester challenged me with questions about Religion and Politics, Violence and Reconciliation, and Faith and Globalization. Now the focus is shifting to issues surrounding the Disinherited, Urban Life and Global History, and the Church in China - including a travel seminar in early May.
Also out there is a thesis springing from my encounter a year ago with migrant workers from Nepal and their 'miraculous' conversion to Christianity in mostly Muslim Malaysia - something I should really get serious about writing one of these days.
If the fall seemed to fly by, the spring promises to be nothing short of a whirlwind.
Work-work (as in professional work) will come again soon enough.
The more immediate challenge is to hold on, to make the most of every opportunity, and to graciously savor every second of what is undoubtedly my final go-round as an academic bulldog.
Looking back at posts from the Spring of 2009 (during what was then my first Final Semester at YDS), a certain phrase appears regularly in brackets - 'for now.'
This time that finality is 'for real.'
One year certainly makes for a short (and intense) degree.
Last semester challenged me with questions about Religion and Politics, Violence and Reconciliation, and Faith and Globalization. Now the focus is shifting to issues surrounding the Disinherited, Urban Life and Global History, and the Church in China - including a travel seminar in early May.
Also out there is a thesis springing from my encounter a year ago with migrant workers from Nepal and their 'miraculous' conversion to Christianity in mostly Muslim Malaysia - something I should really get serious about writing one of these days.
If the fall seemed to fly by, the spring promises to be nothing short of a whirlwind.
Work-work (as in professional work) will come again soon enough.
The more immediate challenge is to hold on, to make the most of every opportunity, and to graciously savor every second of what is undoubtedly my final go-round as an academic bulldog.
Comments
Erin - My giant head comes from generations of German and Danish peasants feasting on hearty meats and potatoes instead of wasting away on tea and crumpets.