Rebirth

The Phoenix has once again risen from the ashes, my friends. After realizing the transitions I have made between undergraduate and grad school, I decided to delete my old blog and start anew.

Graduate school has been an eye-opening experience, and we are barely into the third week. I know God wants me to fufill His calling for me, but I also know it is going to require more motivation, dedication and sacrifices than I ever thought I would have to make. But I am more than happy to sacrifice some of my free time and sanity (provided what's left of it...and that is more than open to debate) to accomplish what God has set out for me.

So far, classes have been very intense, but they are going wonderfully. I received my first two grades back yesterday, and I am happy to report that they were both A's. This is especially good news considering they were grades for my Pastoral Epistles class, in which we are specializing in the exegetical aspect of the letters. And exegesis/hermeneutics is exactly what I want to pursue. I also felt relief and pride to see that my professor had written "Very good argumentation and good points you raise. A very impressive first paper!"

That is not at all to say that because I earned two A's I think I can just coast through. If anything, I know how much harder I want to work in order to ensure that I can maintain these grades. After all, I plan to go straight into my doctorate after this.

According to my advisor, if I go through the summer session, I will be able to have my master's completed in one year. Which puts me way ahead of schedule, because the masters usually takes 2 years here but I was able to test out of every background class but one. This gives me a year to start thinking about the next step I want to take in my life. I know I want to get my doctorate, I know I want to do hermeneutics/exegesis in the New Testament, however I still need to hone down what schools I want to go to, as well as what Gospel I want to focus on.

I am amazed to see how young I am compared to the other masters students. I was under the naive impression that people graduate from college and automatically start into their graduate studies. I am one of the youngest people in the MA Theology program. This is a benefit to me, as well as a disadvantage. It's a benefit in the sense that I still have the learning discipline engrained into me and I am coming in with a BA in Theo so my courses are being reinforced, unlike several people in the program who did a BA in something else entirely. It's a disadvantage in the sense that I fear these people have so much more life experience than I do, and I am only now starting to learn what it is like to be completely on your own.

If all goes well, I will be spending my final semester in Rome studying at the Angelicium. This is beyond a dream come true for me, and I just thank God that He allowed everything to fall into place for me, even if my faith was often smaller than a mustard seed at times.

Mentally, I am a lot calmer and more at peace than I ever thought I could possibly be, even considering the amount of stress I am under. I just know in my heart that I wouldn't be in graduate school if God didn't think I could do this. Medically, it's another story. The weekend before classes started I was in the ER for another flare up of my colitis. But thankfully, I was able to get restarted on medications and I found a wonderful doctor in the area. I just thank God I was able to get treated before classes went underday.

I have been praying alot about the relationship I am in right now, if that is the proper term to call it. It's still ongoing, but I am not sure what I am supposed to be getting out of it. So for now, I am hanging in there and seeing where things go. Keep me in your prayers, will you?

Ad Majorium Dei Glorium