Insights at the Beginning of Week 4 of Seminary Classes

 Today begins week 4 of seminary classes.  I told my spiritual director that seminary classes are my greatest joy in my life right now.  For so long, I've dreamed of doing this, and now I am--and it's not a disappointment!  Through the years, as I've thought about seminary, I've worried that I couldn't manage it from a time standpoint, but I was also worried that I was also worried that I might be idealizing seminary classes.  But so far, they're exactly what I had hoped.

Let me write down some insights from this time, so that I remember years from now:

--I am taking online classes this term, with the hope that I'll be on campus at some point in the future.  For years, I said that I didn't want to take online classes for seminary, but I didn't anticipate this time of disease and distancing which makes online classes make sense right now.

--I've taught a variety of online classes, and I've seen good ones and bad ones (I'm rarely the one who created the curriculum that I'm using when I teach online classes).  My seminary classes impress me even more, because I understand all the work that goes into making classes as robust as these.

--I worried that I might find the reading too hard, but so far, that's not the case.  And unlike the work for my MA and PhD in English, I don't have hundreds of pages to read in a week per class.  Right now, theology is easier for me to read than Chaucer in middle English.  That statement would probably have been true back in 1990 when I took that Chaucer course.  And frankly, theology is easier to read than many of those 19th century novels that I slogged through.

--What's hard?  Finding time to watch all the videos.  I'm taking virtual synchronous classes, which have lectures at scheduled times, along with videos to supplement.  The videos are created by the professors.  It's easy for me to "go" to my class meetings.  I am not clear why it's so hard for me to find time to watch all the videos.  So far, each class of the 3 that I'm taking has 2-3 additional videos and each of those are 12-45 minutes long.  I am getting my money's worth.

--Our class meetings are done by way of Zoom, and I'm loving those sessions.  So far, I'm not feeling Zoom burnout.  In fact, as the class ends, I feel a pang of regret--I'm enjoying the class so much, and there seems to still be so much to cover.  

--We've done some breakout sessions to have small group discussions.  I've been in a variety of settings with small groups, both in person and virtual, and I tend to hate small group time.  But I don't hate it in my seminary classes.

--I know that I'm very lucky in that I have several sources of reliable internet.  I can think of times in my life when I haven't had that, and it would make these classes much more stressful.

--As I began this term, I knew that I would have to make use of every scrap of time, and so far, I've been fairly good at that.  Before I started these classes, I have been aware of how much time I waste in internet wandering, and I've wondered why I haven't made better use of my time.  I could have been reading books or writing poems or sending work out to potential publishers, but for some reason, I haven't always done that.  I'm glad that I'm putting my time to better use.

--I am glad that I decided not to take the 4th class, the church history class.  I am aware that I am stretched a bit thin right now.  I am hoping that nothing falls apart.  I've left myself not much wiggle room for a crisis, like an illness or a hurricane that disrupts power.