Week 1

Well friends, I have survived the first week of classes by the grace of God.
I am trying to make more time for devotions this semester because I can see the positive change in days when I do versus days when I don't. In lots of little, quiet ways, God has been near to me like a Dad and a Friend this week. I never thought I would experience what people were talking about when they said that. I am blessed.

Last semester, I gave a rundown on my classes and my professors. I had a scheduling conflict that resulted in a stressed phone call to my mom, lots of planning and freaking out about the future, and eventually a meeting with my advisor. I am on track to graduate in four years. I am blessed.

I was planning to do a very critical (see: judgmental) rundown of all my courses and my profs just like last semester, but God is bringing out my tender heart right now. Here is a quick overview:
Last semester, I had Minority Group Relations with Dr. Hawkins. He is an honors prof and that's a general education course that covers 2 requirements at 1 time. Holla. At the end of the semester, Dr. Hawkins asked me to consider joining the honors college and sent me the link to apply and talked to an honors kid to seek me out haha. Bottom line, you need a 3.6 to be in the smarty college and I have a 3.42. Oh well, I said. Dr. Hawkins then asked me if I would consider joining his honors research seminar in which we would be studying the role of the American church in suppressing the Civil Rights Movement. Woah. Sounds interesting right? I agreed and planned it into my schedule so I would be taking 16 credit hours.

There's a process for applying to be in an honors class if you're not an honors kid. When I went to the registrar's office with my advisor's signature on the matter, the super kind woman at the desk informed me that HNR325 is in fact a 3 credit hour class, so my work load would be 18 hours. She encouraged me to wait, meet with my advisor, talk to my parents, and see what could be eliminated from this semester so that I can take advantage of this opportunity. I did just that.

Bottom line, it made sense to drop New Testament. It is a gen ed and not a prerequisite for anything else, so it was the logical choice. I'm glad I can take New Testament at a later time and really devote the time and energy I want to devote to reading the whole thing. My prof was so kind and understanding about the situation. I hope when I take the course again I can take it with her.

So now, my schedule looks like this:
General Psychology 2 with Dr. Robinette. She is a hoot. This class is 8:55 and my first thing on M,W,F. I'm so glad I can laugh with her jokes and I'm not a grump. One of the ways God has been working on my heart is to lighten up where it counts. She brought tofu today for us to touch and wiggle because it's close to the consistency of your brain. Eww!
Religion, Race, and Resistance with Dr. Hawkins. I have already learned so much in just three days of class. Things that occurred in this country and the way people were treated that we never mentioned in previous history courses. We are looking critically at how every thing in history leads to the next thing. That sounds silly. I guess you just have to be there. Did you ever read the American Girl books? Each historical character girl came with 6 books and the first book about Addy was about her life as a slave and her mom running away from the plantation. Before the running away, Addy is day dreaming while she is picking worms (?) from the tobacco leaves. She gets distracted and misses a few, and the overseer makes her eat them. I was 10ish years old, and I remember sobbing and not being able to pick the book up for months. God has blessed me with a tender heart and the ability to weep with those who weep. And I'm an excellent hugger. That's a pretty good combo for comforting those who are sad, but it's tougher when the person is a fictional character. Anyway, Dr. Hawkins warned us that the upcoming reading would be more the social side than the political side of the issue so it was intense. I was genuinely grateful for the heads up- I won't be reading that one too far away from the tissues!

I am also taking Research Methods with Dr. Steenbergh which has been philosophical these last few days. Interesting. I'm taking developmental psychology with Mrs. Conrad and today we talked all about the baby's development in the womb. Finally, I'm taking theory/practice of group counseling with Dr. Daugherty. He is also my advisor! For the course we will be participating in a group counseling session and then reporting on our own progress. I'm trying to have an open mind about it.

So that's this semester. I'm excited.
Happy Friday, friends!