Two weeks in

I'm two weeks into graduate school and I don't even know where to begin. I'll start by reminding you that I was very sick at orientation and declared a "do over" first day. Well, on that "do over" day I forgot my lunch AND had no cash on me. Normally, that wouldn't be a big deal except that I had no idea where anything was on campus and by the time I found the restaurants, picked out my food, and ate half of it standing in line. I went to pay with my credit card and they inform me ALL the credit card machines are down over all the campus!! Really?! Just my lucky day. So, back to square one...finding lunch. I stopped by my car on the way across campus to get a map and see something on my windshield. Yep, you guessed it...a parking ticket. Really?! Yes, apparently you are unable to pull through a parking spot. So, I moved my car, removed the ticket and proceeded to my not so favorite place to eat... McDonald's! After my classes were over for the day I felt very overwhelmed. The amount of work is unbelievable and I was questioning whether or not I would be able to step up to the challenge. After organizing all the due dates and breaking things down by week, I realized it's all very manageable. THAT was all in week one...Now for week two!

Week Two:

I didn't officially call yesterday a second "do over" but in my mind I was planning on everything going much better. Aside from getting stuck in horrible traffic because of the nasty weather and wrecks, things went great! I even made some friends who ate dinner with me at my new favorite place....McDonald's! My classes were all very interesting and exciting. We are already talking about real life, applicable stuff which is so much different than undergraduate school. I have had to deal with some of my personal biases and assumptions, which has not been easy and I'm challenged to look at issues differently. I enjoy that very much. I'll end with this story and something that is heavy on my heart...everyone in my class participated in a warm up activity in my last night. It was done in complete silence. The teacher gave two options every time and you had to move to one side of the room based on your choice. It started off light and fun and then became more serious and deep. For example, Did you eat breakfast this morning/Did you not, Do you have a tattoo/do you not, have you ever been arrested/have you not, do you have a gay, lesbian, bisexual family member/do you not, are you religious/spiritual or are you not, are you Christian/are you not, Do you believe in heaven and hell/do you not...getting the picture? In a class of about 30 students, 8 of them do NOT believe in heaven and hell and about 10 are not Christians. Immediately my heart became heavy for them. It was all I could do to keep my emotions together. I'm not an emotional person but for some reason I just couldn't fathom that all those people didn't believe in Jesus Christ. You know the saying "Be careful of your actions because you may be the only Jesus people ever see"? Well, it's true people. It was at that moment that I realized my purpose in this world. Yes, it's to help people through social work, but it's also to show people Jesus through my actions. I'm not a cram Jesus down your throat kind of gal, but it is my personal hope that everyone would come to know and believe in Christ. As Beth Moore once said to her brother (who at the time was an unbeliever) "Think for a moment...If there really is no God then your choice to not believe is justified but brother IF my God is real and IF He is the only way to eternal life then not believing is surely death". See, I do believe God is the only way to eternal life and I will be praying for all of those people in my class diligently that their hearts would come to desire Christ, just like mine does.