Backseat MDiv

As I'm finishing my first month of my first year of seminary, I find myself sleeping a LOT.  I'm normally an 8-hours-and-wake-up kind of person, but lately I find myself sleeping until 10:00 or later on the weekends if I let myself.  This happened to me in Guatemala as well, and someone helped me realize that it was because the combination of new place, new language, new everything was wearing my brain out which actually made me sleepy.  I was like a kindergartener who needs to sleep extra so her brain can have time to process all the new information.  It's hard to sleep now, though, because I have that feeling of "there's always something else I should be doing."

All this new information that's filling up my brain and making me sleepy, though, is so interesting and makes me want to keep reading (well, sometimes).  In sharing some pieces of what I've been learning thus far, my mom suggested that I share some of the things that are especially exciting or make me look at the world in a new way so that others who aren't in seminary but are still interested can come along for the ride, hence the name "backseat MDiv" (although really it's a side seat or something because I'm certainly not the driver here, but you get the idea).

I decided to fold some of this into my existing blog because it is all a part of the journey that I (and we all are) on to find home.  We find new homes and we re-define existing homes, and much of what I am learning is helping me to look at my home--at where I come from--with new eyes and envision what I want home to look like.  So I will label blog posts that are specifically "seminary-related" as Backseat MDiv so that if you want to you can just click on that label (over on the right) and see blogs I've written specifically to share some of what I'm learning in seminary--in the classroom, in worship, in conversations with others, and in New York City.

If you're on twitter, I've also just created a twitter account, @backseatmdiv, where I'll post quotes and other short thoughts throughout the week about what we're learning.

Finally, just so we're on the same page to start, you'll find below a list of the courses I'm taking this semester and a link to the Union course catalogue in case you're interested in reading a blurb about any of the classes

• Introduction to the Old Testament (taught by David Carr)
• Biblical Hebrew 1 (taught by Dan Pioske)
• Systematic Theology (taught by James Cone)
• Christianities in the City (taught by Samuel Cruz)
• Early Church History (taught by John McGuckin)

Finding and creating a new home in New York

When I chose the title for and began this blog over three years ago, I had just graduated from Maryville College and was preparing to go to Guatemala with the Young Adult Volunteer (YAV) program of the Presbyterian Church (USA). I was excited and nervous and had no idea how much that year and the subsequent two years I spent in Nashville would change the course of my life.  I also had no idea how much the concept and practice of "finding home" would consume me. 

Home for me has appeared in many forms and with many different people over the past several years.  I have found home in Guatemala, Nashville, in various churches and organizations, with new authors, roommates, with other YAV alums, and am now beginning to find home in New York City at Union Theological Seminary.  

I arrived at Union eleven days ago, excited to begin my new life and studies here, but also sad to leave behind the home in Nashville that I both found and helped create for myself there.  I have been reminded often during this week and a half of orientation of a line from a song by The Head and the Heart (who I've mentioned in an earlier post) that says "Mama once told me you're already home where you feel loved."  I have met many interesting and dynamic people here so far who I am sure will become life-long friends and colleagues, but I have realized how much I crave and need those intimate friendships with people who know me well (and like me anyway) and with whom I can simply be without need for explaining or introducing myself and how much that is the feeling of being "home" to me.

I think that one of the greatest benefits of the YAV program for me has been learning how to create, nurture, and sustain those friendships that help create community and home.  I have learned that creating home for myself and others takes work, conflict, and grace.  Work to put in the time and energy of creating meaningful relationships, conflict when we have different needs or ideas about how to be in community with each other, and grace with ourselves and each other when we mess up.

So I am sure that even though this new place does not yet feel like home to me that it will come and that it will shape me and I it in ways I cannot yet imagine.