The Night Before the Second First Day of Seminary

As I sit here listening to the maintenance man vacuum up water that leaked out from under my refrigerator, I find myself reflecting on this Christmas break and the upcoming semester.  To be honest, I always feel awkward about the beginning of the Spring semester.  You're not going to walk in to Wal-mart or Target and find all of the traditional back to school items one might find in August, and yet there is a sense of newness in the air, at least for those in undergraduate and graduate programs.  There are new classes to look forward to, new challenges to face, new professors to experience.  On the other hand, there is a sense of sameness.  As a music major, my private lesson instructor stays the same, as do my choir director and my advisers in the Sacred Music corner of the campus.  So while some things are new, other things are so familiar, it almost feels like this is a semester of settling into the things that were so strikingly unfamiliar in the Fall.

As far as Christmas break goes, it was one of mixed emotions.  One of my aunts passed away very suddenly and unexpectedly in the middle of December.  Combined with the fact we buried my grandmother on the same side of the family one week before Christmas 6 years ago, there were many reasons to be sad this Christmas.  But, in the midst of the difficulties, there were joyful times with family and the sense of coming home during our week in Lubbock.  Granted, Dallas is our home now, but there is something nice about going back to a comfortable, familiar place for a while. 

In the midst of this reflection, it occurs to me that a major theme in my life right now is the tension between the familiar and the foreign.  The draw of the familiar is alluring, but the move to Dallas and attending Perkins is anything but a comfortable life decision.  Isn't it interesting, though, that comfortable and right don't necessarily coincide?  Someday, Dallas and seminary may feel like a comfortable world, but the best part is that right now, its an exciting, uncertain, and challenging adventure.  So, here's to a new semester!