Against Nothingness

Still more to say. Kristina pointed out that I write about my time at Regent different than I talk about it. And she's write. When I talk, I am usually giving short, one or two sentence answers to easy questions. I am not reflecting, trying to mull it over and give a fuller presentation. Still, she also pointed out that I haven't really talked about friends and good times yet, which are things that come up in conversation. When she pointed this out, I realized not only that she was right, but that I have compartmentalized my experience at Regent. I no longer think of the friends I made at Regent as part of Regent; they are just friends, who I hope to continue being friends with for a long time. Still, I met them there, so I might as well put them in here :) One of the well organized good ideas that Regent tries to foist upon all new and married students is something called the 'Regent Spouses Network.' This is a way for spouses of Regent students to be involved ...

Reflecting continues. One of the things I realized as I was writing the last post, but decided deserved a post all its own, was that over my life there have been three key lessons I have learned that have affected my personality, decisions, and life in big ways. Its not that other things haven't had an affect, or changed me; of course they have. These three particular lessons, however, stand out for some reason. Realizing this, and thinking about it because of graduation, I thought I would share them. Lesson #1: Remember the good, forget the bad. I don't remember how old I was, I don't remember what we were fighting about, but my brother and I, as is typical of brothers I think, were fighting about something. My Mom, as is typical of mothers, caught us, stopped us, and tried to figure out what was going on. As reasons for our fight we brought up stuff that the other had done weeks or months before. Now, I know thats all rather vague, but I don't remember any detai...

So, comparing is done. Reflecting on my time at Regent, one of the things I want to ask is what did I learn? How well did my time there prepare me? and so on; evaluative questions. The immediate problem is that I learned far too much to put in a blog post; after all, it took over 3 years of schooling to get it into me :) A more central problem, however, is that one of the first, and maybe most important, things I learned at Regent was that I shouldn't treat it as merely preparation for something else. I didn't learn this in a class, and no prof told me this in so many words. But, at some point near the beginning of my time at Regent the inevitable question came up (I think from someone who subsequently left Regent because they answered the question differently): If you knew you were going to die in 1 year, would you still spend it in school? Of course, we don't know when we are going to die, and the real point of the question is to seek the value of your current activiti...

Apparently my last post on this topic gave some people the impression that my time at Regent was terrible or something. That is not what I meant to convey. Rather, I was thinking about my time at regent, and my upcoming graduation, in comparison with my other graduation experiences. In High School I spent every day for 3 years with most of the same people. Upon coming to the end, I was with that same group, and we were all transition in the same way. We were moving on to the next step of our lives, looking forward to what was coming, feeling fear, trepidation, excitement, joy, etc. all together. In my undergrad at UofA I had spent four years living in a different city, in both residence and a home with a bunch of friends, and while not all of us finished at the same time, it was still a very close knit community to be leaving, and it was still a point at which many of us transitioned in the same way together. We were moving on to the next step of our lives, looking forward to wha...

I predicted that I would have more to say about graduation, and I do. I don't know how much more, hence the question in the title. I just got an email today from Regent college inviting me to a free workshop they offer to help people deal with leaving regent. I was surprised, and commented to Tom that sometimes Regent is a little bit to touchy-feely for me. But, I also realized that my Regent experience has been different than what is considered the 'norm' (at least by the college itself). I have always lived off campus, and not just a little bit off campus, but waaaaay off campus (maple ridge, surrey, and coquitlam). So, I have never been able to base my life, in any way other than scheduling courses, around Regent events or community. For the same reason, I have always incorporated distance education into my Regent degree; less travel, easier to schedule. And if that wasn't disconnected enough, I took a year off in the middle of my degree, meaning that the v...

I'm finished! Done! It's over! Today I took a trip to Regent College to hand in the last assignments for the last course of my MDiv program. It's hard to believe, and it feels strange. I've been a student for a ridiculously long time now... going back to grade 1, its been 20 years (and if you add breaks its been 22). Just at regent, I have been a student for nearly 5 years now (with 1 off in the middle). Suddenly, I am no longer a student. And I probably won't be again for some time (though I do still hope to do a PhD one day). Have I lost part of my identity? Is that why I suddenly have this unquenchable urge to read and write? Maybe, but I don't think I want to go there right now. Feels too much like a touchy feely spirituality assignment. Regardless, its good to be done. I don't walk across the stage until April 26th, but between then and now all I do is wait. Probably in the next couple of days I will do another, or a few other, posts on this ...