Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Back to school (my last and final semester)...

For now anyways. I graduate with my masters degree in May and I'm already feeling a little stressed out about life after graduation. I've never not known what was next. After high school was college, after college, grad. school, now .... I don't know. It's taking every ounce of strength not to apply to another program out of fear but, I do at some point need to become a productive member of society and use my many years of education. So in a few months I'll be done without any real plans of where we'll move, where we'll be working, and all of that fun stuff. I hope by May a few details will work themselves out.

But first this semester. I think I've mostly decided on my classes this semester (after I do my course audit to make sure I'm not missing any graduation requirements).

As of right now I'm taking:

1.) Body and Soul: Sexuality & Justice - I think this class is going to be amazing. We're talking about all things related to sexuality including ART so that's pretty exciting for me. She's also an advocate of raising sexually healthy children from the time they are babies. A friend of mine is an intern with her at her non-profit and I was given the book, From Diapers to Dating: A Parent's Guide to Raising Sexually Healthy Children From infancy to Middle School. By Debra W. Haffner.

2.) World Religions and Ecology: Asian Religions - This class is merely to fulfill a requirement. I'm not particularly excited about it since I've already taken a ton of classes on Asian religions but I'm going to attempt to make the best of it. (The other downside is it's kind of a long walk to get to it, something I generally try to avoid because it requires more childcare before and after and I'm uh... a bit lazy when it's cold outside and the return trip is uphill).

3.) Women's Ways of Preaching - A class where I get to explore the issues that are so called "woman's issues" like reproductive loss, violence, abuse etc. (I use the quotes because frankly these things should be concerns of everyone not just women).

4.) Just Hospitality - I'm taking this class for one reason. We get to read almost all of Letty Russell's books. Letty Russell is a well known feminist theologian. It's interesting because I was first introduced to Letty at her memorial service my first year of grad. school. I was asked to work as an usher, and I stood at the door, handed out programs, assisted her loved ones, and listened as many spoke about the amazing work she's done with and for women in the field. This course is extra amazing because it's being taught by her Partner of 32 years Dr. Shannon Clarkson.

5.) Practicum - Another  boring requirement. It's the class portion of my onsite internship.

1 comment:

Christi said...

This sounds like a very interesting semester! Fascinating classes. Hang in there...