My Big Move

Hey everyone,

Ok so I now live in Massachusetts, a state that I just literally had to look up the spelling of. I had several weeks of extended good-byes, which began to wear on me, so Sunday rolled around and I saw everyone at church and heard Dale preach, which, was very good, and then went home to pack my car. I thought I had a lot packed up before hand, but it took me and my mom three or more hours to pack my car and then she took me and got my hair trimmed up (which was much needed) and I got dinner with her and my dad. It was nice to spend some time with them before I left. So I got home, and it was around 8pm and I decided I didn't want to deal with sleeping in an empty room and how depressing that would be and waking up early so I rolled out of town, barely able to see out of my windows.

My ride was surprisingly pleasant, although I was exhausted. I was expecting driving alone in the middle of the night with all that has been going on in my life this summer and leaving home to be depressing, but it was a nice drive. It kinda sucked that my ipod died halfway through, but then I heard the Delilah song that I have somehow gone the last few months hearing about but never hearing. It’s charming. I pulled up to my apartment at 6am (just for the record, I do not live in Boston, I live in Ipswich, which is like 45 minutes north of Boston)

So I walked into my apartment and immediately realized I lived in a dump. My house is from the 1700's and is pretty run down, something I expected considering my ridiculously reasonable rent. Though that morning I had a small panic attack, it has grown on me. It is awkward that there is a roommate of mine whose room cuts through mine, so my privacy is incredibly infringed upon, but I have some ideas of hanging sheets and such to get around that. It is going to be interesting for sure (that roommate is in his 30's, married with 4 kids and lives in Connecticut, but for some reason works at the school and maybe goes to school. My roommates have met him twice in 3 months, but the guy came in last night and woke me up then and this morning walking through Weird. ADVENTURE!

Waking up the first day, I was excited to learn my roommates are 23 and 24, not 46 and Asian. They are cool guys. They smoke pipes and drink beer and are pretty laid back, but I don't think they are liberal Christians. They seem solid; I haven't talked to them yet about it.

Most of the week I have been doing orientation and trying to gather furniture (sorry this post is so long, just a lot going on). I took and OT and NT assessment that I passed. I realized I don't have to decide my degree path this semester and got signed up for classes. Also, whatever degree path I choose doesn't necessarily lock me into the same PhD program, so a lot of pressure has been taken off my shoulders (I am deciding between OT and Theology, and maybe NT). My courses this semester are as follows: Christian Ethics, Systematic Theology I, Intro to Islam, and History and Archaeology of the Ancient Near East. Pretty cool stuff.

I miss my friends. Not like a ton, that'll come later as I am so focused on getting settled. It seems like it will be difficult to meet people living off campus. I hope to meet people from the undergrad through my roommate that went there. Certain people are obviously on my mind here, and I for sure miss serving at the church and having the encouragement of Dale and Kent and everyone.

The future is that I start class tomorrow with Systematic Theology, and I try and get a bed. I may see JR and Bre tonight as JR just flew into Boston to go to Maine for the wedding and such. I also interview with that church about being their worship leader this Sunday. I'm getting lunch with the pastor and current worship leader after service, so you can pray for that! My other prayer request is just for godly friends here, and maybe like a 20-year-old Christian model who is incredibly attracted to artsy, intellectual and sometimes-awkward seminary students. God is sovereign, and can do what he wants. Miss you guys!

John