Officially a Second Year!!

I can't believe it, but I'm officially a Second Year MDiv student at the Candler School of Theology. There were times this year when I never thought the day would come. I've been done for a couple of days, but all of my grades finally posted this morning and I'm very happy with them. In my Con Ed group meeting we talked a lot about how grades shouldn't define who we are, the call we're responding to or the quality of our theological education. And I know this is true. But there is still that little part of me that wants to do well. And I've definitely felt that part of me strong over the past couple of days as I've waited for my grades to post.

And now my summer can officially start. I don't have a lot of fun and exciting plans - no two week cruise through the Med. like last summer - but I'm hoping it will still be an amazing summer. Bruce was in Africa this summer so technically this is our first summer together. The only big thing that we have planned at the moment is a trip up north to visit our families. A childhood friend of mine is getting married on June 1st, so we'll drive to CT first, spend a couple of days with my family and then drive down to PA for Bruce's brother's and cousin's high school graduation. While we're visiting my parents we're hoping to go through some of the stuff in their house that we want to bring down to Atlanta and get rid of the stuff that we're not going to need so it's out of their way as they get ready to move at the end of June.

Bruce and I are also going to spend the summer finally going through everything in our apartment and organizing what we want to keep and getting rid of the stuff we don't need. It's amazing how much two people and a cat can accumulate in less than a year. It's a perfect time to start doing that because we've signed a pre-lease agreement on a new apartment that we're going to move into in August. While moving isn't the most convenient thing to do (particularly in Atlanta in August) it's the best step for us. Much of this year was spent in transition and barely surviving while doing so. When we moved down here there was so much uncertain, neither one of us had jobs and we were essentially living out of my savings. Bruce's job changed so much throughout the year which made it difficult for us to budget successfully and I was transitioning into a new academic environment which made it difficult for us to find time to spend together. We were trying to learn how to live on our own, pay our bills, be responsible for an apartment for the first time in our lives while also trying to learn how to live together. It's been a stressful year. But you learn about who you are, the strength of your relationships, and the strength of your faith during these transitions. And now that we've been in Atlanta for almost a year - and now that I'm officially a second year!! - it's time for us to have a fresh start. That's one of the reasons we're moving. It's time for a fresh start where we can be organized and finally feel not like we are transitioning and surviving, but that we are living.

In addition to getting ready to move, we'll both be working as well. Bruce will continue as a Sales Porter at the dealership and I have start fulltime at the school of public health. It's weird for me to be working full-time again but it's been fun so far. It's been nice to come home and not have to think about school. In a couple of weeks I'm hopefully going to start on some projects that keep my brain stimulated but for right now I'm just relaxing and watching terrible reality television.

I'm hoping to get caught up with unreplied e-mails and unreturned phone calls within the next couple of weeks.

With Grace,
Sarah :)