Day 1 - Exploding Head

Telling my friends and family that I think I'm going to die because of all that is ahead of me gets responses like, "You know you'll be fine" and "Diane, of course you can do this, everything will be fine."  Not an ounce of sympathy.

And I get that - I'm making the choice to return to school after 29 years.  I've always found learning to be the most important thing in my life and I've been fortunate enough to be able to set aside some time to do this.

However!!!  This morning when my classes finally came online and I could get access to everything, I fell apart!  What in the heck am I thinking?  The amount of information that poured into my brain between 7:30 - 11:30 this morning took me straight to tears.  There's no freakin possible way that I'm going to get through this without those stupid tears. 

First up ... I have to have a relatively small book (only 124 pages - and there is a bit of sarcasm riding on all of that) on "Bible Study that Works" read and a 2-4 page paper written about the Inductive Bible Study method written by Friday while also writing comments and questions regarding the text into our class forum online.  (not gonna vomit, not gonna vomit)

That's actually just a small portion of the work for that class.  There are three others that are simply going to kick my butt. 

I'll be taking
Inductive Bible Study - Matthew.  This guy really believes in his message and in his coursework.  He's got me chasing down all sorts of technology to keep up with his video / audio stuff online.  Could be entertaining in the long run, but the reading for him is already overwhelming.

Introduction to Greek.  I've been preparing for this class for what seems like forever.  I hope this is the most fun course I take.  The only course I had to find a local proctor for exams.  Yup, gonna kick my butt.

Christian Formation: Kingdom, Church & World. This guy is gonna be great, but holy cow, after all the work that is assigned to us to read, he recommends fourteen (14!!!) other books we should be reading, as well as too many to count papers and articles, plus videos to watch.  whoa ...

Introduction to New Testament.  I've already started reading through the texts for this course.  There was just too much sitting on my plate not to start early.  A lot of learning will happen here, stuff that I want to plant firmly in my mind.  Now, if I can just remember it all.

There it is ... I'm in the virtual classrooms now.  I've introduced myself in a couple of the forums and have been reading the introductory posts by several others who will participate with me.  The one that entertained me the most was the guy who is obviously not happy about having to do education to become ordained.  But since it's a requirement, he guesses that he'll do it.  Oh ... joy!

Today I'm panicked.  Hopefully before too long I'll start learning!