My Last First Day of School.......for now

Today I began my final year at Harding University as my 17 years of schooling begin to come to an end. Or at least until I go to Grad School. I'm not feeling nostalgic yet, and I'm not ready to start talking about my "lasts" yet ("Oh, this is the last time I don't go to a Harding football game", "this is the last bad piece of pizza I'm having in the caf.") So far, everything has been going swell here in Searcy. It has been great seeing friends again, getting my dorm room set up (For the last time!!!!.......just kidding), and starting classes.

I don't know if I've ever been as excited for a semester of school since Freshman year. I wasn't sure about classes at first, but after the first day, I really like my schedule so far. Here's a brief overview:

11:00-Advanced Intro to New Testament-Stanglin

I was worried that this class was going to be really tough, but based on the syllabus, it doesn't look to bad. Our main reasearch paper is only 8-10 pages, instead of the 25 I was worried about Dr. Stanglin is really smart and it will be fun learning from him this semester.

12:00-Augmentation and Persuasion-Garner

Dr. Garner is a crazy, unpredictable, stream-of-consciousness teacher, and I love him for it. He cracks me up and we always have really interesting discussions in his classes. I'm really excited about this class as we study the ways people persuade and influence and how that affects society today. It should be very fun during an election year.

1:00-Patriarchs-Dr. Manor

This is a 400 level class, but it's with my boy Dr. Manor, who we dubbed our own "Mr. Pheeny." There's only 7 of us in this class, so we all just put our desks in a circle and discuss Genesis with Dr. Manor. It will be difficult and a lot of work, and we have a big paper, but it will also be a lot of fun.

2:00-Biblical Archaeology-Dr. Manor

This is the class I'm most excited about. In this class we get to drive out to Rosebud every Monday and go dig at a giant artificial tel that the honors college built, and perform the work like actual archaeologists would. I've heard from some people that this is the most fun class at Harding, and Dr. Manor promises we're going to have a lot of fun. I'm pretty pumped about it.

6:00-9:00 (Mondays only)-Seminar in African Missions-?

This class was supposed to be my only Tuesday/Thursday class, but apparently they moved it to a Monday night class. I just found this out today, and I have work tonight, so I wasn't able to go. So, we'll see how it goes. Since this got moved it means that I have to readjust my work schedule, fly back from Rosebud to get to class on time, and Mondays will be straight 10:00-9:00 class.

However, if I can get through Mondays, then that means I don't have any classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays and my archaeology class doesn't meet on Fridays. So things should go pretty smooth the rest of the week. But Mondays may kill me.

I'm also really excited about my job this year. I'm working as a computer lab attendant in the GAC lab, and I'm really glad to actually have a good school job this semester. Also, we plan to hit the ground running with our work in the Woodruff St. neighborhood here in Searcy on Wednesday and get our Bible study rolling. All my friends are awesome here and I'm very excited about everything this semester.

Hopefully, Senior year will be my best year at Harding. It was difficult to leave everyone in Huntsville and it was also hard to leave Kingsport. I wasn't crazy excited about this year. But, God is a great God and he is always faithful and there is always a new and exciting event up ahead. I hope this year that God will be glorified in everything and I can share his blessings with those around me.