Gay Guy in Seminary: Day 23 (Star King School for the Ministry)

I took my very first classes today as a seminary student, and I'm hoping I'm not going to be overwhelmed by it all. Four classes today: Old Testament, Hebrew, Improv and The Sacred and the Substance, otherwise known as "Drugs & Jesus."

I think the class that scares me most is Hebrew, the one that will challenge me the most is Drugs & Jesus and the one I'm looking forward to the most is Improv.

Hebrew is scary because they don't use the Roman alphabet, like we do in English or like in Spanish, French or German. On top of that, words are written from right to left and there are no vowels. I've never been good with languages, so this doesn't bode well. However, this is the first time I will be trying to learn a language with a study group, so you never know...

Drugs & Jesus is scary in its own way. I think while it challenges me, it's going to be a lot of fun and will definitely help me to grow in my faith, even if it's only from having to defend my position all of the time. The class is at Star King School for the Ministry, which is the Unitarian Universalist Seminary. The above picture is of the school; it's always reminded me of a barrel of wine. Luckily, I'm taking the class with 7 other SFTS students (the class only has a total of eighteen students) so I'm hoping I'll have at least a little support for my viewpoints. The instructor was quite tickled to discover how many of us there were. Being raised in a conservative Presbyterian environment has done little to prepare me for this course. I'm just hoping I can figure out rather quickly how to confidently share my beliefs with people who are so theologically liberal.

Improv was just a lot of fun. I can't wait to go again! We played a couple of fun games in order to get a feel for the class and see a little bit of what Improv is like. I've never done anything like this before, but I'm hoping we get to put on some kind of show once we're more comfortable with it.

Old Testament is going to be a bear with all of the reading and tests we have to do, but that's why I'm here.

Spirituality is tomorrow and Church History is on Thursday. I get my first taste of Intro to Ministry on Monday. Kind of a crazy load, but I'm pretty sure with no work to get in the way, I can totally pull this off! XD