I may never write that much again...

My husband and I are downsizing in anticipation of our move this summer. Downsizing can be unpleasant. I don't like getting rid of things that are precious. Ok, maybe precious only to me. But precious none the less. Last week we started on two major projects: downsizing our closet and downsizing the stack of three boxes containing the entire summation of both of our non-digital notes from seminary.

I'm sure that DTS has completely transformed itself in the year and half since we've been on campus and now is relying solely on digital notes for students, but in my time, paper was king. And actually, if the paper could come in multiple colors per class, one per book of the Bible you were studying, all the better. So A and I have ended up with three boxes full of binders containing notes, graded papers and charts.

Downsizing the closet wasn't all that hard. After all, most of my clothes are a little stretched out or not my favorite anymore anyways. Going through the notes wasn't that hard either. We're planning to take a trip somewhere that has a big, beautiful, super fast and furious scanner to convert the majority that we'd like to reference later into digital copies. But what is hard, is getting rid of my papers. It's so sad. Hours and hours poured into these beautifully written, although poorly checked for spelling, punctuation and grammatical errors (are you surprised?) beautiful masterpieces that represent a whole season of life where I spent the first six hours of every Saturday morning in a small cubical in the basement of the Richardson Public Library simply tossed away. Ahh...my heart hearts.

Let me give you a little background to why I would toss these papers and not scan them. They could be scanned, but I already have a copy of all them since I typed each paper on my trusty Compact/Macbook and then printed them and submitted them to my professor/grader for comments. So why spend the time, energy, disc space and electricity scanning them? It's just not worth it.

So tonight, I spent the evening looking through my old seminary papers. It's amazing, I have a very vivid recollection of writing almost each one. I remember slaving away over some of those papers. Working in groups on others and having a really good time, and some groups, a really bad time. I remember being really grateful for what God taught me as I wrote and how some of those papers even today reflect how I continue to think about God. The reality is that I may never write that much again. Which is incredibly sad. I love to write. I don't love to be grammatically correct. But I love to write.

In honor of all that time spent, and the fact that professors/graders took time to write comments, this I submit to you.

"The Seminies"

Best Encouragement from a professor: You write well. from Dr. H on a random extra credit book report. That one comment kept me going through many more papers.

Best Admonishment from a professor: Well-done. Some inconsistencies and lack of integration hurt a bit. You're on the right track! From one of my first papers for Dr. Y, and very true. I learned a lot on how to not write a paper by this paper writing experience.

Most Painful Paper to write: Time spent writing that specific paper just mentioned for Dr. Y on trans cultural truth found in scripture on a specific aspect of culture (I choose marriage...problematic) and the time I spent writing Dr. T's 25 page exposition of 1 Corinthians. I almost dropped out of seminary over that one. Seriously, I almost didn't pay for my second semester classes that month because I didn't think I could finish the 25 pages.

Worst use of syntax: From the same Dr. Y paper Among married women it is not unusually to hear the question posed... Don't worry, he graciously corrected me.

Most embarrassing spelling error: And emphasize on humility... What I meant to write was An emphasize on humility...

Worst use of the same word in the same sentence twice: Henriques and Pocock develop healthy ways to developing multi-cultural...

Paper I'm very Proud of: Dr. Y paper I worked on with MF and RG on the exploration of God's triune nature explored through the Missio Dei.

Paper with most astonishing grade: The Dr. T 25 pager.

Department which reminded me most often that I didn't follow the Turabian Rules: Bible Exposition

Department that didn't seem to notice I didn't follow the Turabian Rules: Theology (With the exception of Dr. H who might be enjoying an occasional lunch with the Bible Exposition department and picking up tips with his eye for detail.)

Comment made by me that was most misunderstood by the grader: As already stated, women are equal in every way to men.

Comment made by grader showing his confusion: I think this would be difficult to sustain, but okay.

What I meant to say: In essence women are equal in every way to men in their makeup as human beings who represent the dominion of God on earth and are formed in the imago dei.

Paper with the most corrections that still received a compliment at the end using my first name: Biblical Masculinity and Femininity paper for Dr. B. Well done F.

Professor who gave me the most Amens: Dr. K.

Professor who consistently wrote thank you at the end of all papers: Dr. K.

Paper during which I consumed the most Carmel Macchiatos: Amy Charmichael book report.

Paper during which I consumed the most Dr. Peppers: All papers written during my second semester.

Paper in which I discovered that Starbucks opens at 5 am and serves delicious cheese danishes: Sanctification paper for Dr. K.

Four Principles of suffering I wrote about from 1 Peter that I am most likely to forget about in the midst of suffering:

1. Jesus Christ is the ultimate model in unjust suffering (I would now write during unjust suffering if I wrote this point today, but that is neither hear nor there)
2. Suffering should be expected
3. Suffering is temporary
4. Good must be done in the face of suffering

Paper which I will keep forever and bring with me to the other side of the world to reread because it brings tears to my eyes when I think of the lessons I learned that came out in writing it: Combined Eschatology paper for Dr. K.

Type of sentence I was likely to write at the beginning of my seminary career: Any of the hardship Amy faced in her life was always accompanied by a sweet knowledge that the Lord could be trusted.

Type of sentence I was likely to write at the end of my seminary career: Such a task would be lofty if not for the understanding that God is the initiator and what Vicedom calls the "protagonist" of the mission.

Obscure person who I now have no idea who they are or what they wrote: Vicedom

Obscure person who I now love and will reread for pleasure: Jurgen Moltmann

Professors who I will always be grateful for: All of them really, but especially Dr. P, Dr. Y, Dr. K, Dr. H, Dr. A, and Dr. T.

Professor who provided the best reading recommendations: Dr. P.

Best Insight from a Roommate while I whined about writing Papers: Maybe it's so hard for you to write papers because you like it so much. KP

Professor most likely to correct the misspelling of his name in the footnotes: Dr. K.

Person most likely to write the most on their blog about writing their own seminary papers: Me, of course.