Ah, the blissful days of Summer! The birds chirping in the air. The calm waves lapping upon the Malibu beaches. The palm trees swaying in the peaceful wind. To break open an irresistible epic novel. To admire the majestic landscape of Southern California on a satisfying hike. If only such things could be the objects of my attention!

Instead, the Summer has been quite taxing. When my friend Kent asked me what I was doing with my Summer and I told him, he said, “Wow. That’s pretty much the most I’ve heard of anybody doing with their Summer.” Kent’s overstatement has certainly felt true during this busy season! I began the Summer with two 2-week “intensives” back to back. The first was Systematic Theology 2 with Dr. Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen and the second was Introduction to Early Judaism with James VanderKam. Incidentally, Dr. Kärkkäinen had assignments due on every day of the two week course. Then, while my second intensive was taking place, Dr. K had three assignments due on the first Friday and a research paper due on the second Friday. Meanwhile, I was frantically reading texts from Second Temple Judaism from the time I got out of class (at noon) until I went to bed. We had a midterm test for the Judaism class on the second Monday and a Final exam on the second Friday. If you followed all that, you would not be surprised to read that I was not readily available to others during this time! (This is not to complain about the classes in themselves, mind you, because they were fantastic otherwise. Dr. VanderKam’s course was especially envigorating.)

Alas, there is some breathing allowed after the first four weeks. But I did not mention that, during these four weeks, I had simultaneously begun a Theological German course at Fuller and a GRE course taught by Kaplan. Not much got done for these classes in the first weeks, so I have been catching up since then. My days are now spent studying high school math, highfalutin vocabulary, and German texts that I marginally understand with a big dictionary sitting next to me. But wait, there’s more! As an undergrad at Messiah, I took two years of Greek and was subsequently a Greek teaching assistant, so I would like to pass out of the required one year of Greek here at Fuller. To do so, I must dust off Greek vocabulary and grammar from the spare bedrooms of my brain and take the test (hopefully before Fall class registration, so I can take a class that requires Greek next quarter). If it is to be accomplished, it is quite urgent and I’m planning on taking it in the next week or so. The GRE will be in early September. Oh, and I almost forgot to mention that I have to do my 10-page research paper for Introduction to Early Judaism by September 15th. Oh where, oh where, has my Summer gone? Seminary took it away from me.

But I know that this is what I’m signing up for, getting on the doctoral studies track. It just helps to articulate it from time to time… and vent. Besides, kata ton biblon wants to know how I feel. It beckons to me for my thoughts and reflections. It is this great void that cries out for completion. And who am I to disappoint my poor, needy blog?