Monday, August 27, 2012

The Start of Something New

This past weekend was orientation and new student retreat for the incoming class at Chicago Theological Seminary. What a weekend! I am so thrilled to be here and everything about the weekend affirmed that this is where I am suppose to be and CTS is the perfect seminary for me to spend the next couple of years studying at. 


The CTS building is brand new and absolutely beautiful. It is a lead certified building and hence is mostly lit with natural sun light. It is going to be an amazing place to learn and hang out in. This is the chapel that overlooks Hyde Park and you can even see the Chicago skyline in the distance. 





Went on a walk with some new friends to Promontory Point (which may be the coolest water front spot in Chicago). On beautiful days like today, I agree with this sentiment that Chicago is rather heavenly. Although, not enough to graffiti public property. 


Our class spent Saturday and Sunday "telling stories." Everyone (all 40+) had 5 minutes to tell their sacred story in rather broad strokes to the entire class. The next day we broke up into groups of eight and had twenty five minutes to go into much more depth with our story. We also had time to create a visual aid full of pictures, symbols, etc to help tell our story. It was an amazing experience that really did bond the class and will lead to healthy dialogue and strong community going forth. But so exhausting! It was crazy to listen to so many stories in such a short amount of time and it really took a physical, emotional, and spiritual toll on me to listen so intentionally for so long. 

I can't be more excited for class to start so I can dig into studying stuff I just love to study and even more I am excited to get to know walk alongside my new friends. 

No comments:

Post a Comment