Anyone who frequently reads my blog (obviously not too many people, though I am happy that the blog has exceeded 500 hits; it is hopefully the first of many milestones) might notice that I occasionally post on the blog rather frequently and then slip out of consistency for about a week before returning to the blog. Well, this time, I do have a good excuse: I’ve moved to college!
Yep, that’s right; I’m finally free of the counter-productive lower education system and am ready to get plugged into the equally-discouraging higher education system. Of course, I say so with sarcasm: I’ve discovered that education is what you make of it and I intend to use my time in the American higher education system well.
Since my current expectation is to be a writer for all of my life, I have set my sights on that goal for now. However, for a person with such diverse interests as I, it truly is a challenge to decide what I want to do: history is a major interest of mine and I fully intend to nurture it and allow it to grow. I also have strong interests in music and have growing interests in psychology, philosophy, religion (from the perspective of Christianity) and even politics (to a more limited extent). I also have growing interests in the outdoors, like bee-keeping (something I have wanted to do since I was an elementary-age youth) and construction (not typical construction, though; if I build something, I want it to be innovative, creative, and practical) as well as a rising interest in athletics and exercise (something that would do me some good, let me say).
This is, of course, a rudimentary list; there are other interests I possess but do not come to mind now, but you get the gist of it: I have a lot of interests. The modern higher education system (as I perceive it) seems geared towards making specialists, whilst my mind is geared toward generalization and expanding my already-extensive range of interests. Anyhow, these are things that I will obviously have to consider as I make my future graduation plans.
Anyhow, I have moved in to the (Christian, of course) off-campus house that will be my habitat for the course of the semester (and favorably, for the rest of my college career as well) and have settled in to my room. I have made my own meals for the last couple of days and, though they have been fairly diverse and satisfying so far, I am also starting to realize my relative ignorance toward cooking in comparison with many other people. In fact, I extend the invitation that anyone who reads this and has a particularly satisfying recipe you desire to share, then by all means, please do so.
One point of concern for me is that I have found myself enrolled in a Religious Studies course. Under other circumstances, this would be a cause for excitement, but the college I am attending, like many other American colleges, is very liberal, which is reflected in the students’ as well as the professors’ attitudes. I am well-acquainted with a God-fearing professor on campus and he pointed out that it is not the professors who state their atheist perspective that are dangerous to the untested faiths of many students; the atheists who masquerade as objective, open-minded professors and then proceed to tear Christianity apart in front of their students are the true dangers. This I have known of and expected for the last couple of years, which is one of the many reasons for my push towards intellectual and logical thought for the last couple of years, challenging my own faith in as many ways as I can fathom. Of course, I also bought the books for my classes today and one of the textbooks for the Religious Studies is “Is Religion Dangerous?” by Keith Ward, who I have learned is a Christian philosopher-thinker. The premise of the book is about how, though some claim that religion altogether is dangerous, Ward poses an argument that humanity would be far worse without our religions to cling to. Of course, the professor might have bought the book because he considered Ward’s arguments profound, or he might have decided that Ward is so off-base that he will spend a semester telling us how wrong Ward is. I suppose that I won’t really know until I walk into class on the first day.
Anyhow, there really isn’t a whole lot else to say. It is a strange feeling to be separated from my parents by a chasm of great distance (though my brother does live close-by), not to mention the same detached feeling that I sense for the many close friends that I have acquired for the last several years. However, one of the miracles of today’s society (though some see it as a curse; I believe it to be a blessing until it is misused) is long-distance, instantaneous conversation, and it is comforting to know that my closest of friends will never be far from me…in a sense, at least.
I shall surely write more within the next few days.
God bless!
SfC
