First Day

The first day of a new semester is always exciting. It's fun to see students who are back after summers away and fun to watch people who are experiencing their first day of college. I teach my first class, Introduction to Biblical Worldview, at 2:00 this afternoon. The first week of this course is very carefully laid out as there are four professors working together at the front of the classroom to begin this class. My favorite part of class is at the end of today when I show a graphic designed to give students a lighter look at the religion department.
That's me with the glasses and goatee.

For all of the fun, anticipation, and building of community that begins today, it also feels bittersweet. When the spring semester ended last year I was happy to be done with school for awhile, partly because it had been such an emotionally intense semester with the bus accident and the processing of that at Bluffton. I was glad to have some time away. Now that I'm getting back into things those emotions are rushing back and settling themselves alongside the other things I feel about starting school again. School always provides opportunities for learning, for me as much as my students, and that learning began long before classes did this year.