What a Day

It has been a very fun-filled, informational day, and I can't tell you how great it is out here. Princeton is absolutely beautiful. As one person said, it looks the way a college should look. The buildings are amazing, the environment is wonderful; it's nice to see naturally-occuring trees as opposed to we-planted-this-so-this-campus-will-have-foliage trees. But I think most surprising of all is that I feel comfortable here. In fact (and if you know me well, you know this can change instantly), I really love it here. That is not to say that I don't miss my friends and family back home. It is hard not being able to talk to a friend and show you my excitement and the pictures. I still have a longing to be home. But I am comfortable here, and I am confident that I will be able to finda good group of friends here that I can connect with and create community with.

To my surprise, the school has quite a bit in common with APU. The faith aspect of the community is much more present than I would have ever imagined. There are chapel services! I was not expecting that. The professors are very concerned about how your education impacts your ministry and your career. There are dorms, right at the heart of campus! It is the differences that make me excited. To name a few:

- Chapel NOT required
- No touchy-feely-west-coast evangelicalism!!!
- Lots of pass-fail classes (70% grade = pass for class; doesn't affect GPA)
- A greater opportunity to ask difficult, controversial questions
- Princeton is right next door and I can take classes from the university

The opportunities are wonderful. I am still not decided on when I will begin, though I feel the urge even stronger to start this fall as opposed to waiting a year. Part of me is still hesitant, and I still have a lot of weekend left to explore the campus and get to know what's going on.

And there are some things that do leave me a little worried. For example, one of the posters for on campus events is for an event called "Integrity and Choice: Celebrating 34 years since the decision on Roe v. Wade." If you don't know what that is, look it up. But that is a trivial reason in my opinion to be serious concerned and is another opportunity to learn and converse and hopefully become a little wiser along the way.

Anyway, I imagine I won't have much computer time the next few days as tomorrow is jam-packed with meetings and forums and what-not, and Saturday I hope to be on the Princeton University campus looking around as well as getting to know the seminary a bit more. But I look forward to sharing stories with all of you! I am very excited!