Student Life

If I'm going to discuss my transition to PTS, it makes sense to start at the beginning.  The first few days at PTS consist of a fairly packed orientation schedule.  You meet people, go to informational meetings, attend services and even a fancy dinner party with the president and the faculty (it makes you feel like a yuppie).  As one might expect, however, this weekend is really quite different from actual campus life, and it is this campus life that I want to explore first.

Transitioning to life on this campus was disorienting for me.  A little of my personal history: I had lived in Marion (other than a short stint at Purdue) since I was 6 years old prior to coming to PTS.  I had attended the same church, and knew basically the same group of people for nearly 20 years.  I had (still have) a girlfriend (Emilie) at IWU and she obviously couldn't come with me either.  So this was never going to be easy.  Even considering all that, however, PTS has not been an easy place for me to connect.  Other than the initial orientation weekend, there aren't a lot of programs designed to get people involved. I'm not necessarily suggesting there should be, the seminary sees us as adults and treats us accordingly, but it has made things harder.

The primary activities that are aimed at creating community are intramural flag football and chapel.  I didn't play flag football (it was early Saturday mornings and conflicted with my beloved Manchester United) and chapel hasn't done much for me.  Meals are friendly, one can always find a friendly face to sit with, but this is a fairly superficial level of connection.

Life on campus breaks down into two main categories.  The first is life during the week.  During the week, most people are reading and studying.  This is grad school, you have to put time into your classes. You see people at meals, in class, and maybe at chapel, but that's mostly it.  The other category is life on the weekends.  Most weekends, PTS students head into town or to Philly or NYC and go drinking.  When people want to have fun, they go drink.  There isn't much else that goes on.  Every now and then some people will watch a movie, but mostly its drinking.

This trend was probably the hardest part of my transition to PTS.  I've never been in an environment where the only real option for having fun and hanging out with people is going to a bar.  People here don't (often) drink irresponsibly, and they aren't underage, so I don't condemn them for it.  The Presbyterian denomination (PTS is a PCUSA seminary) doesn't have a problem with drinking, so there's no problem there.  But its just so different from what I have ever really experienced.  My entire life, when I've wanted to have fun on a weekend we've gone to a movie, or bowling, or played games, or gone to shows; anything except drinking. It wasn't allowed.  Now I don't really know what to do with myself on weekends.  Sometimes I hang out with people from the seminary, but not often.  I don't (normally) think that they're doing anything wrong, and yet I'm uncomfortable.  I can't really even put my finger on why, but there it is.  If anyone from PTS reads this, they'll likely be surprised; I haven't mentioned this discomfort to anyone.  Maybe I should have, and maybe I will in the future.  I think this discomfort (along with some recent Bible reading) has lodged me more firmly in the Holiness tradition, but I'll say more about that soon.

The times I've felt most at home on campus are during meals, having discussions with other students.  Classes prompt very interesting discussions, and the people here are very smart and come from a lot of different places.  Talking with many of them is fascinating, and I've had some very fruitful theological discussions with various students I've met.  Theological discussions, though, are not really enough to ground one socially.

Where I have been able to connect, even though it hasn't been perfect, is at church.  I started attending Princeton Alliance Church (a CMA church) here the weekend after orientation.  The next day I was at a community group, eating dinner with a young adults from the church.  Within a few weeks I was volunteering at the youth group.  It was through church that I found Clint and Marcos, two guys that I meet with once a week in a sort of spiritual formation group.  PAC provided a place for me in NJ.  It wasn't and still isn't home, but it's much better than being alone.  I don't really know how to put it other than that.  I feel like God prepared that place for me, as confirmation that I was in the right place, even though it wasn't always easy.

So, my advice to future students, in summary: get involved in a church.  I'm sure you can connect on campus better than I have, but I think the church is the healthier place to be involved anyway.  The church is where Christians should have their home, and that's not different for seminary students.

Life on this campus has been difficult for me at times, but also rewarding.  I've been a little harsh, but there have been good things as well.  I'll write more on those later.  For now, it will suffice to say that I thank God for His church, for otherwise I wouldn't have a home, a place to belong.  I hope that is true of me for the rest of my life.

Explanation

I suppose I need to begin by explaining what exactly it is that I'm doing with this blog.  Its quite simple, really.  During the Christmas break, while at a yearly Christmas party attended by several families from my church (College Wesleyan), one of the religion department professors (Russ Gunsalus) told me I should start a blog so that IWU students considering PTS could use it as a resource.  So I am.  Simple, right?

In the interest of full-disclosure I should also add that this isn't an entirely altruistic operation.  Like anyone else with a blog, I suspect, the writing is always done at least in part for selfish reasons.  Writing serves as a useful tool for processing and reflection, and I'll be doing a little of that in this blog.  A large part of my transition here at PTS has been my run-in with various different ideologies and theologies, which is a large part of the value of PTS.  This campus has an incredibly diverse student population, which is something PTS works very hard to create.  The developments and changes in my thought that take place as a result of these diverse interactions are a huge part of my life at PTS, and so I'll be working through some of those as well.

I'm hoping to post about once a week, and I'm going to begin by working through the major areas of transition from my first semester: my classes, campus life, the academic level, etc.  Hopefully my musings can be helpful for a few others out there.