I was watching the Alabama game the other day with some friends when I started thinking about the concept of the "timeout." In college football, as I understand it, there are three timeouts for each team per a half. That means that twelve times (if you count both teams together) during a sixty minute game, everyone gets to take a break. I know that there may be some deep level strategizing going on in the background, but all the the same, things just get to stop for a minute. I found myself wishing that life was like that sometimes. When I'm having a really bad day and everything keeps coming at me, I wish I would make a T with a hands and take a break without losing any time from my day. That's just a passing thought from a girl whose friend offered the advice of "Memorize early, memorize often" for ethics class.
In reality, this semester has been completely draining. I'm drained emotionally, spiritually, and physically. I get drained emotionally when we have classes like I had yesterday in college ministry where we talked about working with students who are thinking about having an abortion. (I can't get the number 11,224 out of my head. The number of children aborted in the state of Louisiana alone in 2004.) I get drained spiritually when I spend so much time at school learning theory that I don't have any time to actually go out and practice. I get drained physically when I go to school from 8-12, work from 1-8, and then have to get everything else done before going to bed, only to do it all again. Sometimes I think it would have been easier to go into computer science like my mom wanted me to...End of pity party.
Today, I went to Tulane/Loyola (they're separated by a wall) to hand out surveys for a research paper I'm doing. Interacting with the students on campus, talking with them about mid-terms and the existence of truth, made me really miss being a college minister. There were students who would have sat and talked all day if I didn't have to move on in order to get my research done on time. I was good at the talking part of my former life. I may not be tons of fun, but I sure can listen and respond.
With that, I wish you a good night. I have research to sift through :)
