September 17th

Today is one month from my birthday! Oh by the way my address has just been added to the left portion of my blog. This of course is not meant to be a ploy to get care packages. Did I mention my birthday is one month away.


Well after a few days of computer craziness I am back online. Things this week have been busy as ever. Today I began my "apostolate" at a local center for learning. Each week I will be volunteering Wednesdays to help people, who never graduated from high school, earn their G.E.D.'s.

As soon as I arrived this morning I was quickly welcomed by a sweet nun. Moments later I heard the very words that brought a shiver to my spine, "you will be in charge of math." NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, I thought, dare I say better philosophy than that. I was suddenly having flashbacks to high school and being in the back of the classroom having no idea what the teacher was talking about. Not sure if any of you have had that experience or not? You know the feeling when you are so confused that you feel good about a test you are doomed to flunk. You convince yourself you know what you are talking about, you even study, but you are all wrong. I once got a 27 on a math test I studied for. I even was put on probation for the National Honor Society five minutes after being inducted because my math grade was so low (sorry mom, I never told you about that..... I must have forgot..... kind of like the time I forgot to give you my progress report until the middle of Christmas Eve Mass because I knew you could not kill me in the presence of God....although you almost did in God's driveway....)But I digress.

I began working with a group of women in fractions and learned so much from them. They wanted to do pass the test so badly so that they could receive their diplomas. Both of them had dropped out of high school and had always wanted to go back because they could not get jobs without a diploma. It was very uplifting to help but very sad. It was a reminder to me of how lucky I was to be able to go to and finish school. I could not help but think of how different life is for so many people out there. I always see life through my own eyes, but don't stop often enough to think how privileged they are. Later that day I worked with someone who was in their sixties and learning to read. I can only say I was humbled to be in the presence of such an amazing and powerful man.

Perhaps, I should remember how lucky I truly am tonight when I do my Philosophy homework. arghhh!

On a side note we are gearing up for a big day on Friday and a party. We are celebrating Seminary style. For those of you hoping for it to be wild and crazy please understand those are relative terms. We are having a special Mass and reception to celebrate the founder of the Sulpicians (they run the seminary) 400th birthday. All of the Seminarians from the Theological College in D.C. will be joining us as will Archbishop Wuerl. I will keep you posted as I will be sure to be the life of the 400th birthday party. (former students: please imagine listening to my favorite birthday song-remix now)

Off to work!


(blogs to follow: my diet (no I am serious), exercise(really I am not joking), pictures of my room and a new poll with some ideas for the blog)