The year is beginning!

I am very excited to make my first posting here at our Life at Luther Blog! I can't believe how quickly the time goes! First Week (Orientation for new students) begins on Tuesday already. First Week is a lot of fun, but also a lot of work for us in the Student Services Office! This year I am working as Student Life Coordinator.

Working on First Week does bring back a lot of memories from my first few days here at Luther Seminary. My husband and I both started here in September of 2003. We had both graduated from college in May. I went to Saint Olaf in Northfield, MN while Kevin went to Concordia University here in St. Paul. We got married in August and had been back from our honeymoon for about 2 days before we tossed all of our wedding presents and hand-me-down furniture into our car and Kevin's parent's truck and hit the long road from Rapid City, SD to the Twin Cities! (I've included a picture of Kevin and me behind my dad's house right before we left.) It was all a little overwhelming at first, but also incredibly exciting.

A lot has happened since then. After about one month on campus, I came to the realization that I wanted to change programs from a Master of Arts degree in Youth and Family Ministry to the Master of Divinity degree with a concentration in Children, Youth and Family. I had never really thought about the possibility of being an ordained pastor until I arrived at seminary. Then it seemed that all of the sudden I woke up one morning and felt that I had found my calling in life, or perhaps God's calling in my life. It certainly wasn't in my plans! Then, my husband and I took advantage of the amazing cross-cultural trips available and spent that first January in San Lucas Toliman, Guatemala. I can't say enough good things about that experience, and it wasn't bad to take a break from winter in MN either. It was on that trip that we decided to spend our second year of seminary as exchange students at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary (or PLTS) in Berkeley, CA. I spent the following summer doing my Clinical Pastoral Education at the San Francisco Veterans Hospital. Then we hit the road again and headed back to SD for internship. I spent last year as intern pastor at Augustana College in Sioux Falls, SD doing campus ministry while Kevin worked as a chaplain resident at the Sioux Falls Veterans Hospital.

Now we are back here again. Needless to say, we've moved A LOT! But that is also part of seminary life. Being back here is kind of like coming back home. And I can't wait to see what my senior year holds.