Cramming

I was walking across campus a few minutes ago, and I noticed a chunk of bread hit the sidewalk in front of me. My first thought was "hmmm...okay, there's something in the tree."

I turned around and looked up in the tree, and sure enough there was a crow sitting in the tree. Now, a touch of a scientific explination. Crow's are flighty birds (no pun intended). Anyone who has seen one along side the road while driving knows what I'm talking about. In my 30 years, I've only seen one that actually stayed put while I drove by. They have another defence mechanism. They will regurgitate when they feel threatened. Guess what just happened to me.

Fortunately he had bad aim.

As I thought about it, it made me laugh...the irony of this situation was not lost on me. Ever taken a test after an intensive? In a certain way, we are reguritiating everything that the professors have been cramming into our (now very jello like) minds. We feel threatened by the fact that if we don't pass the test, our grade will be detrimental.

Speaking of things being crammed into us...check out the picture...we spend many hours in this state last night.

The good news...it seemed to stick. The RTA test went okay.

We did take a break at one point...During the break, there was another kind of cramming that went on as well.

Ahh yes...the Manning's Jumbo Special..with peperjack and fried onions. I'm getting hungry again just thinking about it.

As I and ponder on the past two weeks, I see a big blur. As I mentioned yesterday, Dr. Westermeyer commented on our mental state at the end of an intensive. I believe it was about Tuesday or Wednesday of this week when all of our brains entered into "warm liquid goo phase."

Yes, I just referenced Austin Powers....oh behave baby.

But now we are wrapping up. Within the next few hours, we will begin to disband and head our own different directions. This is sad from the aspect of knowing that we won't see each other for a long time. It could be up to a year in certain cases as cohort 2 is slated for CPE this summer and therefore we don't have any scheduled classwork. On the other hand, it is also a relief. I believe that it's the collective notion of the group that we love being here, but by the time two weeks have gone by, we're ready to leave.

And so as we head out yet again, I hope that we leave behind little parts of ourselves here on campus. Whether it's the heart of someone being touched during a chapel service that one of us helped lead, or a cohort joke shared with a professor that got a kick out of it, or even someone that got a chuckle out of some weird guy walking across campus in a blaze orange hat.

Thank you Luther...once again, it's been a pleasure.