finding community

most times, when i mention community on this blog, I am referring to Flats, because my family lives 'in community' with lots of other people. (btw, Matt has been blogging about community lately, you should read his blog.  its more interesting than mine ...  and he wouldn't be caught dead using this font over there, either.)
but today I'm paying respect to another kind of community and location ... my school community.  I've studied at this great seminary in a little town about 7 hours from my home for the past 3 years. I come out here by car, plane, or bus, stay in a dorm or someone's guest room, and settle in for a week of classes.  Usually I have a couple of months post-class to complete and hand in the assignments and papers.  There's usually some intense reading and writing beforehand, too.  My program requires 25 classes + an internship.  Thankfully, I had a few under my belt before I started, and I've been able to do a few by distance.  I met with my advisor today and confirmed that I only have 6 left! (and a major project.....)  I personally think we should get at least 2 degrees for this amount of work; two of my friends in health care recently started their Masters programs and they only have 7 classes to do in order to get their degrees.  But I digress.... I wanted to talk about community, not whine about academic injustice.  (Have you ever noticed that I can find a way to label just about anything as injustice?)
I remember when I was accepted into this program, aside from the shock and overwhelming insecurity, I also knew how important it would be for me to feel connected and how hard it would be to feel isolated.  I worried about how on earth I could find any type of community when I'd only be on campus a handful of times/year. Somehow, though, connections did emerge and relationships did happen ... I have a pretty good routine of people and places to visit, classmates to coffee with, people to round up for a meal at Boston Pizza in Moose Jaw, friends to play games with.. its seems unbelievable that it happened and I always feel so thankful that it did. At the same time, I wonder what I was worried about.  As so often happens, things have a way of working themselves out and we usually needn't preoccupy ourselves with the worries we do.
I have met some tremendous people over my years at school, and each time I'm here I find myself marvelling at the kinds of people from all over North America (and further!) that I get to study with and learn alongside.  My life has been shaped not only by studies and profs, but also by fellow students - many of whom I have shared great dialogue, openness, encouragement, and challenges with.  It probably helps that I study with a bunch of soon-to-be counsellors, we reach out to each other pretty easily, and our class content and role-plays often mean that we get into each other's lives and stories quite a bit.
I'm in the homestretch (I'll only be here 5 more times, including graduation) - I can actually see a day when I will have my life back from the massive time and energy consumer called 'never ending school work'! But part of the reason I'm writing this post is because I want to remind myself to savor this last leg of the journey ... being a seminarian and a graduate student has definitely changed me and the course of my life and I'm really thankful for all the people and events that have been part of that journey.
(or maybe I actually wrote this post because I am harbouring a secret hope that one Thursday soon I will get to be seminarian of the week... ?!?!?)