I have taken a sabbatical from blogging over the last few months, and it has been good. I miss writing on the blog, and more than once have thought of something or seen something that seemed worth sharing, but the past few weeks have been wonderfully busy, and I have gotten through it better by not trying to make time for things like Blogging, excessive news reading or internet surfing.
I am ready to return to the blog now, because I never intended to stay away for long, and I am to a place where I can enjoy it again. Yes, the time stamp is correct. It's currently 4:00 in the morning. Just moments ago I submitted my last final exam as an undergraduate! The final exam was a list of questions and terms e-mailed two days ago by the professor. We were asked to answer the questions using the book and our own thoughts and send it back to him by 10:00 AM Friday morning. You may say I waited 'til the last minute, I say that I did it with 6 hours to spare.
A lot of things are winding down this week and over the last two weeks or so. The final orchestra concert would have been worth a post or two by itself, and perhaps somewhere down the road I'll write a nostalgic post about playing the last concert Maestro Anshel Brusilow conducted at UNT.
A week and a half before that, I received an unexpected honor and award, when the music faculty named me the year's Outstanding Undergraduate Music Ed Major. The award came with a very nice ceremony which my parents were able to attend.
Two weeks ago Jordan got back from her semester in Italy. In between finals and juries, and church work, I have enjoyed stealing time from my work and studies to hear her stories about all the places she visited over the past three months. It makes her than much more of an interesting person, but also just fuels my desire to get back there and see more of Europe than I did in the 10 amazing days I spent in Hungary in October.
My last jury, a week ago, was a very satisfying experience. It seems fitting that just when I have no more cello juries to play, I finally feel that I have learned how to play them satisfactorily. I intend, by every means possible, to continue practicing and stdying cello for the years to come, but I now have the freedom of doing it just for my own personal growth and desire to improve, no longer with a degree plan and impending pass/fail jury on the horizon.
And then a few moments ago I submitted my final assignment as an undergraduate. Perhaps that a bit of a misleading statement. One might ask what, then, will I be doing for an entire semester if I have no assignments between now and December? I do not see student teaching so much as an assignment, but an experience. Perhaps it is my degree's equivalent of an internship. There will be much work and study involved, but no particular assignments. In a way, every moment is an assessment of its own, so the idea of stopping to write about it or be tested defeats the purpose.
Tonight as I sat down to work on the final, it dawned on me that once I finished and submitted it, I'd be finished. I thought back and remembered my very first college assignment. The summer before freshman year, Pepperdine sent me a stack of material on the subject of Vocation and God's calling for our lives. Each student was asked to read the material and consider the question (I paraphrase) "How does vocation and God's calling play into your life?" We were to write a short essay that would address this question as well as demonstrate our writing skills and hand it in to our Freshman Seminar professors during the first week of school. I still remember many of the articles from Leaven Journal I read for that assignment. Some of those teachings about dealing with the difference between our jobs and our vocations were in my thoughts that year as I wrestled with the idea of leaving Pepperdine for UNT. The words from those articles have shaped the advice I've given to friends considering changing their majors, or older friends considering changing jobs or careers. It feels so soon to be finishing undergraduate coursework, yet I think about how much has changed since that week in late August when my dad and I arrived in Malibu and I realize it HAS been quite a long time. I don't know if I could recall any of what I said in that essay I handed Mr. Pullen the first day of class, but I remember so much of what I learned from the assignment.
On to upcoming things:
I am heading to Houston on the evening of Mother's Day. This Sunday is my last Sunday to lead worship at Singing Oaks. It's been a good run and I've had a rich experience in countless ways, but it's time for it to come to an end now. Jordan is coming to League City with me, hopefully we'll leave by 4 or 5 on Sunday and get to my parents' house no later than 9 or 10. We plan to head back towards the DFW area Wednesday morning. In that time I am hoping to visit and apply to at least one or two of the apartment complexes where I might live in the fall, near MHS. I also hope to pick up my score for "The Music Man" and begin score-studying right away.
From Wednesday until Friday I will be boxing up and packing my apartment. Seems like such a shame, I really like that apartment and it has served me ideally. I doubt that my next apartment will be as good of a fit. Friday my dad flies up, I get him at the airport, and we pick up a truck. Saturday would then be the big moving day.
Sunday the 18th is when "The Music Man" begins with the first day of auditions. I have been gone from the United Players stage for two years now, the longest stretch I've gone without being involved in a show since I first played cello in "The Secret Garden" in 2001.
On a similar but much sadder note, my longtime friend and mentor, Laurie Purcell, has breast cancer. I found out tonight when we were exchanging questions and answers about Music Man stuff. On June 1 she beings six months of chemotherapy. I know Laurie's love for the Lord, and I know that is where all her trust is right now. But that doesn't change the fact that I'm terrified for Laurie and Jim and Jake and Katie and Bryan. If you know the Purcells, you know how strange it is to imagine Laurie ever being tired or out of energy. Those days are surely coming, and it's not going to be right. I have no doubt it will frustrate Laurie.
For those of you who read my blog but not Marla's, the pregnancy continues to go smoothly. I haven't seen Marla since Spring Break, so I'm eager to see if she's showing yet, and glad that I'll be closer to everybody as this goes on. This is the first grandchild of the Mark/Laura Flippin family.
That's all for now. Though I an caffeinated, I'm also dead tired. I do not intend to lose all of tomorrow to sleeping off this all-night finale to an intense and hard fought semester. I am glad the semester is over. I am so relieved this semester is over. It's just so good that I am done with this semester.
Good night.
