I wish I could say that since my last post here on this blog (more than a few years ago) that my tendency towards pride was lessened. Sadly, my tendency towards pride probably increased as my time at school came to a close after that previous senior project was completed. Little did I know just how much pride would become a stumbling block in my life until the next chapter in school began—the chapter called seminary and a new job.

After graduating from school where things seemed to be going fairly well, I had the opportunity to start a new full time job and then start a new part time school. This time, however, the school was seminary and the job was programming.

I began the new job with a desire to “clean up” some of what I thought were loose ends or aging systems. I really thought I knew what I was doing in those early days and with lots of self-confidence I plowed ahead, “cleaning up” many things along the way.

I didn’t realize that beginning a masters program at seminary would be very different from a bachelors program like the past. Especially challenging was the seeming fact that there were no real rules on how much work could be assigned for a particular class. Yes, there are “official limits” that are listed in syllabi as far as how many hours you can expect to work for a certain number of class credits, but those limits were greatly tested in my experience—especially in the area of reading.