Today I finished my first semester as a graduate student and a graduate assistant. As an undergraduate, I was always told that being a graduate assistant would be unbelievably more difficult than being an undergraduate. All I know is that I worked through the night at least once in every semester as an undergraduate and that I have slept every night this semester. My undergraduate years were good preparation for being a graduate student.

As a graduate student, I’ve been taught how to be a better professional historian this semester. But though I’ve done acceptably well in my classes, I’m disappointed in my own work. I need to be more focused. And I need to begin work on my thesis.

As an undergraduate, I often sought out opportunities to preach. This summer and this semester, I haven’t asked for a single opportunity. But the church and Pastor Walker have been very generous in letting me teach and preach. Pastor Walker asks me to preach fairly often, and I teach an adult Sunday school class on Bible doctrines. I hope that I can continue to have such opportunities wherever I go.

The end of a semester always brings bittersweet changes. This semester, John is graduating and going back to Oklahoma. Then too, the end of the semester doesn’t feel like the end of a semester when you don’t go home right at the end. (Of course, last year I didn’t go home right away either.) But I’m going home next Thursday. And a definitely happy change is that Abby is coming with me.

After I finished last semester, I couldn’t wait to start George Marsden’s biography of Jonathan Edwards. Tonight I’ve started Edward Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire in preparation for “Decline of Rome” with Dr. Hayner next semester. But my reading list is not entirely my own, for Abby has a list of children’s books for me to read. If you are interested in buying books for your children, I still stand by last year’s recommendations.