Wednesday, April 20

It is finished. Amen.

Since I've included you in this Master-degree journey of mine, I thought I should share that

I'M DONE!!!!

Yes, yes, we all thought this day would never come...(okay, so maybe it was only me who thought that, a rare moment or two).

I had to finish my thesis paper up while I was on vacation in Germany. A more stressful ending to school has yet to be experienced by me. OY VEY! Actually I was fairly calm and resigned that what will be, will be. But I tell you...it was aggravating. Let me just summarize it by saying time-zone differences, silence from my advisor, and then minimally hearing from him when he was in Las Vegas?!?! Whatever. It's done. It's in the past. Moving on.

Anyhow, as of May 7th, I am set to graduate from Crown College, in Minnesota, with a Master's of Arts in Intercultural Leadership. No, I will not be attending the services although I'm sure they will be lovely. Seeing as I live in Washington state and seeing how I used all my vacation time gallivanting off to Germany and Holland, I'm content to just sit here and say "yay me!"

So now, the biggest question is "what are you going to do with this degree?" Ummm...nothing??? Ummm....I don't know??? Ummm....what do you get if you cross an elephant and rhino? Eleph-ino. Sorry. Just chalk the fact that I like this joke as a result of my sinful nature.

I started this degree with the intention of becoming a career missionary, with the Christian & Missionary Alliance, for which having one year of graduate studies is required. As I've progressed along this Master's degree process, the less certain I've become that this is the path for me. So now I have this degree and am praying over a couple possible options for what is next, one of which, includes getting more education. Yes, I know it seems that I'll be in school in forever. We shall see.

Anyhow, let me wrap this up by summarizing my thesis paper for one last time. My thesis paper is on suffering. I've titled it: Understanding Suffering: Ideologies and Perspectives. The driving focus was to discover why God allows suffering and then consequently, how it can affect my relationship with God. I've shared some of the process with you already. In case you haven't read them, but would like to, here are the links:

Suffering (just getting started)
How my thesis paper is changing me
Thesis Paper--Survey
Thesis Paper--Two Interviews
Thesis Paper--Apology and Elaboration
Thesis Paper--An Interview

This has been a good project and studying suffering was a good topic. It's one I'd like to do more research and writing on as it is prevalent (perhaps increasingly so) in every individuals life. However, what I have learned is that there is so much out there. There are always more books that can be read, characters that can be analyzed, stories to be heard. It would be impossible to write an exhaustive study on this topic...not that I want to. But maybe a book of stories, of various forms of suffering, to see underlining themes and how it affected their relationship with God. Hmmm...maybe one day.

Anyhow, thanks for sharing on this journey with me thus far. Yay you!

4 comments:

Moe said...

yay! Congratulations Mindy. I am so happy for you. Huge victory. Allow me to do a dance for you (do dance). OK, that was fun. :)

Thank you for sharing your joy with us!

Mindy said...

Ahhh...I can picture it now. Of course, in my mind, your dance came out a bit like Carlton from Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. :)
Thanks for the congrats!

My name is Cait said...

CONGRATULATIONS!!! I am so excited for you. My housemate and I are gushing over this post ... truly amazing! God bless!

Mindy said...

Ahhh...thanks! Thanks to your housemate too. :)