Seminary is rough, and a funny story

Boy, this new semester sure is kicking my tail. For those who are curious, I'm taking Intermediate Hebrew, Biblical Aramaic, Inductive Bible Study on the Minor Prophets, and Vocation of Ministry. Three of the four are tough classes, with Aramaic, by far, being the most challenging.

Also for those curious, Aramaic is basically a later dialect of Hebrew. So, it's similar, but at the same time it is also very different. And it's kicking my tail.

There also has been a lot of stuff going on. I'm still working on getting acclamaited to the environment, namely that I don't know a whole lot of people yet. But, that'll change, I suppose.

Ok, now here's the funny story part...

On the first day of classes, I walked into the Hebrew class (who is taught by a Harvard Ph.D), and she asked all of us to write all the Hebrew background we've had on an index card. Of course, I put down that I had 4 years in college and two years of high school.

She had said that she doesn't give out many As in this class, and that if you get an A in her class, you are Ph.D material. If you don't, you're probably not Ph.D material. So I took that as a personal challenge.

After reading my index card, she sent me an e-mail. "Are you sure you want to be in this class, given your background?" I responded yes, simply because she has a reputation of being somewhat of a driller, and that's what I wanted. She responds:

"It's totally your call, but given your background, as far as getting an "A" in my class, well, you had better."

Yeah, Harvard Ph.D telling me this. No pressure. :\

Jon