The fall semester’s classes have begun. Or, I supposed I
should say “fall quarter,” as there are four of them, or even “quintal,” as
there are five parts to the academic year, counting the spring before classes
start, but we usually say semester.
Anyway, I have two classes, Healer’s Health, and Geology
and History. The former is one of Allen’s. It’s about all the things that
often go wrong with the mental health of people in the “helping professions,”
like burn-out and codependency, and how to avoid them, recognize them, and do
something about them. I never really thought of myself as headed for a “helping
profession,” but I needed the credit, and, as Allen has explained, my ability
to listen to people is very much something that other people could come to rely
on. In one way or another, we’re all becoming priests or priestesses, and we
all have to confront and prepare for the vulnerability that involves.
The other class actually focuses less on history the way we
normally talk about it (though supposedly they’ll be some of that, too) and
more on geology as a kind of history. It’s mostly a close look on the geologic
history of our immediate area, how our mountains and valleys and soils and
everything were formed. I won’t get into the details of what we’re learning as
it would give away where we are. It’s taught by an ally.
Each class has met once so far. The rest of the week I’m
either working off campus or I’m working for Charlie’s horticultural team.
The thing is, these are my last two classes as an undergrad—maybe
my last two classes here, depending
on if and when I return as a candidate. And I have to say they’re
anticlimactic, especially the one about geology. I mean, geology is interesting
and everything, but it’s not like I’m spending my last semester here hunting
horcruxes like Harry Potter.
My first semester here was definitely organized as an
introduction. I think all of my classes, at least most of them, actually had
“Intro” in their titles. Everybody in those classes was new, and everything was
calculated to draw us in, to welcome and induct us, into the school. Now? These
just happen to be the classes I’m taking this semester. Most of my classmates
aren’t graduating with me. There’s no conclusion.
We do have the Graduating Novice Meetings every month. At
the beginning of the year they said they’d give us information this way, but
they really haven’t told us much. Instead, they usually ask if anybody has any
questions or concerns, we talk about whatever comes up for a few minutes, and
then we just all chat for the rest of the time. But it’s been interesting to
meet as a group every month, all 34 of us, to really get a sense that we’re all
in this together, almost like a team. And it’s an acknowledgement. It’s like,
yeah, this year is different for us
and, yeah, we are different than the
other students and, yes, it’s really happening—we’re going to leave this place
soon.
That acknowledgment helps it seem a lot less weird.
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