An Alb

Field Ed orientation is over – and I am meeting a friend this afternoon to go and pick out an alb. AN ALB. How weird is that? I have known all along I would need to get something along those lines eventually – and my supervisor said I could borrow one she lets the interns use – but that I might as well go ahead and get one of my own. So – here I go off to Cokesbury to buy one today. I guess I am as ready as I will ever be --- although honestly, I do not think that I will ever feel ready to go and do what I presume a pastor does (remember all those pages describing "pastor" in the UMC Book of Discipline Connie talked about?) I was thinking last night at dinner about all the videos they showed us and how very confident the students were as they remembered experiences from last summer. I hope I seem as confident – but I know that I don’t feel it. I remember thinking and feeling differently fifteen years ago when I moved to Thomasville for the summer to work as the student summer missionary at the Baptist Children’s Home. I was 21. It is amazing how little I remember about being in class and how little I remember about what I read for school – but I can remember the wall paper of the little apartment I stayed in that summer. I remember the faces and names of the kids I worked with, and I can remember all the little things that we did together that summer. It was the most important part of my college education. I don't have expectations that this summer will be the same kind of experience, but I do expect I will be changed. My dad still drives the little truck he bought me for college. I think I may ask to use it this summer. For old time's sake. It will not have all the stuff in it that college kids drive around in – but it will have an extra set of slacks and dress shoes for the hospital – a bible, boots for when I get to work in the garden, and oh yeah, I guess, an alb.