Not Big on Interpretations - 2
1372 words by Karla
My hurricane story… Well, my RA banged on my door at about 9:40am on Saturday, August 27, 2005. My roommate and I looked at one another and then opened the door. Residents were running up and down the hall waking people up saying, “The hurricane is coming! Meeting in the glass box!” I could hardly believe it at first. I am from California. We don’t know anything about hurricanes. We have earthquakes, but I never know we have had one until after it happens and people are asking me if I felt the earthquake. Well, we had our meeting and my RA told us that we needed to evacuate and if we could not that there would be a bus to take those that could not leave. I had no idea what I was going to do. I called my sister, so I would not freak out my mom, and she told me to called her back and let her know where I ended up at. Well, I asked a girl in Alabama if I could go home with her. She said, “Yes.” I then packed up my belongings in my closet and sat down to work on my first blog entry for this class. I was able to finish one by the time I left and was so freaked out that the other one would not be submitted by midnight. Moving along… I left New Orleans at about 3pm and did not get to my destination until about 12 midnight. I am not sure how long the trip should have taken, but I know that it was not 9 hours. I stayed there until Thursday. The whole time we watched CNN and I did homework, thinking I would be returning soon. I think it was Tuesday that we had a short power outage, but nothing too severe that I witnessed in Al. When I went home I enrolled for school at the University of San Francisco. While there I took Japanese, Psychology and Public Speaking. I also worked at Gap. I hated school and did not like my roommate very much, although she was very nice. I think that my dislike of her was in relation to me not wanting to be in San Francisco. I hated the city, but I can say that I survived and am now grateful to be back in New Orleans, Louisiana.
So far I am very excited about this class. So far I think that this class will help me a lot. I am a person that is not very in touch with my feelings and by me having to write about things that I think and things that I feel will help me to open up, and maybe find out more about who I really am. Before I came to New Orleans I was very unhappy and looked to college as a way out. So far I feel better, but still don’t know who I am… heck, it has only been two weeks. Well, I like the class. It is really hard for me to talk about my thoughts because I just go with the flow of things, I don’t really think about them, for me this class helped to feel my schedule to 18 semester hours and it will help to learn more about what I am attempting to base my life on. In Bible Study, Sunday school, and during church sermons typically the same things are taught and that is usually centered on how one should conduct themselves and treat others, but there is so much more to the Bible and the Lord’s teachings that I want to know. I get so caught up in my daily life that I disregard the Bible; I pray, but reading the Bible is out. I know this class doesn’t take the place of daily devotion, but it is giving me more than I have self discipline to keep up with right now. I expect this class to help me think not so literally about things. Just in the two days we have had class I have learned new words and symbols. I am not good when it comes to looking at symbols and I really expect this class to help me with that. Just already I have learned Bible discrepancies. This doesn’t make me believe in the Bible any less, but it makes me aware. That is what it is… I want to be more aware of context of the Bible, once again, not just some, but all of it.
When I was younger I attended church, but all I remember is wearing pretty dresses and going to sleep. In August of last year I made the decision to join a church and to give my life to the Lord. I participated and lead church activities a lot and still after a year I don’t have biblical reading habits. I have learned Godly conduct and every now and then I will use the daily bread or my churches prayer calendar to guide me in devotion. Yet still the same things are enforced. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but there is more to learn than what is typically taught. I know a lot about Psalms and Matthew and others, but I am pretty much oblivious to many of the other books of the Bible say. In class on Tuesday was probably the first time I had turned to Lamentations. I learned some interesting things that had nothing to do about how I should act or things like that, but I learned about the past. If people don’t know their history they will not know their future. I am a firm believer in that and also that the Bible is my history… not only my history, but the worlds history whether they want to believe it or not. Also things tend to repeat themselves. All things happen in patterns and nothing will happen again as they did in Lamentations, but similar situations have occurred and probably will occur. Thinking about this is helping me with my symbolism already and comparing this instance to other tragedies.
I wish to go into research… I think. I used to want to be a doctor, but I know how I am when I go to the doctor and I know how others are. I wish not to have to deal with others attitudes so I thought research would be good. Plus I like to experiment and if I was a doctor all I would be able to do was what was mandated for me to do. I know as a researcher there are only certain things I would have funds to research, but it allows my creative mind more space to operate. At one point I had thought about going into philosophy as a major, but science is the only thing that has clicked to me. That kind of scares me because about a month ago I began to think that if I go into research I may be doing things that defy what I believe. Since I don’t know what the Bible says and all of what God feels about science I cannot make a clear decision on what I want to do. I expect this class to help me with that also. I don’t know if it will, but even if it doesn’t I feel that I will be more equipped to study the Bible on my own and to learn what I need to know and beyond. I thought about majoring in biochemistry and then going to seminar school and getting my Ph.D. to teach against science, but I don’t know enough about the Bible or science to know if that is even a valid profession.
I have read and will be able to adhere to the course requirements which include: attendance and punctuality to every class session, being prepared for class and participating within, my cell phone will be off during class, I will be positive, respectful, and honest and I will not plagiarize.