Just keep swimming...

Bucket List

My good friend Mesha is writing a blog, and one of her posts included her bucket list.  She encouraged her readers to create their own lists, and this is my attempt to do so:

(these are in no particular order)

1. Travel to Central and Eastern Europe
2. See the Northern lights
3. Adopt a child from another country
4. Visit Peru (especially Macchu Picchu)
5. Go to Prague
6. Go to Italy
7. Make homemade jam
8. Have my own personal library in my house
9. To go Broadway plays
         Les Miserables
         Wicked
         Lion King
         Beauty and the Beast
         Phantom of the Opera
10. Live in New England
11. Get a puppy
12. Go to Africa
13. Build my own house
14. Fall in love
15. Have a family
16. Teach high school history
17. Get my MA in history
18. Teach history abroad
19. Run the Cooper River Bridge Run
20. Learn how to play the violin or cello
21. Learn to dance
22. Memorize more Bible verses
23. Record all the books I read
24. Go on a home exchange vacation
25. Learn another language
26. Work at a living history museum
27. Go on a foreign mission trip
             Ecuador
             Guatemala
             Tanzania
28. Go apple picking
29. Go to a hot air balloon festival
30. Graduate from college
31. Travel to Western Europe (again)
32.  Have a garden
33.  Take cooking lessons
34.  Help someone learn to love history
35.  Be bold when sharing the Gospel


I'm sure there is more, but this is all I can think of right now.  :)

How to Read in Grad School

Reading becomes an art (or a science?) in grad school.  Mostly because without the proper technique, it is impossible to read everything that is assigned.  Unfortunately, everyone has different strategies, so it is a process of trial-and-error to find the one that works for you.  I am still  working on this.  I like to read every word -- partly because I get caught up in the narrative and forget to read for the argument and partly because I am afraid I will miss something important.  

The other challenge is to read actively and to critique the historian's argument while reading.  This can get complicated when you have books that are about the same topic but seem mutually exclusive.  A verse in Proverbs expresses this dilemma perfectly: 

The one who states his case first seems right, 

until the other comes and examines him.

Proverbs 18:17 

This semester I not only have to read some thirty books for the classes that I am taking, but I also have to read for my comprehensive exams in the spring.  These reading lists will probably end up requiring me to read over one hundred books.  This is where reading strategies come in handy.  Anyway, I was reading one of my comps books, and I came across these reading tips from an 18th-century German educator.  I thought they were amusing...

You should never read while standing or after having finished a meal.  Instead, you should wash your face with cold water and take your book outdoors, where you can read it in the bosom of nature - and aloud, for the sound of the voice facilitates the penetration of ideas.  But most important, you should have the right spiritual disposition.  Instead of responding passively to the text, you should throw yourself into it, seize its meaning, and apply it to your own life. "We must relate everything we read to our 'I,' reflect on everything from our personal point of view, and never lose sight of the consideration that study makes us freer and more independent, and that it should help us find an outlet for the expression of our heart and mind." (Robert Darnton from Johann Adam Berg's manual on reading)