The cycle of the seminary class I am taking right now is such that after every 5 weeks of class, we get a week's reprieve. What a difference it makes not to have to keep pushing or holding your nose to the grindstone. It gives you a chance to breathe, do all those things you haven't done because you were so involved with classwork, and check in with people you love. I know some of my classmates use the time to catch up with papers they haven't been able to complete and readings they never got to.
I have been fortunate in not falling behind. The 300+pages of reading and assimilation of materials takes a good bit of time, even for someone like myself who reads fast. I took a great speed reading course when I was in 6th grade, and apparently the training stuck. Really, it was a machine that projected the text on the wall a word or a line at a time. The light would move slowly at first, revealing the next word or line. Over time, the speed at which the light progressed was increased, training your eyes to move in the desired patterns at faster rates while the comprehension tests traced your progress of understanding. That doesn't even begin to address the other projects like the Ministry File or the Scripture Journal we are required to keep.
Of course, some readings are easier to manage than others. The writings of Dr Martin Luther King Jr are fascinating and encourage you to keep going. Other authors are more thick in their prosody, forcing you to re-read every single passage to try and ascertain what in the world they are getting at. Obtuse at best.
Given this full extra week, I had hoped to read ahead, write papers for at least two weeks forward, and be smug about the progress. I did no such thing. Instead, I caught up with the kids, put the house in better shape, took time to be outside and enjoy the world before winter sets in, and lay around doing nothing, sitting in the recliner with Sugar tucked by my side.
Sigh. So much for being progressive!
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