i have been accepted to two seminaries! i am so excited!

it has been a ridiculously long and stressful struggle to convince any seminary that i am capable of good work! even though i applied to all "gay friendly" schools of course, there is still a stigma that goes with having been expelled from any school for any reason.

i am so grateful...these two seminaries were my top choices, and i heard back from both of them within an hour of each other today! i don't think this has really sunk in yet. when you have been consistently rejected and expect the worst, i think it takes a little while for your brain to wrap around the fact that it's going to be okay now. the hateful people who tried to keep me out of ministry can no longer do me any harm. the story of my expulsion and my horrible experience in the church of god can finally be told. up to this point, i was afraid because my admission to these schools was still partially in the hands of those who were doing my recommendations.

now i get to actually decide where i want to go, which i never imagined would be the case. i can move to boston, which is a great option (cambridge, actually) or i can move back to manhattan, where the school provides me access to the city and on-campus housing so i don't have to starve to made ends meet!

for those of you who have sort of followed along with me and encouraged me, i am truly thankful. so many of you have kept my spirits up when i have been worried and stressed about this whole situation. you have been my community of faith, even if you are not a person of faith or a christian or spiritual at all, but you have built up my faith nonetheless. i find it ironic that i would get the most encouragement from people i have never personally met rather than the hateful people who claim to be "brothers and sisters in christ." you have been my church, my source of comfort and strength. so thank you. seriously. i am so blessed.

and now to make decisions and pray and meditate; i am so happy that i can do so in an attitude not of fear but of thanksgiving for what i have been given. and then comes the hard part - using what i will learn to help others find their connection to god, and making sure no one has to suffer the way that i have. i will not let this opportunity pass me by without using it to effect change in the church, in myself, and in anyone whom needs guidance. oh, and both schools are episcopal seminaries...whiskey-palianism, here i come!

peace