This is my first blog from home.  I’ll be writing over the summer, hopefully with the same frequency that I did by the end of the school year.  I’m not sure if my life is exciting enough to fill up that many blogs, but maybe something crazy will happen soon.

Yesterday, I got a job! Which isn’t exactly too exciting, but reasonably so.  I had sent my resume to a couple places with no luck.  But I prayed that if God wanted me to work, his Mother would find me a job. And the first day I was home, she pulled through for me once again. Originally, I had been told that the place I had worked last summer didn’t have any openings.  However, I got a call on Monday that they did have an opening and wanted me back. I’ll probably be working about 50 hours a week and they gave me a raise as well.

That job will keep me pretty busy along with the work I have planned for myself. I plan to do a fair bit of work on the yard to get ready for the numerous parties we are having at our house this summer. One of my professors is going to work with me on my writing over the summer. Not that I write poorly. He just doesn’t think I’m ready to earn a Ph. D. yet. In point of fact, I think he’s right, but it doesn’t hurt to write like a Ph. D. candidate as an undergrad. Hopefully, I’ll be able to improve a lot with his help. Besides writing, I’m also planning on doing a fair amount of reading. One of my work-study jobs at school is tutoring philosophy, mostly PL 101 – First Philosophy. In all honesty, I didn’t read very much as a First Philosophy student—in fact, very little at all. The past semesters, I’ve found myself in the odd situation of tutoring Descartes without having ever read Descartes etc. I read bits and pieces of the major philosophic works for class, enough to write my essays, but never read the full selections. So, armed with the First Philosophy anthology and Dr. Leiner’s syllabus, I plan to do the course reading over the summer to get ready for next semester and just refresh things in general. I probably don’t need to re-read some texts like the Apology, the Republic, or the Nicomachean Ethics which I have read numerous times, but the repetition won’t hurt. One of professors also gave me the course reading for his class next semester, so I’ll be doing that over the summer to prepare as well. As if 50 hours of work and 6 virtual credit hours of reading wouldn’t keep me busy enough, I’m also planning on solidifying my German, refreshing my Latin, and learning New Testament Greek. Well, beginning New Testament Greek anyway. All told, it should be an educational summer.

Hopefully, enough things will happen when I’m not doing any of the above things that this blog will be an exciting read. In any case, I’ll keep you updated on my current reading. I’m starting with Socrates, as it should be, in Plato’s Apology. From there, I’ll be hitting Plato’s Republic. At the same time, I’m reading Fr. Walter Ciszek, S.J.’s With God in Russia simply for my own enjoyment.

Have a great summer!