Update #14: On to the OC (Orange County)

Dear friends and family,

Wow...it's been awhile. Thanks for hanging in there with me. I hope you are all doing well!

Well, I had an update written a few days ago when I was sans internet access. My computer decided to restart itself and as a result I lost the update and had not found it within me to try again, but I think it's now or never for this one!

Lots of things have happened since the last update: I finished the long term classes in April and was particularly sad to see my Theology of Karl Barth class end. Shortly after the May term classes began and I ended with Presbyterian Polity on my schedule...not planned, but just fine with me. I enjoyed it quite a bit in fact!

Graduation was right around the corner and since most of my friends were graduating it was a fun and busy time. Just a couple of days after graduation I packed up my room, smushed myself into my car and chased the sun to California. I took a more southern route this year, along I-40 and added about 6 states to my "visited" list. After the 5-day trek home I spent about a week hanging out with my mom and one of my very best friends before heading south. "Where am I now?" you may ask. Well, I am spending my summer working at First Presbyterian church (http://www.fpcsa.org) doing a church field education internship for Princeton and I have already quite fallen in love with the church and the people. They are delightful. The church itself is right downtown and has several downtown ministries and a heart for service, mission, and outreach. I will be doing a little bit of everything, or in the words of the pastor, "Go to everything!" I will be helping to lead in worship, going on youth activities and events, attending all the Bible studies I can, learning how to sew, going on site visits to nonprofits in the area, preaching three times (June 28, July 12, and August 9 if you'd like to come...I'd be more than happy to have a support group there!), and getting involved in every way possible. But I am loving it already (I started on June 7) and will be here until mid-August.

Well, I think that's enough for now, right? I hope you are all well and I would love to hear from all of you (just not all at once, eh?) Just kidding! Prayers for this summer, for making connections, and for things with Rutgers residency requirements to figure themselves out would be greatly appreciated. Thanks everyone! Have a blessed day!

Love,

Megan

Dear Monster

Dear Monster-

Thanks for writing and publishing the article, "Succeeding at Work with Autism." It's great to see someone recognizes the contributions people with autism have to make to the work force. It also serves to help those in management and human resources be more aware, understanding, and accommodating.

However, it would be appreciated if you would use "person first" language when addressing issues related particularly to disability. I understand that the person you interviewed used the term "autistics" but that is a personal decision about what she is comfortable using. In cases where you are talking about the issues related to people with autism, using that phrase rather than "autistics" would be greatly appreciated, as well as more respectful of those who have autism and disabilities in general. Person first language simply encourages us to think of people with disabilities as people first, and to think of their disability as secondary to them as a person.

Sincerely,
Megan Acedo

Article can be found here.

Update #12: Great News! And a few more prayer requests!

Dear friends and family,

This is just a quick note as it is getting late here in the Garden State, but I have some great news to share: I have been "recommended for admission" to the second part of my dual-degree program, the Master of Social Work at Rutgers University!!! I am so excited and just want to say thank you to all of you for your prayers! It is so wonderful to see this coming to fruition after five years of dreaming, planning, and working! I could not be doing it without you, my friends and family, and your support!

There are lots of loose ends to be tied up: figuring out state residency requirements so I can save money on tuition, setting up field ed that will get me dual credit (I've already chosen the place and interviewed), and most importantly, getting "in" via Princeton Seminary's side of the program. Allow me to explain: this program has historically had two or three students each year. This year there were seven! The program, however, is capped at four due to finances that Princeton contributes to Rutgers during your "dual" year. With the current economy I can't imagine Princeton being able to find the extra money, besides it would set a precedent they would need to follow later on. So, Princeton has a screening process to help determine placements for the program; please pray that my persistence and familiarity with the registrar here at Princeton will help and my passion and desire for this program would show. I am not sure yet when this screening process will take place, but should be it the next couple of weeks.

One other thing that I would appreciate prayer on is housing for next year: I entered the apartment lottery and did not get an apartment which is a little problematic because I will be commuting between two schools 35 minutes apart and doing field ed for several hours a week. Due to these time constraints I won't be around campus to use the cafeteria during normal meal hours (which are limited) and so living in the dorms and being on the meal plan will be a large waste of money. I will be speaking with the director of housing in the next few days, so please pray that he would have compassion and will be able to see my financial situation as it is.

Thank you all again for all your support and encouragement! I look forward to hearing from you!

Many, many blessings,

Megan

Update #11: Prayers Appreciated!

Dear friends and family,

Thanks for all hanging in there with me people. I know I get bad at keeping you updated, but I want you to know how much I appreciate all your thoughts and prayers. I thought that, today, I would share what's been keeping me from you all for a month now.

After my trip to Dallas at the beginning of February, I made another trip the following weekend back to California, an unexpected and delightful surprise of a trip, for a church synod meeting and a visit home to see my mom. After hauling myself to the train station long before the crack of dawn so I could make it to a 1:00pm meeting in California (sometimes I love traveling west!) and getting done with the meeting I piled myself into the car and made the trek home. A trip down the Blossom Trail (in the Central Valley...if you get a chance this month, go!), a visit with one of my very best friends in the world (practically my sister), and a surprise visit to church later I headed back to San Francisco for my red-eye back to New Jersey. Thankfully after that weekend, the traveling has mostly stopped...until April at least!

More recently, and perhaps more time-consuming, I filled out, wrote, and submitted my application to the second portion of my dual-degree program, the Master of Social Work at Rutgers University. And now I just sit back and wait. Except for a few small snags, all of which could use your prayers in the next couple of weeks: 1) I have to get accepted by Rutgers to do the dual-degree program (hopefully not a problem!), 2) this year there are seven people from Princeton applying to do the dual-degree program, which historically only has 2 or 3 every year, and is actually capped at 4 people due to financial reasons, and 3) in the current economy, I can't imagine that Princeton is going to be able to dig out the necessary funds to expand, though I am praying for that. So, as you can see, prayers would be especially appreciated for this.

We are on "Reading Week" which I am using for some reading, yes, but also for an opportunity to relax a bit. Winter is finally starting to loosen its firm grip around these here parts, and I'm so glad that it's been almost 6 weeks since the groundhog saw his shadow! With the warm weather comes an itching to reorganize and clean...they don't call it spring cleaning for nothing! I hope you are all well, and will write again soon! As always, I love hearing from you and will do my very, very best to respond!

Blessings for a delightful spring,
Megan

Update #10: Nonstop Flight and Theology From 30,000 Feet

Dear Friends,

Well, I’m sitting in the Dallas-Fort Worth airport waiting for my flight back to New Jersey (which has been delayed, of course) and decided now is as good a time as any to say hello and write an update! My first thought was that I ought to share with you how much I love nonstop flights. For those of you who heard of my travel woes in August (I finally got to Louisville, aka my “second home” about 13 hours after I was supposed to) and going home for Christmas (32 hours to get home from Princeton) you’ll understand why I am so happy to be on a nonstop, with baggage in hand. I don’t have to worry about a connection, I don’t have to wait for the excruciatingly slow and unorganized baggage claim in Newark, and I get to eat Swedish meatballs from IKEA and actually send this update that much sooner (a lack of Internet is keeping me from sending it now).

So, I’ll get to the whole grad school thing in a minute but some of you may be wondering why I’m in Dallas and why I’m going to San Francisco next weekend. I have the opportunity to be part of a General Assembly (national level) committee of the Presbyterian Church (USA), the Committee on Representation, since the summer of 2004. We meet 2-3 times a year in various places, although last year we seemed to be permanently stuck in Louisville (see above) and from this I’ve had the chance to visit Atlanta, Louisville, St. Louis, Dallas, Albuquerque, Daytona Beach, FL, and hopefully on the docket for the next couple of meetings are Nashville and Lake Tahoe. Our main goals are advocacy and monitoring as well as training on how to and encouragement for Synod and Presbyteries (the middle governing bodies in the Presbyterian Church) to create and maintain their own Committees on Representation. The four main areas we deal with are 1) racial ethnic diversity, 2) male/female equity, 3) youth and young adult involvement, and 4) inclusion of persons with disabilities and disability awareness. This October I will be in charge of a biennial training event for our Synod committee staff and plans for it have been in the works for a year and a half already! So, this is just one area of my life that I’m getting to share with you all!

Now, back to that whole school thing: classes for the spring semester are in session (we began about a week ago) and my professors are already off to a running start. I have a rather eclectic mix of classes this semester:

· Introduction to Preaching

· The Theology of Karl Barth

· Iconography, Symbolism, and Theology

So far I’m enjoying all of them, although the last one on the list is certainly the must unstructured and unpredictable class I have, and I do like my structure in my classes. It should shape up to be a good semester though and while I’m a little anxious about preaching, I think I will really enjoy it. Also, after writing 4 papers totaling about 61 pages for the fall semester I am oh-so-thankful that I will only have 2 papers this semester.

With Princeton’s new schedule we also had a Jan term (shh, don’t tell anyone I called it that!) that took up three weeks of…well, January. I took one three-credit course in the pastoral care section entitled Ministry with Persons with Disabilities and Their Families. While it was a very, very intense three weeks, it was an incredibly valuable experience, especially for someone who is looking into working with children or adults with developmental disabilities for her vocation.

I know there have been several things I promised I would write about and haven’t gotten to them yet in my updates, but this is getting a bit long, so I think I’ll wrap things up for now. Thanks for reading, and I would love to hear from you. I also want to take just a minute and thank those who lifted up my alma mater, Westmont College, during the Tea Fire in November. Westmont is well on its way to recovering, no doubt in part thanks to your prayers. If you’re interested you can read more about fire recovery and rebuilding efforts here.

May you be blessed this day.

Thanks for reading,

Megan

Alive?

Well, I am still (mostly) alive. Christmas break has come and gone and so has over half of our January term. Things are just flying by...and I am having a hard time keeping up. So, for the time being, this is just to say I'm still mostly alive.

Signing off for now...
Megan

The End of an Era

This particular era I speak of is the fall long-term portion of the semester. It is over. Finished. Kaput. And I am happy.

In one week I wrote 11,722 words totalling approximately 47 pages, equalling three papers. And then I drank a very, very large margarita. During finals week I also sang about 16 hours in three rehearsals and four concerts.

I am now focused on Christmas which is blissfully free of papers. I am ignoring the sociological research methods final looming over me in January. I visited Santa Barbara, saw wonderful people, went caroling, did some Christmas shopping and will now embark on the mad dash for the finish line that is Christmas...luckily this is a different...a good kind of mad dash. And then I will relax.

In the meantime, Merry Christmas and prayers for a blessed New Year.
Love,
Megan