August always feels like a weird month (as I’ve said before, last year at this time). Not bad weird, just different. It’s an in-between month.

This week seems particularly full of transitions this year. On Monday my sister flew back to Oxford after her 17-day summer vacation at home with me and our parents. My latest play was premiered a week and a half ago, and now I’m beginning to brainstorm a new script (updates to come…). Summer is racing to its finish line, while the fall semester of a new school year is poised to dart into motion.

And that’s not all. My week opened with a particularly meaningful occasion. On Sunday, August 11, I was baptized. I had surrendered my life to Christ to the best of my ability when I was seven years old, but for different reasons I’d never had the opportunity to be baptized and outwardly testify to my faith in that way. But on Sunday we had a beautiful baptismal service at church where I was privileged to be baptized alongside my sister and eleven other friends of all ages.

Then there’s the other exciting news I haven’t mentioned on the blog yet. I’ve taken a part-time position with HSLDA Online Academy for the new school year, teaching high school Latin! I’m thrilled to start teaching online, and in a field of study I love so much.

(Quick rabbit trail: it occurred to me that it might sound weird to say I love Latin. What’s there to love about a dead language spoken centuries ago by pagans? Well, for the record, many, many Christians spoke and wrote in Latin as well—see the Vulgate and basically every theologian, philosopher, and scientist ever for 1200 years. Only a slight exaggeration. I love Latin because it gives us direct access to all those writings, but I also just have this nerdy delight in language itself. Latin is like a puzzle: its grammar is all about logic, clarity, and making connections, and I think that’s cool. And its vocabulary reveals all kinds of fascinating hidden meanings in its descendant, English. Anyway. That’s my extremely abridged apologetic for studying Latin.)

So that’s that. My Latin 3 class starts on Monday, so this week is full of all the final preparations for the new semester. If you think of it, I’d appreciate a prayer for wisdom and grace as I make this transition to online teaching and welcome new students into the school year.

If you’re finding August to be a month of transition too, may God bless you and strengthen you for whatever experiences lie ahead!