Parent interviews

I'm currently visiting my mom, who is, of all things, on the phone right now interviewing for an internship with a UU ministry in the New England area.

Let me go back in time for a bit and explain. For most of my life my mom was a business manager at various companies, eventually becoming a vice president at a startup. She was about as outwardly religious as the average grasshopper (though maybe they're quite religious, I don’t know), and I can probably count on both hands the number of times I was in a church while growing up. Imagine my surprise, then, when one day in graduate school I received an e-mail from her saying that she was going to be quitting her job and would be attending a seminary (OK, it didn’t happen quite that suddenly, but I can dramatize, can't I?). So, just as I was leaving graduate school and starting my adjunct teaching, my mother was quitting her job and going back to school. It has made for many interesting discussions, and has overall been rather inspirational (definitely drives home the message "do what you believe in and enjoy").

So, now that a few years have passed and my mom is nearly done with her coursework, she's applying for internships at various congregations across the country. This is, to put it mildly, odd. For instance, my mom and I have spent a decent amount of the past day preparing for her interview. We've walked through possible questions, discussed the congregation she's interviewing with, talked about how she can explain her theology, and just generally dealt with her stress. We spent the last hour trying to find ways to distract her from the impending phone call (which discussions of state politics and education funding did wonderfully). I never thought I'd be the one helping my mom deal with pre-interview stress ... that's just not something "kids" are supposed to do :)