Weekly Email: June 1, 2026
We are now in Week 1 of the Summer term. This week I want to talk about expecting the unexpected and why the normal semester you keep planning for rarely shows up. I also have a couple of ways to connect in person at the SBC next week.
In this email:
- Student Tip: Expecting the Unexpected
- Program News: Come See Us at the SBC
Student Tip: Expecting the Unexpected
I know that at the end of almost every semester I would tell myself the same thing: next term I will have a more normal semester, this or that was a special exception, and that I'll plan better. Basically I would tell myself that next term will be more calm. Once this stretch is behind me, the rhythm I keep planning for will finally settle in. I said this often and I'm sure many of you have said the same thing
The "normal" term isn't coming and it has little to do with how well you plan. Your coursework sits on top of a job, a family, a church, a commute, and plenty you don't control. That environment keeps changing and the next disruption rarely looks like the last one. The students who carry this well didn't guess the interruption ahead of time. They left margin in the term, a catch-up day each week, an assignment finished a few days early, room in the schedule that isn't already spoken for. When the surprise comes…and it will, they have somewhere to put it.
When something does mess up your week, the instinct is to treat the work itself as paused until conditions clear. But those conditions are not on the way and waiting for them becomes its own kind of avoidance. Some of your best work happens inside the limits. A narrow window forces a decision a wide-open week lets you postpone answering what matters most here and what can wait. Often the constraint is the very thing that shows you what the work is.
Your formation was never going to ride on the good weeks alone. What shapes you is what you do on the ordinary days and the hard ones, the weeks you miss the target but don't disappear. On a bad week, lower the bar instead of taking a zero. Read for twenty minutes when you wanted two hours. Write the paragraph you can, then come back tomorrow. Steady beats heroic over a degree that takes years.
When a hard stretch ends, take an honest look back before you rush into the next one. Not to grade yourself but to learn. What threw you off this time, how did you respond, and what would you build so the next surprise costs you less? A few minutes of reflection there is worth more than another resolution to try harder.
Expecting the unexpected isn't bracing for the worst. It's planning for the season you're actually in.
Program News: Come See Us at the SBC
Many of us from Southern will be in Orlando next week for the SBC. If you're going to be there, I'd love for you to stop by our booth and say hello. So much of our life together happens through emails. It means a lot to put a name to a face.
We'd also love to have you at our Alumni and Friends Luncheon on Wednesday, June 10, from 12-1:30 p.m.
You can find tickets and details on the Alumni and Friends Luncheon page.
Quick Reference of Upcoming Term Dates:
- Current Week: Summer, Week 1 (June 1-8)
- Fall 1 Term Begins: August 3, 2026
- Fall 2 Term Begins: October 5, 2026
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