Women in Their 50's, Headed Off to Seminary

Future historians and ethnographers and sociologists, take note:  in the time immediately after the pandemic of 2020-2021, many women in mid-life and the older side of mid-life decided to go to seminary.  I can't tell you how it all turned out, because we're in the very early part of this process.

Some of us are picking up stakes and moving across the country.  Others of us are doing online classes with an onground intensive here and there.  Others of us (me!) will begin by taking online classes and then go to the seminary to take onground classes at a later point.

Some of us are taking advantage of job losses and the other kinds of losses that come at this point in our lives.  Some of us have come to a point in our family duties where we can finally focus on ourselves.  For some of us, the pandemic served as a wake-up call and reminder that we're not going to live forever.

But here's what's really interesting, future historians and ethnographers and sociologists:  I don't see a similar motivation in my male friends and acquaintances.  Right now, it's all women heading off to a different life.  I wonder what you will make of that, future historians and ethnographers and sociologists.

I do wonder why more of us didn't go back to seminary right after college, when it would have been more traditional.  Is it because women hadn't been ordained for very long at that point, back in the 1980's, when we would have been making these decisions?  Did we leap right into marriage and a family life that didn't leave room for seminary?  Did it take longer for us to discern our call?

I don't have the answers; I suspect the answers are as varied as the group of us heading off to seminary.