This Place is Getting Bigger All the Time

In terms of size, Wartburg Theological Seminary isn't much bigger than a lot of other seminaries.  With an average class size of about thirty new Masters of Divinity and Masters of Theology students coming new each year, the seminary averages about 90 students on campus at any given time and 120 students total if interns are counted.  When I visited from my alma mater of about 4,000 students, the small size of Wartburg's campus was evident from the beginning.  Though many students have families which make the campus feel quite a bit bigger than the student numbers reflect, it is not the largest place to study.
       Yet, as I was sitting in class last Friday surveying the view of campus through the window, I was struck by how big Wartburg seems to me now.  It is not nearly as small as when I first set foot on campus and actually seems to have grown in size since then.  I am not totally sure why this is, but I have a few guesses. 
       First off, I have gotten to know people on campus better than when I first came to visit.  This is natural and inevitable, but it has led me to view campus as having many more views, personalities, friends, and possibilities than it originally appeared to have.  As you get to know people better your shared experiences with them grow in depth and breadth.  Now, only after having been here for a couple of months my relationships with others seem to have changed this campus to be much larger than it originally seemed.
       Furthermore, this campus seems to have gotten bigger for how my understanding of God, church and the world has been challenged since I have started.  Though I had encountered many topics we have studied at seminary at different times in my life, seminary study has forced me to look at them together in light of my pastoral preparation.  They have laid a contextual and theological challenge for me to explore connections and disconnects between different ideas in new ways.  The act of theological exploration has led me to view Wartburg's campus community in which this sort of exploration takes place as bigger than it previously appeared.
      All in all, Wartburg is growing on me.  In my perspectives of the community in which we live, the classes we take, the texts we read, I am seeing this place continually in new and different ways.  I have to say that, from a student perspecive, Wartburg Seminary is getting bigger all the time.