I’ve recently started taking notes during sermons. I’ve been having a terrible tendency to fall asleep, so I’m taking notes to help keep me awake. As it turns out, it works very well. Plus, I listen better to what’s being said. Win-win.
Taking notes like this reminds me of World History class from high school. Mr. Fuchs was an excellent story-teller, so I rarely had trouble staying awake while he talked. But I had to write furiously to get what he said onto my paper. I always wrote in sentence/paragraph form, rather than outline form. As I became more accomplished, I started making the notes for the day one continuous run-on sentence. It continued to make the note taking a challenge.
The day I had trouble staying awake was Reading Day. We had regularly scheduled days where we read historical books for book reports. I slept almost every time we had a day like that. I even remember Mr. Fuchs saying that. He was telling some kid to stop screwing around and said something like: “Royuk sleeps in here all the time and his grade is okay.” I don’t remember if it was a complement or an insult.
That is impressive! Did you bring your own paper or is that the back of something? When I have trouble staying focused in meetings, I doodle. That would probably be frowned on in church, eh?
If you doodled on the back of the prayer request cards, no one would even notice. It would merely add to the art collection we’ve amassed at St. John.
I have a similar story about my Calc III class in college. Only I was the example for the guy in the back that slept through every class. Doc Matthews said to Cory,
“Royuk doesn’t have any idea what’s going on in here, but at least she does all the homework and pays attention. She doesn’t sleep through class.”
Doc was right. And he told me later as he gave me one of those sideways, around the shoulder good-ol’-boy hugs,
“You know I wouldn’t have said that if I didn’t know you could take it, right?” Then he winked that Santa-wink.
Since the brothers are taking sermon notes during church, I often find myself taking notes as well. Then when I find the bulletin in my purse later in the week, I get a refresher on the sermon.
Still, I would like to say if you would have a normal human sleep pattern, you would not have trouble staying awake during the day.
Took the thoughts right out of my cranium, Kim…the last sentence, that is.
Yesterday was one of the few Sundays I actually sat in a pew (I’m usually serving in some capacity.) Anyway the Sermon yesterday was a type of aerobic exercise – he had us opening to different pages in the prayer book and directing us back to the bulletin again as he explained the reasons for the layout of our service and the importance of different elements. I guess it’s easy to get into a routine and forget why we do and say things. It was a nice change and it kept some regular sleepers awake!
As a kid though, I used to color in all the “o”s in the bulletin then count them. Then my acolyte friend Ross and I would compare after the service.
…and being the analytical mathematician you are, I wager you tracked your percentages correct over time, graphed them somehow, found the mean, median, mode…these habits can start quite young, I hear.
I think World History was by far the best class offered at our high school! I loved that class. If you slept during book report days, then you must have slept through the time that Matt D (?) claimed to have read “The Sound of Music” and proceeded to give a book report on the movie rather than the book. Mr. Fuchs (pronounced Fooks) knew immediately what was going on, announced to the class what was happening and advised us not to try it. He gave Matt a second chance.
If you’re wondering, Mr. Fuchs is still teaching at ITT in KC, living in the Lee’s Summit area and attends the same church as my sister Krista. My parents were happy to see him this summer when they were in MO.
Heh – thanks for clarifying the pronunciation!
One day when I fell asleep in World History, Mr. Fuchs had everyone in class leave the room, then they watched from the doorway as they yelled at me to wake me up.
So Mr. Fuchs had a fun side, yes?
How about putting a blue frame around your picture so we can click it & read your notes…seriously.
I was a model school student…but I was used as an example in my neighborhood as a little kid. I found this out after I was a grown up. Mothers would tell their kids, “You better wipe that chocolate off your face you’re starting to look like Peggy.” sigh…I still get chocolate on my face every time.
Laughed out loud at that one Peggy!
Now you just have salt on your chin!
I briefly fell asleep in a Grothaus (sp?) class in college and took notes of my dream. I still have the paper.