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FATHER MATHEW C. GEORGE
MY LIFE AS A PRIEST

My attempts to get into the English graduate program at Oakland University continued. Once I began taking classes at the community college in Port Huron , I became a little more confident. When I talked to the teachers there about my intention to enter into the Masters program, they were all encouraging. With Prof. Suzanne Moor's advice I met with Prof. Kathy Pfeiffer, who was at that time in charge of the graduate admission's program. She directed me to the university's Admissions Department where I was met with a lot of problems. They told me that I didn't have enough undergraduate credits to start the program and would have to take at least 34 more credits for them to consider my application. I knew that it was a problem of understanding the Indian educational system, so I sent my documents to the Credential Evaluation Agency in New York to change my undergraduate credentials to the US system. The Admissions Department was then surprised to see that I studied “too much” as an undergraduate student in India !

The second obstacle was my religious visa; according to them it didn't allow me to register for regular courses at the university. I had to work hard to prove them wrong again. I already knew from the experience of my friends that I could work and study at the same time, and they misunderstood the regulations. The primary purpose of my visa was religious work, and I couldn't be a full-time student with that visa. I contacted the INS and they told me that I could start studying as a part-time student and gave me the rule number. Then I emailed the Admission Departments of some of the major universities in the US , asking to be admitted on my visa and they all replied agreeing to my argument. I took all these documents to Oakland University and they finally approved my admission request.

  But there was one more hurdle to jump: As an International student I had to take the TOEFL Test (Test of English as a Foreign Language) and had to score good marks. There was another test known as MELAB (The Michigan English Language Assessment Battery), conducted by the English Department of the University of Michigan , which was accepted by all the Universities. I took this test and got a good score, which allowed me finally to get into the graduate program at Oakland University .

I kept updating Prof. Pfeiffer of all the developments and she was a big help all through my admission ‘struggles.' As soon as I was admitted to the undergraduate program I started taking classes which really helped me to move smoothly to the graduate studies. The first class I signed up for was a classical mythology course where there were a ‘hundred thousand' students (it seemed) in the class so it was conducted in a mini auditorium. I was happy that I was ‘lost' in that class which was actually a good thing for me at that time. This whole process took almost a year and I never lost hope that I could do these things, and God provided good people all along the way for me.

Meanwhile, something else was going on in the parish with my pastor. He already had gone through a program for his alcoholism, and after a while he started again. It is hard when all your father figures were alcoholics - it is a dilemma. You want to love them, but at the same time you don't want to deal with them. They have unpredictable natures. Sometimes very loving, and the next moment they might explode like a volcano with anger. Sometimes they laugh and some other times they cry.  I used to tell the children that God is like your father or mother, but not anymore. Now I say “God is like your loving father or loving mother.” Who knows how many kids struggle with that image!

Read part 20 of Fr. Mathew's story
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