I sought a seminary degree to become a professional minister. My seminary education helped teach me that there's more to being a minister than having a professional degree.

I used to make my living as an exotic dancer and bodybuilder. When I burned out on that, I gave away everything I owned and sought spiritual enlightenment from a New Age guru in Fiji.

Everything I did was extreme. No one could fault me for doing anything halfway, but I ended up a full mess, broke and stuck far from home.

In Fiji, a kind missionary couple took me in and introduced me to the love of Jesus. From then on, I've dedicated myself to living an extreme life of faith.

While the missionary couple accepted me as I was, I decided that who I was had not been working too well. I resolved to change almost everything about myself ... and to live out the gospel from there. I wanted to serve the Lord, but hadn't a clue which way to walk. To change, I needed precise marching orders, so I naturally thought of the military.

Having previously been bounced out of the Army with a broken knee, I conceived the idea of earning a seminary degree so I could rejoin the military as a chaplain. I knew the army would take me, and I applied for and was accepted into chaplain candidacy. Future: settled.

But seminary taught me to ask myself some hard questions about why I believe the things I do about God and about how to walk with him in this world. Interacting with people from different church denominations, and learning from professors about the great variety of ways people have communed with God through the centuries, I found myself re-evaluating the things I accepted — or rejected — about my own life with God. I thought about what needed to be changed and I thought a lot about what didn't.

Learning scripture often leads to learning about one's own heart, and my heart needed to increase in forgiveness and compassion. I developed a desire for truth that genuinely nourished my spiritual life. I learned to disdain useless "head knowledge" and empty rule-keeping. I learned to agree passionately and to disagree lovingly. Seminary ended up not the means to become a professional minister; rather, it helped me become a better follower of Jesus Christ.

Was all that time and money wasted because I did not go the professional minister route? No! Seminary was a transformational experience. With my master of arts of religion under my belt, you can find me at Gold's Gym working as a personal fitness trainer: shaping bodies and loving souls. I also serve as worship leader at Nightlife, an edgy alternative Sunday evening service.

It's a different road, but the right one.

Dawn M. Quiocho, a personal trainer, also serves as a lay minister at First Presbyterian.