College is generally considered to be a time in which students think about their personal lives. Many take the opportunity of being away from home to reinvent themselves, try new things, and attempt to find their true selves. I feel like my personality is more or less the same as it was in high school, but I've certainly had my fair share of achievements and improving on myself. However, I didn't expect much else about me to change.

That's until I started thinking more about religion.

I was raised by a Christian mother who never pushed her beliefs on me, but rather shared them and allowed me to follow suit if I so desired. I ended up believing in the Christian faith, but never really participated in any other practices besides prayer in times of sadness, a few summer camps, and simply living as I thought a Christian should by loving my neighbors; we didn't attend church, I didn't study the Bible (but I did know the stories), etc. I've always been comfortable with my perceptions of God: I held the belief that He was a loving being and looked out for me. To this day, not much has changed in that aspect.

However, as I grew older and experienced/witnessed how cruel the world can be, I started thinking about how all that suffering fit into my original beliefs. Why are there hateful people in the world who commit acts of violence? Why are there others who are starving? Why did I lose people and pets that I loved?

I wouldn't say this is a new revelation at all; many people who grew up with Christian beliefs also came to eventually be asking these types of questions. My personal conclusion was that God sort of "got the ball rolling," gave us free will, and then simply watched over and cared for us. This is why I also hold a firm belief in science because I believe He intended for the universe to be created and then let nature take its course through the Big Bang, the reasonings behind natural occurrences like gravity and physics, mathematics, the evolution of life on Earth, etc.

Sometime in my first term of college, I developed an interest in spirituality. I've always held an appreciation for nature and mysterious, unexplained phenomena, so I was drawn to different ways in which I could connect it further into my life. The only thing holding me back was how this would still fit in with Christianity.

Delving into this new path has taken a lot of research and will need plenty more, but I thought long and hard about this before eventually coming to the conclusion that this is something God would be okay with; He did give us free will after all. Religion can be very comforting for those who choose to follow it, but don't be afraid of thinking outside the box now and then.