To Those Struggling With Their Faith:

Are you unsure of how to incorporate faith into your everyday life? Do you even want to? Do you hesitate when someone asks you if you are religious? If you ask yourself these same questions and don’t seem to have a straight answer, trust me, you are not alone.

I was raised Catholic, baptized and had my first communion—the whole shebang, but I never felt very connected to my faith. Maybe it was because I was too young to truly understand what faith really meant? Despite being raised in what I thought to be a religious household, my parents got divorced when I was about 10 or 11 years old and once that happened, bam, my faith was all over the place. My dad converted to Catholicism—wait… I thought he was technically already Catholic since my parents decided to baptize me and enrolled me in Sunday school as a kid? My mom never really explained to me her religious views. Since we didn’t go to church on Sundays and I stopped attending Sunday school, I kind of just assumed she was no longer religious. You catch my drift here? ALL. OVER. THE. PLACE. Who was I? What faith did I identify with?

I came to college in hopes of finding a group of people that could guide me in the right direction towards re-establishing my faith. About a semester into college at Wake Forest University, a couple girls in my hall asked me to attend Delight, an all women’s Christian bible study. Hesitant at first, I was so glad I attended. I finally felt like I had found a group of women I could relate to, who had all the same struggles as I did. And the best part about it? They taught me how to trust in God and let him take control of my life—even if I was a little reluctant at first. In fact, one of the many things that came out of joining Delight was finding one of my best friends, Claire. In one of our meetings, she spoke to the whole group and told us that if we had any questions or simply needed someone to talk to, that she would be more than happy to meet with us. That semester, I was struggling with a lot—one being the decision to transfer universities. I met with Claire later that week and dang am I happy I did. She taught me so much and I have her to thank for a lot of the growth that came out of my last semester at Wake Forest.

After deciding to transfer to The University of Texas at Austin, I was craving that same close-knit group of women to continue developing my faith with. I struggled to do so, but I didn’t let that stop me from finding my place. I reached out to incredible women in my sorority—Hope and Missy. They told me their story and their own struggles and gave me hope that I would find my niche. Thankfully, UT has many religious organizations students can get involved in. So what did I do? I tried out several until I found where I belonged. Last year, I joined a women’s bible study with Hope. It has opened my eyes in ways I didn’t think were possible. I recently asked Missy if I could tag along the next time she had a meeting for her religious organization. I am now a senior at UT, and I still struggle every day with confidently saying, “I am a Christian woman,” but that’s okay because I know that I have come a long way from being that 10 year-old girl, in the middle of experiencing her parents divorce, with no clue where to turn.

I may not go to church every Sunday, and trust me; I have to get better about that because it is something I truly want to do, but that doesn’t make me any less a Christian woman than the person standing next to me. Your faith and how you practice your faith is unique to you. Don’t let anyone else define that for you. Nobody has the right to tell you that you are not a religious individual because you don’t fit a certain profile. So, one thing I hope you take from all of this is to not be afraid! Do not be shy to reach out to those around you in hopes of figuring out how to establish your faith. If it is something that is important to you, you should pursue it! Trust me, you will be surprised at the amount of people that are willing to guide you and support you along your personal journey.