It's no secret that religion and college are tough to package together. Even the strongest Christians begin to question and doubt themselves, no matter how prepared they may be.
Before I get into it, I will not pretend that I'm the authority on having a strong faith in college; it's just as tough for me as it is for everyone else. It's not fair for me to assume that what works for me will work for everyone else. All I can (and will) do is share my own struggles and how I handle my faith during this turbulent time.
I went to a retreat called SEARCH during high school, and it was the best choice my mom ever encouraged me to make. That was the weekend that changed my life and made me care about my faith and relationship with God. That was also the weekend that I opened up to being myself, and I could not have been happier and more confident. However, I was never really challenged much during high school. I was a band kid that either stayed in on weekends or was with my other SEARCH friends. Although I was blessed to have such an easy life, the only preparation I had for college was "it gets tough."
Then life went from zero to 100 real quick. Parties, Greek life, and seemingly constant drama came flying at me. Needless to say, a religious band kid wasn't ready for it. Each week wore on me a little more, and I eventually reverted back to just going to Mass and nothing else (but even then I was just going through the motions). I basically couldn't bring myself to care, and while that made me sad, I was kind of okay with it. It wasn't until this year that I remembered just what I'm missing out on by not working on my relationship with God: my confidence through Christ, my optimism and my zeal for life.
What I was doing was assuming I had to pick between staying religious and being a college student, as though I had to pick between going to a party and enjoying a few drinks or staying in and praying for four hours. God's offering me this time in my life to explore what I do and don't enjoy, and it would be a disservice to his creation to deny myself the "true" college experience. Of course I have to be careful and choose my experiences wisely so I don't severely harm myself. But that's where my faith in God is most important. The values I've adopted in my relationship with God help me know when I've truly gone astray. I've slipped up a bunch in my faith, and I know it's going to keep happening. But He won't lose patience with me, so I can't lose patience with Him.
In my opinion, the biggest mistake we can make is thinking college and religiosity have to be separate. We can find God in all things, including parties, a little bit of drama, and some cold ones. That's where we find our confidence, our optimism and our zeal for life.
