On being religious in college

By Nicole Shaker •

I spend my Saturday nights teaching 12-year-old kids Bible stories. For a 21-year-old girl in college, that’s a weird way to spend a Saturday night.

This is an inconvenient age for me to be as devoted to my church as I am. Don’t get me wrong— I love my faith, and I love my church more than anything. I’m really grateful that, so young, I’ve found a passion for spiritual pursuits that many don’t find until later in life, if at all.

But my religion definitely sets me apart from my peers. There are many Christian clubs and organizations on campus, and I’m a part of a couple of them. But these small communities feel separate from my regular life. I’m not ingrained in them enough so that my only friends are Christian, creating this awkward rift in my life that causes me to balance my religious circle with my “regular” friends.

I think that, generally, college is one of the most difficult periods of life to remain devout to Christianity, or any religion for that matter. There is so much around us telling us to focus on doing well in classes and having fun with friends, and that’s it. To keep the commitment I made to my spiritual life, I often have to sacrifice doing the normal college-kid things, like, for example, going out on Saturday nights.

More than that, though, I have to will myself to remember that my life is bigger than school and friend drama. It’s so easy to get lost in the day-to-day. When my day bustles with exam stress, work to-do-lists and gossip among friends, I feel like I’ve succumbed to college and lost my religion. My brain is so packed with stuff, like a lot of people my age, and these scatterbrained, messy anxieties permeate everywhere. My faith in a lot of ways helps center me, but when I push it aside to focus on the everyday tasks and dramas of college, not only am I not grounded the way I want to be, but my spiritual life takes a hit.

I want to get to a place where there is no “school life,” “work life” and “church life.” There is just life. I want my life to converge, but right now, in college, when there are so many moving parts and so many people I want to please, that feels impossible.

I’d genuinely rather be memorizing Bible verses with my church kids than making questionable decisions at a party, but, sometimes, I have to battle that feeling of division from my peers and the temptation to forget about church and just be “normal.”

I have to remind myself constantly that my lifestyle is worth it. And, hopefully, I’ll get to a place where I feel just as Christian on church Sunday as I do in class Monday.

Nicole Shaker, senior computer science and communication major, is The Current’s co-editor-in-chief.