beliefs

Being Christian at a Non-Christian School

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*Disclaimer* I felt the need to put a disclaimer at the beginning of this post because while writing it I feel as if I’m coming off as not as accepting as I am and I really do love all of my friends, no matter what you believe. I’m just sharing my struggles with how sometimes you need that moral connection. This is typically why I don’t like to bring my religion to my blog because I have friend of other faiths and I don’t want to feel as if they can’t be friends with me because we don’t believe the same thing. That’s not how I feel at all and I just feel the need to clarify right from the start that I’m not trying to offend anyone. If I was I wouldn’t put this here.

This is a post that’s been weighing on me for quite sometime now and I just wasn’t sure. Yet, for the past three weeks it just keeps weighing on my more and more, guess that’s God for you. Someone must need this message so I’m just going to share what my first year was like being a Christian at a school that doesn’t have any type of religious affiliation.

Growing up I went to public school, but the difference between public school in Lancaster County and the rest of the world is that it’s basically a Christian school. As you know from my post on shoving religion down people’s throats (read that here) I was often not viewed as a Christian (even though Catholics are Christians) most people shared my morals even if we didn’t have the exact same beliefs. It was always easy to find friends that didn’t drink, didn’t have sex, we just had a lot of the same morals and it was really easy just to find someone that you can agree on those sort of things with.

When I went to college I expected some shock, but I honestly did not think that a lot of people hook up and a lot of people drink. Well I was really wrong. The first Sunday, I of course found Catholic church within walking distance and I quickly noticed that I was one of the few who did this. Sunday mornings campus is dead, maybe a few people here or there, but other than some people walking back to their rooms after a night of fun, there’s not many of us heading to church at all. That’s when I knew it might be difficult and different to find people that shared the same sort of morals as myself.

I’m not opposed to hanging out with people of other religions whatsoever, that’s not what I base a friendship off of, I look for people who I can talk to and get along with, something that comes with that often is sharing morals. I did make friends at school and I love them, however the one thing that I didn’t think I would struggle with that I found that I am is dating.

Not that I haven’t talked to any straight, single guys this year, well for the most part, and I think there were two huge deterrents with the idea of even putting myself out there, with the exception that I still wasn’t over someone in my past for the whole first semester. Number one, I’m waiting for marriage. I don’t want to get too much into this, but I strongly believe that sex should be reserved for someone you want to spend the rest of your life with so that’s what I want to do, and I don’t think that’s what a lot of guys at this age want to do. This is a major place where I think going to non-religious school is hard. I hear about hook ups all the time and that’s not what I’m looking for when I talk to a guys, I’m looking for a friendship that maybe one day when I’m ready could possibly turn into something more. The second reason being I’m afraid of commitment, which does not go with my morals but that’s just the second reason.

Honestly, being a Christian at a non-Christian school can be hard but if you think of it as a test (I don’t, some do) maybe it will help. When it comes down to it find people who share some of the same morals and you’ll be able to get along. When it comes to dating, the right person will be the right person and you will do the right things for the two of you as long as you are firm in what you believe. If you ever struggle find a chaplain on campus, my school even has one! Or you can go to the church and they might even have a little support group and pastors are always willing to talk to help anyone struggling with you faith. I hope maybe I helped someone with this post, if not I guess that’s okay too. God led me to write it either way.

XOXO,

Mary.

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Unrealistic Expectations

Mary12 Comments

After a year of college and crossing off core topics like language and science, as this happens I add more and more to the list of things I don’t want to do. Language, math, and science are all topics that have made that list so far. This leads me to think about what I should be doing and honestly I don’t know. I have this expectation that one day it’ll like come to me in a dream or something or I’ll be in the right place at the right time and I’ll just fall into it. That is a very unrealistic expectation.

I think I have a lot of these in life, I just expect the best out of everything. Hannah tells me I’m brave, I think I’m crazy. It should probably make me nervous to get from the bus station to Harvard Square by myself at five in the morning, but it doesn’t. It doesn’t scare me to wander cities alone, I just have this expectation that I will be fine. Probably not a good thought process.

I have this expectation for everything that it’s just going to work out the way it should, if I want something I’ll work for it, but if it doesn’t work out my reaction is that it wasn’t supposed to. I only end up really disappointed about half the time, which sounds like a lot, but I get over it pretty quickly. I only dwell on very few things.

I hate that this is what I’m basing my life plan off of. I am just taking everything as it is, seeing what I like and don’t like. For example I like writing, but I hate sitting in office building. My ultimate dream would be to become a travel writer for a magazine, or well, it would be really nice to just use this as a travel blog eventually, however, I have not fallen into blogging, there’s a good amount of you, but not enough to make this a career or anything. This is a hobby. Currently.

I know eventually I’ll figure it out, however I might need to do some searching instead of waiting. There are things that help lead me in the right direction, but right now I’ll just keep making the list of things I don’t want to do.

Before I sign off I just want to again ask anyone with anxiety to contact me at marysaverageadventures@gmail.com I’m trying to get some research done for a blog post I want to do. You will remain anonymous, unless requested otherwise.

XOXO,

Mary.

Do you believe in soulmates?

MaryLeave a comment

So for this month I’m writing on topics that people either do or do not believe in, and this week’s topic is soul mates.

I’ve put a lot of thought into this question, it’s one of those things that if it wasn’t for the fact that my parents had such a strong relationship I would never even consider believing in them. I’ve come to the conclusion after a lot of thinking and processing on this topic that I believe in soulmates they’re just a rare find. If every person found their soulmate there wouldn’t be divorce or separations. I also think that it is really hard to find the right person because you have to find a lot of the wrong people first. Couples like my parents are really lucky. I also don’t think that every single person “gets” one. Some people are destined to either be single forever or just be in different relationships and never settle down. Or maybe the just never get the chance to meet theirs and I guess that’s kind of sad.

So to deepen the question: do I think that I have a soulmate? To be honest I don’t really know. I’m not sure if I’m the kind of person who can settle down with someone for my whole life. I’m also unsure of what I would do if I met someone who I believed to be my soulmate. Would I accept it? I’m not sure, would they accept me? I’m not sure.

I guess over all I have come to the conclusion that I believe in soulmates but I think it’s an exclusive type of thing. Maybe I’ll revisit this question in a few years, who knows maybe in a month I’ll be head over heals in love, probably not, but who knows. I shall leave you guys to tell me what I thought now whenever I change my mind. I don’t know if I’m making any sense right now, I’m irritated. Sorry guys.

XOXO

Mary

Answer

February 4:  Ted Williams

Question

February 5: What country was the first in the world to impose a tax on fatty foods?