Ready To Fly

My whole life I had tried so hard to make my identification as Christian understandable and acceptable to my classmates that I had an inability to grapple with most of the tradition. I dismissed our sacred writings, I condemned our holy days, and I ignored any sense of historical community. As a result, I had no tools with which to challenge, question, and struggle with the beliefs of my tradition -- I had no tools for growth.  

Yet I held onto a deep interest and respect for religion, this strange and global human phenomenon, and declared Religious Studies. Going into my first class on Christianity, I harbored a secret belief that in studying my religion, I would discover that my classmates had been right all along, and that I was not, in fact, Christian. To my shock, the opposite happened. Begun in that first class, and continued ever since, studying religion -- and particularly my own -- has taught me to appreciate the enormity of religion. I've learned a holistic understanding, and through that I've gained an appreciation for my religion -- for our traditions, our sacred writings, our history -- and most importantly, for our long-standing diversity of belief.  

I finally learned what my parents had modeled -- that religion, that Christianity, is about the intellectual, but is also about the mystical, the experiential, the unknowable -- and about the global and historical community, both in unity and in diversity. I spent my educational life before Oxy being told by just about everyone that I didn't count as Christian. But then I came to Oxy, and I took strictly academic courses on Christianity, and I learned the only thing all Christians have had in common is their self-identification as Christian. I learned that I am Christian -- that I'm allowed to be Christian. A shadow lifted, and for the first time I not only had the tools to dive into and explore the established beliefs of my tradition, but I could truly experience my call to the ministry, a call I'd struggled with, reliant as it is on being Christian. I learned that there's a fluidity in the definition of Christianity, a flexibility that includes me, based on my own sense of identification, within the community, the history, and the tradition.

Allison: We've learned a lot, but this is just the beginning.

Nina: We know what we've learned, we know how to find home.

Emily: How to, at least, spell spirituality.

Hannah: And we know what we want to do, at least more or less.

Allison: But we know that's not enough.

Nina: Now our biggest challenge is before us.

Emily: The challenge to change the world.

Allison: Where do we go from here?

Nina: How do we be that change?

Emily: This is our next challenge.

Hannah: We invite you to make it yours as well.

 

Hannah Dreitcer is a graduate of Occidental College and is heading to South Africa in the fall to lead a youth program at a church in Cape Town.  

Nina Pine is a graduate of Occidental College and is currently enjoying being home in Kathmandu, Nepal, after a very long absence.

Allison Enari is a graduate of Occidental College and is heading to the Vanderbilt University Divinity School in the fall.

Emily Sanderson, a graduate of Occidental College, is pursuing her life's passion of dance by both taking and teaching dance classes.