it's roughly 5?? wds ...Prompt: Significant experience and its impact on you, OR Describe an encounter and how it has demonstrated the importance of diversity to you. OR Topic of your choice
Yes, now ...yes
Thank you kind soul to comment on this:)
It was ironic that, though I loved my church and half my identity was formed there, the term I was uncomfortable with was "Christian." Because it was painted one color, a word too opaque to reveal how dynamic my faith made my life. Outside church, I almost hated terming myself "Christian", because of all it connoted. When I told non-Christians I was a Christian, it evoked the image of a girl, extreme, uptight, and lacking interests. Furthermore, being an Asian-American girl, who fit the stereotypical conservative character, did not provide means to help my friends at school understand my meaningful and adventurous life at church. Friends respected me and how my life was shaped by Christianity, but when I sometimes excused myself from an activity because of a church function, they might shake their heads and teasingly say, "Why are you so church-active?" When I was younger, I was taken aback by these reactions and kept my church life as more of an extracurricular than anything I would openly speak of in school. Only it puzzled me that though they shared with me common interests, senses of humor, and curiosity for the same stimulating subjects, they did not also take an interest in church as I did. Church stayed as my area and they were content to not look into it.
As I started to be more open-minded and truly curious of how my own friends saw Christianity, I was surprised by their ideas when they shared with me. Some were misconceptions, such as the ones I had had about them when I judged them to be completely adverse to forms of religion. At church, Pastor James told my youth group that people were in fact very open to philosophical ideas, it was human nature to be so; it was just a matter of our being willing to engage in mutual openness and let sharing start. I made the effort to respect my friends' opinions more while sharing my own truthfully and, to be honest, some of my friends were painfully philosophical, more so than me. My views centered on God as a loving father; theirs were their own creation, influenced by a father forsaking the home, or another experience, or just popular belief. Though I carried beliefs that could at least address some of their pressing issues and questions, I was sometimes still felt afraid to say them. I realized that what kept people from understanding dynamic Christianity was more my fear of being stereotyped as a goodie-goodie than their misunderstanding of me.
It was as I began to spend more time with my school friends outside of school, just for pleasure, and began to value them as I valued my church friends that communication freed up between us. After playing capture-the-flag with them at night at the Christmas party, and studying with them at Starbucks for hours for our Econ test, and patiently remaining on online chat to listen to their rants on emotional issues, we became genuine friends and not distant school friends with more differences than similarities. After that, we conversed about deeper topics and enjoyed one another's company. I am glad to discover that sharing begins with something I naturally enjoy very much: spending quality time to get to know others first.
Yes, now ...yes
Thank you kind soul to comment on this:)
It was ironic that, though I loved my church and half my identity was formed there, the term I was uncomfortable with was "Christian." Because it was painted one color, a word too opaque to reveal how dynamic my faith made my life. Outside church, I almost hated terming myself "Christian", because of all it connoted. When I told non-Christians I was a Christian, it evoked the image of a girl, extreme, uptight, and lacking interests. Furthermore, being an Asian-American girl, who fit the stereotypical conservative character, did not provide means to help my friends at school understand my meaningful and adventurous life at church. Friends respected me and how my life was shaped by Christianity, but when I sometimes excused myself from an activity because of a church function, they might shake their heads and teasingly say, "Why are you so church-active?" When I was younger, I was taken aback by these reactions and kept my church life as more of an extracurricular than anything I would openly speak of in school. Only it puzzled me that though they shared with me common interests, senses of humor, and curiosity for the same stimulating subjects, they did not also take an interest in church as I did. Church stayed as my area and they were content to not look into it.
As I started to be more open-minded and truly curious of how my own friends saw Christianity, I was surprised by their ideas when they shared with me. Some were misconceptions, such as the ones I had had about them when I judged them to be completely adverse to forms of religion. At church, Pastor James told my youth group that people were in fact very open to philosophical ideas, it was human nature to be so; it was just a matter of our being willing to engage in mutual openness and let sharing start. I made the effort to respect my friends' opinions more while sharing my own truthfully and, to be honest, some of my friends were painfully philosophical, more so than me. My views centered on God as a loving father; theirs were their own creation, influenced by a father forsaking the home, or another experience, or just popular belief. Though I carried beliefs that could at least address some of their pressing issues and questions, I was sometimes still felt afraid to say them. I realized that what kept people from understanding dynamic Christianity was more my fear of being stereotyped as a goodie-goodie than their misunderstanding of me.
It was as I began to spend more time with my school friends outside of school, just for pleasure, and began to value them as I valued my church friends that communication freed up between us. After playing capture-the-flag with them at night at the Christmas party, and studying with them at Starbucks for hours for our Econ test, and patiently remaining on online chat to listen to their rants on emotional issues, we became genuine friends and not distant school friends with more differences than similarities. After that, we conversed about deeper topics and enjoyed one another's company. I am glad to discover that sharing begins with something I naturally enjoy very much: spending quality time to get to know others first.
