Roy is a deeply thoughtful student who started out as a philosophy major here at the University of Michigan. He also plays accordion, and occasionally plays it in worship. His love of music, especially Irish music, means that changing to the BFA in music program ultimately made a lot of sense to him.
Roy grew up in a more conservative Christian tradition that takes a literalist view of the Bible. “When I arrived at Michigan,” he says, “I was becoming politically aware and going through this spiritual deconstruction that had started junior year of high school. There was a lot of turmoil in my first couple of years of college.”
Finding a community where he could ask real, deep questions was important to Roy. “A lot of people have a rough year their first year,” he says, “and that was my experience. I got into a routine of coming on Wednesdays and Sundays, and this became my community.”
During Wednesday night Faith & conversations, undergraduates get into deep conversations as they explore how various topics intersect with their faith lives. This small group is pretty consistent, so students build trust with each other and feel they can bring whatever they’re wrestling with to the group. “We have conversations that go beyond the shallow,” Roy says, “which you’re not really going to find in most secular environments. The individual people, too, are people I enjoy being around and I have friendships with.”
On a particular Wednesday night in winter, Roy was in the midst of intense philosophical ponderings about consciousness and the external world. “There was the catharsis,” Roy says, “of being able to talk about all this random philosophy stuff with people who were able to hear what I was saying and just be there. I think it was apparent to folks that I was going through something big at that moment, and I wasn’t being excluded for my questions. In the moment, the armor slipped just a little bit – not fully – but I think it was apparent that I wasn’t in the best place, and the lack of judgement, and their ability to listen, were really important in making me feel supported.”
“Ultimately,” Roy says, “I felt cared for in a moment when I was wondering about the nature of pretty much everything.”
Credit to Lord of Light Lutheran Church and Campus Ministry, Ann Arbor, MI. Lord of Light is one of the 176 ministries affiliated with LuMin, the network of ELCA Campus Ministries.
