April 10th, 2007 by: Ashley
The University of Dayton, “Learn. Lead. Serve.”
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16″ x 20″ watercolor on clay board
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As a high school student, I never thought I would attend a religiously affiliated college after working so hard to make it clear that I was adamantly against organized religion. It’s amazing what unexpected things young love will make you do, like transfer to a pricey, Marianist, Catholic college. I stood at the entrance of the University of Dayton at the start of my sophomore year asking myself, “What have I gotten myself into? I’ll be turning papers into professors in habits and dragged to mass every week.”
What I expected to basically be a limiting and strict academic convent actually was a liberating catalyst for my interest in activism and service. The University of Dayton was a place for all of my bitterness to be transformed into positive energy and talent that has resulted in outcomes like this blog.
Although I didn’t walk across the graduation stage a converted Catholic, I did leave UD a changed woman for the better. I gained a deep appreciation for faith and those who had devoted their lives to a greater good. Service and community were integrated into the classrooms, the residence halls, even spring breaks, and often professionally after graduation. I liked that folks at UD partied as hard as they prayed. And although bowing my head during prayers was a mere show of respect, I knew the religious leaders on campus I had come to revere understood me, embraced me, and stood by my side.
I never went to a single mass, and insisted on using the crucifix permanently anchored by my door as a place to hang my keys. Nevertheless, the person I became as a result of my time at UD would not have happened anywhere else. So, I’m honored to continually create artwork, like this collage, for the University. I might drop it off myself and spend a weekend with my last link to the current student body, my freshmen residents. Surprise surprise, I was an RA!
2 Comments
April 11th, 2007 at 12:09 pm
Very good, I like the work you are doing. YOUR ART , well . . . what can I say . . . warm and friendly and your words are thought provoking.
I had a much different experience with my faith. When I was seven my grandmother, who was deeply devoted to her church, DISCIPLES OF CHRIST (CHRISTIAN CHURCH) lead me to Sunday School at a very young age.
Innocent and hopeful, I accepted what my grandmother and my Sunday School teachers had to say. I believed all of it blindly. A good thing, it kept me out of serious trouble.
For years I went to Sunday School. I will say it was the most important part of my life in learning to behave like a civilized human among other civilized people. And, that was a good thing too!
Now that I am seventy years, which means my spirit has traveled 70 times around the Sun, I think back, I smile, knowing that it was my grandmother and my acceptance of faith unconditionally, that helped me to reach goals in life that I would not have achieved without faith.
Then, I think about the teachings of history and faith based religion and finally I am able to separate history from fact. And, you now what . . . . BECOMING A CHRISTIAN AND TRYING TO DO GOOD TO OTHERS is no different than it was when I was immersed in holy water in 1945.
Just wanted to share this with you and you did your experience.
April 11th, 2007 at 12:21 pm
It’s wonderful to hear your story, although I don’t know that our experiences are too different. I remember learning the moral basics from attending church and other get-togethers with my grandparents as well. They were a huge positive influence. I wasn’t completely turned off by religion; it was mostly a phase.
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