Allegra: “Gabby would you be interested in coming to Bible Study this semester?”

Me: “Me? Um…I am not the holiest person.”

Allegra: “ Oh, its okay. No one is really…”

Me: “Heck, why not, I’ll give it a try. When and where is it?”

I was raised in a Baptist church. I was expected to go every Sunday. As I became older, I was able to see more clearly the issues that existed in the particular church that I attended. I was too young to wrap my mind around these problems, and therefore I stopped going to church.

For the first time in many years I decided to inch myself back into religion, or faith building, and I figured Bryn Mawr would be the best place to try. Last semester I started to attend Bible study every week. I thought I wouldn’t fit in because my life is far from being flawless and holy. Nevertheless, when I found myself in the meeting for the first time I was greeted with smiles, and no one ever judged my testimonies. In the beginning we started with “check-ins”, which ranged from: “my boyfriend and I broke up to this weekend” to “I experimented with popcorn and hot sauce”. This was my type of Bible Study. I began to look forward to Mondays because I knew that every evening would be one filled with wonderful conversations about triumphs and struggles that I would not experience alone.

The environment felt safe enough for me to express my true thoughts. I often would enter the room, sit and say that I didn’t feel like praying today, or yesterday, or the day before that. I was able to talk with students about why I might have felt apprehensive about praying. I was sure they would tell me how un-Christian it was to feel that way, but in the end I discovered that I wasn’t alone. We were not all Christian and we co-existed in these meetings and talked about God, and how we connected with God, if at all.

The balance between laughter and seriousness made this space what it needed to be in order for us to thrive in our individual paths of faith building. Sometimes if after someone raised a point it led my mind to Taylor Lautner (The sexy Twilight wolf guy. Jesus really took his time in sculpting that man.) —I’d be able to say, “Rebuke these thoughts.” Everyone would burst into laughter.

Change the scenery and the laughter would continue to take place during our service projects in the inner city of Philadelphia. A school catering to low-income families wanted to remodel their building. They couldn’t afford to hire professional demolitionists, and so we volunteered. We cheered each other on as each of us took turns picking up the big sledgehammers. With all of our might we would swing the hammer into the wall plaster. I’d shout to my friend Anceline, “Get mad at the wall!” We had really good times. Our common interests in attending Bible study at Bryn Mawr later translated into our desire to help the communities around us. Unity was key, and it was nice to help a school whose mission was to help families educate their children the best way they could afford to.

Allegra: “Labyrinth walk this week.”

Me: “What is that?”

Allegra: “Think of it as a spiritual journey. The pathway is on the ground, you walk it barefoot and meditate.”

Me: “You want me to walk outside, shoeless too, and meditate?”

Allegra: “Yes.”

Me: “Let’s do it.”

So, Bryn Mawr has a labyrinth. I didn’t know this before, and it might have been the most peaceful thing I have ever done. As all of us walked the pathways on a calm night, the stars lit up the night sky. I thought about all of the things I was thankful for. I was thankful for the wonderful women I was surrounded by, for they cradled me when I couldn’t cradle myself alone. I was thankful for things beyond the walls of Bryn Mawr, like home and family, but I was thankful for many of the people that I experienced here at school. Whether it was for the good or bad, I was shaped by these experiences that in turn caused me to mature and explore many realms that I otherwise would have never explored. It seemed as though the wind whispered to me. I picked up a nearby flower, sat near these other women who have shared experiences with me that I wouldn’t trade for anything.

One by one we completed our labyrinth journeys. We calmly waited until everyone was finished. We hugged, and then decided to roll down the hill.