Hey Chris, Tanya & LOF listeners,

This is Allie, reporting to you about Catholic Life on Campus. I am currently in the library, punching out this segment before my choir rehearsal so hopefully I’ll get to say everything I want to before I have to run back to my busy schedule.

This week, I thought it might be a good idea for me to start off telling you a little bit more about me. So here goes: As you know, my name’s Allie and I’m a good friend of Chris & Tanya’s. I’m a 20 year old college sophomore studying music education at The Hartt School, which is part of the University of Hartford . I live in an on-campus apartment with three other girls who I had never met before… and let me just say I’m glad that I’ll only be residing there a few more weeks. My family is Catholic, but I am a “revert” to the faith. I went through a tough period in high school and basically lost hope that there even was a God. I even went so far as to call myself an atheist, although I don’t think I really knew what an atheist was. But at the end of high school, I began to realize that God had been there all along, helping me. If He hadn’t had been, I might not even be here today, and I certainly wouldn’t be contributing to a Catholic podcast! But hopefully I can go more into detail about my re-conversion story this summer.

What I think is ironic about me is that my Catholic faith has grown so much more now that I am at college. For many of my peers, they take this new sense of independence out of proportion and use it as a chance to practice sinful and many times illegal activities that they couldn’t quite get away with while living at home. However, I have used my freedom to get closer in my relationship with Christ. It figures that me, the former “atheist” is now the only practicing Catholic left in her household. I don’t make it to mass as often when I’m home and when I do, I go alone. My mom has expressed interest lately in coming back with me, but usually ends up being too busy or something. All I can do is keep praying and keep inviting her to come with me. Anyways, back to college here. So because no one else in my house even talks about religion and faith anymore, I felt like a closet Catholic. This past summer, I was even ashamed to tell my family that I bought a rosary or that I listened to a Catholic radio show on the Internet. But I didn’t have to worry about hiding it at school. I found other Catholic students through the Newman Club that I could talk to and pray with. I’ll admit that at first, the people I met were intimidating since a large percentage of my campus is Jewish (even if many of them are non-practicing). But I met my friend Allie (who I’ve dubbed my “spiritual twin”) during a community service day and from then on, I just kept bumping into more and more of my Catholic brothers and sisters. These people are my parish family, although I still have a close connection to my hometown parish. We make each other dinner and hang out on Friday nights instead of drinking our brain cells away. I’m not saying that we’ve never been tempted to go all out and party recklessly - but I see these cravings as challenges to help me grow in my faith. We all fall because human beings are prone to sinning and no one’s perfect, but that’s why we have confession. I’m sure many of the “wild” kids on campus won’t realize how reckless or stupid they’re being until they graduate, or are arrested or hurt. Unfortunately, some of them may never figure it out. So I’d like to ask everyone listening to pray for the college partiers - that they may discover life isn’t all about “sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll”. Not all students are like this though. True, there are quite a few, but they ruin the college student reputation for the rest of us who truly care about our academics and our futures.

Anyways, this week has been interesting. The workload is finally piling up with finals only a few weeks away. Hopefully, I can keep myself organized and focused for the rest of the semester, so as not to lose my sanity (or a decent GPA). Yesterday didn’t help much though. Apparently, 4/20 is a day that many people decide to smoke pot (since it was Law #420 that made marijuana illegal) so one of my apartment-mates had their buddies over and I couldn’t breathe very well, even with my bedroom door closed and the windows open. Also, my mom sent me a message during my night class that she was bringing my cat Sassy to the vet. She hadn’t been eating much when I went home for Easter but this week she got to the point where she wouldn’t even drink water. Once my class got out, I called my mom back to discover that Sassy’s kidneys were failing and that my mom had had no choice put to put her down. She lived a good life though - we found her as a stray when she was 2, and she was 14-1/2. She was definitely one of my best friends for the past 12 years though and I feel really bad that she had to pass away while I was gone at school. My mom stayed with her and I kind of got to say goodbye on Easter since I knew she was sick, but all the same, I really miss her and will mourn her loss for a while.

Well, I have to run to rehearsal now. This weekend, I’m looking forward to our final Newman Club Women’s Group of the semester. Also, I’m planning on watching the “God or the Girl” marathon on A&E tonight with Allie and seeing the finale Sunday night. Next week, I’ll give everyone a summary of Students for Life’s “Respect Life Week,” which we’ve been rigorously planning for the past few months. I’ll also share the results of the Newman Club e-board elections coming up this Sunday and will address a question Scott asked me on the LOF Forums. If you want to ask me something about my college experiences, send me an email. God Bless and I’ll have another report for you next week!