Community can sometimes be a challenging word and concept. I always found it pretty easy to make friends growing up. I had a lot of the same friends from elementary school to senior year of high school. But suddenly, when I decided to venture off to college, I had to re-learn how to interact with people in a way that may make them want to be my friend. These people didn’t know my history or story, they didn’t know my goofy nature or how to take it… which in turn, I could have used to my advantage.
However, it took 6 months. It took 6 months to realize how important community was and how it doesn’t always come naturally. But praise the Lord that I didn’t give up and that I finally put myself out there. I started attending the Christian Campus House at Ball State University. The more I attended, the closer I grew to God, and the more serve opportunities I found, the easier the connections came. I found my community in that church. I found people I could ask hard questions to, I could celebrate with, pray with, and just get dinner with. To this day, I am very close with a few of them and know I could call on others, and they’d pick up the call. Your community is out there, too, no matter where you find yourself today.