The Beginning

A 6:30 meeting with Jon Willis at a coffee garage near Crown Center the morning of my 19th birthday, and thus started my summer internship with Kansas City Interfaith Youth Alliance.  I had been looking forward to that day ever since Jon mentioned the possibility of having college interns last December.  And it has finally come ...and gone.  I am now in the midst of my third day on the job, and despite the immensity of work ahead of me, I couldn't be more excited.

When my friends, including the three other summer interns (Amalia, Teresa, and Avanthi), first began communicating with Jon about founding KCIYA during our sophomore year of high school, I was vaguely intrigued with the idea of interfaith dialogue.  It was more a "my-friends-think-this-is-an-important-issue-so-maybe-I-should-learn-more" type of feeling at that point in time than anything else.  Slowly, the movement sucked me in, and here I am, three years later, devoting the majority of my free time to a mission I had never even heard of before high school.

To me, pluralism should be more than a once in a while whirlwind of discussion and the occasional theology project.  I honestly believe that the world would be a better place, perhaps more peaceful, more understanding, if people made a true effort to learn about the lives of those around them.  No matter how many people try to deny it, religion plays an enormous role in how we go about our lives.  It influences our worldviews, our politics, our family life, our goals.  Even those who don't consider themselves religious still hold a set of beliefs which fundamentally guide their decision-making.

I am Catholic.  I come from a Catholic family and have been Catholic my entire life.  I went to a Catholic grade school, a Catholic high school, and now I go to a Catholic (Jesuit) university.  But I don't live in a Catholic world.  Everywhere I go, I encounter people from vastly different backgrounds.  This diversity makes life both more interesting and more complicated.  As a part of the interfaith movement, I take upon myself the responsibility to make sure that the complications don't turn into misunderstandings, stereotypes, or disputes.

After three days, I haven't made much headway.  But all movements start small.  This is only the beginning of a lifelong journey.