ABSTRACT
“I am a spiritual person.” These words can mean a wide variety of things. One can be a spiritual person through engaging in rituals prescribed by his religion. One might consider herself spiritual if she feels at peace when in nature. One could feel a longing or searching for what is transcendent but not have the words to describe it. However one describes what it means to be spiritual, I believe strongly that the act of defining spirituality is inherently a personal endeavor. I once found my spiritual fulfillment solely through the practices of Protestant Christianity, and I have since expanded my searching beyond the confines of organized religion and have looked for purpose and wholeness through a variety of life pursuits. I am a spiritual person, and while I often have difficulty putting into words how this spirituality plays out in my life, I know that I am searching for meaning in this world and find solace in pursuits that bring me into community with others and communion with the natural world that surrounds me. The period in my life where I experienced the most questioning and evaluation of my personal spirituality, which led me closest to my current understanding of it, was college. The impact that my college experience had on me and these inherent feelings is what draws me to the study of college student spirituality.
