Collected Item: “My Faith During The Pandemic”
Give your story a title.
My Faith During The Pandemic
What sort of object is this: text story, photograph, video, audio interview, screenshot, drawing, meme, etc.?
This photograph represents me spending another normal day at church.
Tell us a story; share your experience. Describe what the object or story you've uploaded says about the pandemic, and/or why what you've submitted is important to you.
This photograph was taken right around the time of the announcement that Covid-19 has hit the U.S. This was the last picture to be taken from me before most churches were shut down and were moved to online only. This picture is fairly important because it marks a great shift in the faith I have when it comes to my religion.
Since I wasn't always an online person when it came to church, I found it very hard to focus on all parts of the service when it came to me watching a live feed on the screen. For this reason, I've always had a deep desire to experience events fully in person, or I usually don't feel like I experienced them at all. After this photo was taken, about a month later my home church decided to move services online. Not only did I feel like this was going to weigh on my faith in my religion, but I felt that I wasn't going to be able to be at my best when it came to following God. This was true, I found it hard to find community around Christianity without church and because I felt isolated, my faith in God took a deep dive. At the point of all churches closing in person, I found myself in a state of senseless life. Many days went by when I did not feel like I was following my path in life the right way, but Covid-19 did not leave me with just all the bad experiences in the pandemic, there were some great outcomes that I would never change. Not having an in-person church exposed how I didn't really have a community in my walk with God. When most churches closed it forced me to actually seek out a friend group or community that had similar goals as mine. Not only have I found so many good friends and people that I can call family, but Covid-19 broke the shell that I placed over myself when it came to not socializing with anyone. The pandemic made me grow fast in many different ways and having good support in my life was one of those. The support from friends and family has allowed me to shine a light on the many things that I've struggled with internally in which I've neglected to solve.
Since I wasn't always an online person when it came to church, I found it very hard to focus on all parts of the service when it came to me watching a live feed on the screen. For this reason, I've always had a deep desire to experience events fully in person, or I usually don't feel like I experienced them at all. After this photo was taken, about a month later my home church decided to move services online. Not only did I feel like this was going to weigh on my faith in my religion, but I felt that I wasn't going to be able to be at my best when it came to following God. This was true, I found it hard to find community around Christianity without church and because I felt isolated, my faith in God took a deep dive. At the point of all churches closing in person, I found myself in a state of senseless life. Many days went by when I did not feel like I was following my path in life the right way, but Covid-19 did not leave me with just all the bad experiences in the pandemic, there were some great outcomes that I would never change. Not having an in-person church exposed how I didn't really have a community in my walk with God. When most churches closed it forced me to actually seek out a friend group or community that had similar goals as mine. Not only have I found so many good friends and people that I can call family, but Covid-19 broke the shell that I placed over myself when it came to not socializing with anyone. The pandemic made me grow fast in many different ways and having good support in my life was one of those. The support from friends and family has allowed me to shine a light on the many things that I've struggled with internally in which I've neglected to solve.
Use one-word hashtags (separated by commas) to describe your story. For example: Where did it originate? How does this object make you feel? How does this object relate to the pandemic?
#REL101
Who originally created this object? (If you created this object, such as photo, then put "self" here.)
Self
Give this story a date.
2020-01-02