When looking at my resume, I often think, “Dang. I have no idea what I’m doing with my life. All of my experiences are seemingly arbitrary and have no connection to one another.” My subsequent thought is, “Should I be doing something that bridges all of these activities together? Is there something that bridges all of these activities together?”
I have come to the conclusion that the answer itself really does not matter at all. Anything I devote time to or learn from is going to be beneficial to me. It does not matter if other people think that what I do is arbitrary, because I do what I do for a reason. Moreover, if I am passionate about what I am learning in my pursuits, then I can explain to others that no matter what I am applying for or who I am, I can bring what I have learned to the table. I can teach others about the experiences I have gained and the person I have grown to be.
Participating in the Boston Interfaith Leadership Initiative (BILI) is a prime example of an extracurricular activity that I can add to my resume that does not necessarily correlate to my major, minor, or my other interests. However, the knowledge I have gained through the program proves to me that new passions can be formed that can be tied into every other thing I do.
Being open minded is basically the best thing anyone can do.
Learning about beliefs other than my own and about the importance of dialogue are just two of the invaluable lessons gained from BILI. These understandings can be translated not only into my academic life when it comes to understanding foreign concepts or to my social life when I want to talk to people from various backgrounds and walks of life, but they can also be applied to the future for when I want to vouch for an idea when no one else around me seems to find it important. Interfaith leadership is not just about being a pioneer or chief in a mosque, church, synagogue, temple, or group of people. Rather, it is about cultivating qualities taught through programs like BILI and utilizing them in order to get one step closer to that level of mutual respectability needed to facilitate daily life.
BILI really opened my eyes to different types of people. It accentuated the need for curiosity in the world and taught me that being open minded is basically the best thing anyone can do. This way, questions can always be asked and answered. At the same time, you will never be fully satisfied because new questions will keep arising. And this is completely ok! Asking questions is how we start to understand that there is always more to be taught, more to be asked, and therefore, more to be learned.
Whether it be through an interfaith leadership fellowship or volunteering in the Philippines to help provide gynecological care to people, all of my experiences can be tied together by the need to quench my thirst for connection. Everything coalesces to form the whole picture of fullness—from the questions inside of me getting answers only to transition into more questions, to learning from others about their childhoods and how they grew up and came to my university to study alongside me and other students from all over the world. BILI taught me that I should never tell myself that nothing is connected. Everything is connected. And everything does matter.
Photo by author.