College or Comfort?

Whenever I meet a student I like to ask, "How did you decide to come to Providence College of all places?" For many students they had a great financial aid package that made it affordable to attend PC and receive an excellent education. For others is that family members are alum so they were following in those illustrious footsteps. And again for others they were inspired or encouraged by a high school counselor, coach or one of our own admissions counselors to apply then attend.
The most interesting response though is that after taking a tour is that s/he felt "comfortable" and that s/he wanted to be around others like him or her. What I'm curious about is the notion that college should be comfortable.

Per the on-line Merriam-Webster dictionary, the definition for comfortable is the following: Affording or enjoying contentment and security, affording or enjoying physical comfort or free from vexation or doubt, free from stress or tension.

We know for a fact that students do indeed experience stress and tension when it comes to academic workload, financial demands and more. Yet somehow there's a belief that I shouldn't be uncomfortable when it comes from intercultural relationships or learning new information that grant me more insight into the lives of others.

Indeed, it's uncomfortable to find out that I have advantages, e.g. able-bodied, college-educated, middle-class, straight, etc. It's uncomfortable to experience doubt in my faith and discover that my church has feet of clay. And it's uncomfortable to discover that not all is well with the world including my own.

But then again my faith as a Christian demands that I confront the very uncomfortable yet necessary reality that the Son of God, Jesus Christ, went to the cross and died for my sins.

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