by Aureane Roullier
The Chicago High School for the Arts (ChiArts) is diverse in a lot of ways. Between the six conservatories, there are all kinds of talents from all walks of life. But, because public schools are necessarily separated from conversations about religion, spiritual diversity often goes unnoticed.
Students have a range of spiritual practices, spanning from non-existent to rituals of daily prayer.
Senior creative writer Paulina Zuniga said that she hasn’t spent a lot of time thinking about her spiritual practice, but she is into astrology.
“I’m a Cancer, and I’m very emotional. I’m a hopeless romantic. I’m always putting my emotions and heart first,” Zuniga said.
She added that she was raised and baptized Catholic, but as she got older, she started to become doubtful.
“I got this idea that if I can make up my own stories, someone else could do that too. I started to question my religion. Every time I prayed, I wasn’t getting an answer back,” she said.
Calvin Holmes, senior creative writer, does not question his faith at all.
“Christianity. Jesus. Yes. [In my beliefs] I’m not pure Christian. I try to mix other stuff into it. I just go off what I feel. I like to believe that God is within and that’s why you talk to yourself.” said Holmes.
Another ChiArts creative writer senior, Nick Joy also mixes faiths as Holmes does.
“[My spirituality is] mixing religions in a way because we have so many deities. And the earth. I worship nature, and the universe. I don’t believe in a god. I love nature. Nature is the ultimate thing that will always be here even when there aren’t cars or computers or phones.” He says.
Very interesting topic to write about. I think that this could be an interesting mini-series that another student could keep going.