I have been a declared Baha’i for three wonderful years! I have grown an immense amount of love and gratitude for the Baha’i Faith in my life! I am 24 years old and a recent college graduate in the state of Utah. I have blonde hair and blue eyes and I come from a very dominant Latter-day-Saint (Mormon) culture. I am a very bubbly, outgoing, passionate and compassionate young woman with a very strong spiritual side. I graduated from Utah Valley University in Communications in August 2011 and was very involved in Leadership programs through the College.

When I was five years old, my Mother became a Baha’i in which our lives had changed. Living here in Utah is a wonderful blessing because much of this dominant faith believes and practices the same standards as what the Baha’i Faith represents and stands for.

To name only a few things that I love about the Baha’i Faith and what makes me proud to be a Baha’i is the vision of the oneness of religion. Baha’u'llah says that all religions are Divine in nature, and all are one in the sight of God. The only difference is according the culture and time era in which the religion was manifested.

I have noticed much segregation in the world due to religion and if we could only choose to see they are all the same light, we wouldn’t have so much separation. Baha’u'llah says that the purpose of religion is to unite the world, and if it is not doing so, it is not serving its purpose and it would be better to have no such religion. 

I also love the idea of Independent investigation of truth. Baha’u'llah has taught that every soul must find truth for themselves and not through the eyes of others. Every single person is endowed with the capability to love and to know their Creator for themselves and not through another person. I also love the teaching that science and religion can absolutely be in harmony with each other. What an enlightening and new thought that the world has not known before!

When I was in college at Southern Utah University, it was my first year away from home and naturally I began to question many, many things. Through a long and heavy depression, I was destined to find something that could give purpose to my life. My depression had gotten so low and this pain was so immense in my soul that at points I thought I was going to die.

It was then that I became very interested in religious studies and in my spare time, researched every religious tradition I possibly could. I took philosophy classes and immersed myself in different spiritual outlets that uplifted me. I was on a personal quest to find what my own heart felt complete and whole with, and could assist me to grow nearer to my Creator. I started to notice that when people often asked my religion, I would say none, but then I would follow that statement with a brief summary of what the Baha’i Faith was. Although no one had ever heard of it in this small city of 30,000 people in Southern Utah, every person was indeed impressed and wanted to know more.

I then found a prayer written by Abdu’l-Baha that I copied and framed and put in my room: “Bestow upon me a heart which, like unto glass, may be illumined with the light of Thy love, and confer upon me thoughts which may change this world into a rose garden through the outpourings of heavenly grace.” This one simple writing inspired me every single day and my soul wanted more.

I then had this urge and desire to expand my horizons beyond the culture I had been raised in my entire life, and I offered to do a summer term of service at Green Acre Baha’i School in Eliot, Maine. I was the only “non-declared-Baha’i” they ever had come serve. Nonetheless, this summer turned out to be the most wonderful time of my life! Every day after I finished my service, I spent my free time in the library at Green Acre reading as much as I could from the writings of the Faith. I asked several questions to guests and other volunteers. I was in AWE and so inspired that my heart began to come to life once more. I had found answers and had come full-circle with my spiritual quest. Every question I had ever had was answered in the many books I found within the Baha’i Faith at the Green Acre library. 

I declared that summer in July 2008, and it was one of the best decisions I ever made! From that moment on, I can truly say my heart gained a new light and sparkle within it, and developed a strong foundation for how I view the world, my Creator, my own spiritual progress and much more! What a wonderful gift!!

I have recently graduated college with my Bachelor’s degree in Communications, and I have been the only Baha’i at my University. However, since my heart was literally lit up with so much fire and joy with this new-found spirit I had found within, I was teaching the Faith almost every day! People noticed something different about me everywhere I went. When I would ride the bus, I would read my Baha’i books, and people would go out of their way to ask me what this book was about- including the bus driver himself! I felt that I was so sincerely in love with this new light I had found through the Faith, that people were interested in what I was doing to have gained that light. I was overcome with joy day-in and day-out, that even strangers around me were captivated and intrigued to learn more. 

I love the teachings of the Baha’i Faith so much! It makes perfect and complete, spiritual AND logical sense to me. To me, I can find completion in this Faith in that there is a direction for where the world is headed and it covers practical matters, as well as a sort of ‘mystical’ spiritual fragrance that makes life so much more beautiful and pure. When I read the words of Baha’u'llah or Abdu’l-Baha, my heart becomes warm and at peace, and I crave to read more. It is a wonderful blessing and only through Divine order that I have been sent to this Faith. I have felt that I didn’t choose the Faith, but that it chose me, and I often am left wondering how I got so lucky to be chosen. 

But despite the many writings, the visions of the Baha’i Faith and so forth, I discovered how truly simple it truly was for my own individual heart; I found out what the word “Baha’i” meant in Arabic. Baha=Light or Glory and I= follower of. I am a follower of the Light. And if I have learned anything in my 24 years of life, it is that every single soul and individual on the Earth, no matter what religious background, race, economic status, hardships, nationality or so forth, on some level wants to feel the Light. I am a follower of the Light, and I strive every day to fill my life and my surroundings with more and more light, in hopes of brings more peace and goodness to this world.