NOOMA FAMILY

My first year was tough. I’m sure many people who started university during Covid can relate. It was a difficult time for everyone so, naturally, people sought comfort in the familiar. But what do you do when everything and everyone around you is new?

My entire life is built around my faith, but I had been a coasting Christian for a long time, saying the sweet phrases but not completely believing in their divine spiritual power. So, starting university I mechanically thought “I’m not going to be alone, God is with me.” Whilst this was and still is true, I didn’t really believe it. Instead, a reality of deep-seated fear set in. Alone in my prison-like accommodation (shout out to Old Lafrowda), all my fears – new, yet heavy like a sudden fog – began to consume me. My thoughts constantly centred on what people thought of me or what they would assume about me.

I love my mother. There was no other person who willingly, and without being asked, called me every morning of my first (and second) year to check on me and wake me up for class (yes, I am her pampered princess). However, although I heard her voice every day, my mother wasn’t with me in Exeter. I needed a new family here. Everyone told me that you find friends for life at university and all the other hopeful phrases, but I couldn’t see any way this would happen to me – and that scared me.

I honestly can’t remember how I stumbled upon the NOOMA Society, but I do remember praying to God for good and loving friends. I went to their Wednesday Centrals on Zoom and was shocked to interact with so many people who were immediately and consistently kind to me, who checked up on me, prayed for me and with me, helped me with my coursework, and gave me advice about both serious and trivial matters. I slowly began to feel like God was answering my prayers and was carving a home away from home for myself.

There are two things that NOOMA did for me that will stay with me until the day I die (dramatic but true). They reminded me of who I am. I am joyful. I am courageous. I am open and I am not afraid. I am intelligent. I deserve the space I occupy. I deserve to be in the room. I am enough. They reminded me of whose I am. My heart, soul and spirit are protected. I belong to Jesus, and He watches out for me. Even in the depths of my despair, I am not alone. And so, my gorgeous NOOMA family awakened my dormant vibrancy, and I live happily ever after…

Most of the time :)

Chloé Jarrett-Bell, Deputy Print Editor