Where are all the young people?

After such a long post the other day,  I'm going to try and keep this one relatively short. I'm pretty sure it will be.

Ever since moving here to Denton, I've been going to one of the local Catholic Churches; Immaculate Conception.  It was  the first one that my parents and I found and it's the one I've continued to gone to ever since.

It's a beautiful church. The priests are nice. It's really a good church.

But there is one problem that I've noticed; A pattern that quickly emerged not long after I began attending mass there.  A pattern that has continued to make itself known every time I've go to Saturday evening mass.

There are not a lot of young people that attend.

I'm referring to college students mostly. People around my age.
Where are all the young people at?

Most of the people that attend the masses at ICC are familes or older adults. There are the occasional young people but not enough to make me feel happy. 

It's not just the Saturday evening mass that I've seen this pattern at either. On the (rare) occasion that I've attended the 8:30AM mass on Sunday, I've seen the same. There's not a lot of young people around.

There must be some because the church has a Young Adult ministry (although this seemed to have only developed last year) which is for people around my age and older. But I haven't seen very many people.

I've even tried attending the other Catholic church across town, St Marks, to see if the audience was different there. Not really. There still didn't seem to be a lot of young adults there either.

Again, they have a Young Adult ministry and I've been to a couple of their events. In fact, I liked the St. Marks Young Adult ministry better. They seem to do more fun stuff unlike ICC's group. They have game nights and go bowling in addition to religious events. ICC's group seems to focus mostly on the religious stuff. Although, I can't really make a clear judgement since I've only attended a couple events and there really hasn't been that many events in the first place. But there weren't many people that attended the events either. Also, a lot of the other young adults were quite a bit older than me and many of them were married and had families. Not exactly comforting for a 24-year-old single person who struggles to fit in in the first place.

So if there aren't many young people attending the two major catholic churches in town, where are they all at? I would think that in a city this size (which for me is the biggest one I've ever lived in), and with 2 universities, there would be more young people attending. But I guess not.

I guess that most of the young people that do attend church are going to the churchess on their campuses. I know that both Texas Women's University and University of North Texas both have churches/chapels on campus. But as far as I know the churches are small and share the building with other denominations. In other words, the catholic community isn't it's own parish like it was back at Oklahoma State.

Although, I've heard that the UNT Catholic Campus community is looking on becoming it's own parish and is planning to build it's own church at some point in the near future. But for me, it doesn't really matter since I'm going to be moving on soon anyways.

Why haven't I tried getting involved with the campus catholic community?  I'm not really exactly sure.  For one thing, it doesn't help that I don't live that close to campus or even on campus. While I'm a student, I don't really feel like I am. At least not in the traditional sense.

 I'm sure most of the students live on campus which makes it easier for them to attend masses. I don't live on or near the campus. Therefore I'd have to drive to campus and find a parking spot.  I don't even have a permit for campus parking since I don't really have a need to go to campus all that often. It's just a waste for me. I'd rather take the bus but they don't run on Sunday's and it would take too much time. I could walk I guess, but I don't even know the campus that well to even know where I'd be going. Plus, I'm not comfortable walking alone from my apartment to the campus center (plus it's quite a distance for a walk).

I guess I could look into the church at TWU since I'm closer but I don't know. I still feel like I would feel out of place because I don't go to school at TWU.

I also think I'd feel out of place regardless of where I went, I just feel like I'd be surrounded by a lot of undergrads and  that perhaps I wouldn't get along with them. That I'd just feel awkward because I'm older. I'm not even sure if there would be any graduate students.

Plus since I don't feel like I'm part of the University anyways, I don't feel like I'd be able to relate to a lot of these people even though I'd be surrounded by people that shared my same religion.

I guess maybe I'm also looking for something I know I can't find. I want the same type of community that I had back at Oklahoma State. The University parish/ Newman Center. Where there were a variety of students. Where I felt part of the Catholic church. Welcomed.  Where I felt like I was part of a family. Where I felt at home. I had people there I knew.  I participated in things. I loved the student mass on Sundays followed by dinner.  It was wonderful. I just loved it so much. 


My cousin was the one who introduced me to St. John's. I just remember falling in love with the church from the first time I went there. From then on, that's where I went. 

I still go back to visit the church when I go back to Stillwater. Mostly because  one of the ladies I got to know, helps out there at the church. But yet, it still feels welcoming to me. I'll admit that whenever they talk about events happening at the Newman Center, it pains me that I can't go to them. They had an ice cream social at the beginning of school this semester and it broke my heart that I couldn't go since it's a 4hr drive from here.  Just little things like that make me miss St. John's.

I guess I'm trying to find that same experience here. I've tried to find it but I haven't been able to. The same sense of welcome and community that St. John's provided for me. I just want to feel like I belong. That I'm part of something

I want to be around people my age like I was there. There was a mixture of people there at St. John's: older people, young people, families. But they focused on the University and provided for the students. The students were the main focus.

I know I won't find something exactly what I had back in Oklahoma. I was lucky to find that.

I keep searching though. That's all I can do.

I can just keep hoping and praying that something will turn up.