This week, I had a chance to sit down and talk with Matthew Clay, a 20-year-old Fanshawe student, currently in his first year of the two-year Business Accounting program.

Before jumping into my Worldview on Campus questions, I wanted to get to know a bit about him first. I asked Matt about his career plans; he did not give me anything too specific, simply telling me, “I want to make lots of money and be successful in the business world.”

In terms of Matt's life as a student, he is very happy to be attending Fanshawe; he chose Fanshawe because the “location is close to home and it is a well-known and respected school.”

Matt has a number of different hobbies and activities that fill out his spare time; he likes watching movies, listening to heavy metal and rock and roll, working on cars with his dad and playing soccer with buddies, but most of all, Matt is a huge video game fan, so much so that he competes in LAN tournaments. Matt is also very busy with work; he works about 30 to 35 hours a week at Subway mostly for the purpose of owning a car since he commutes to class from Mount Brydges.

Matt identifies himself as a Catholic Christian, telling me, “My entire family raised me in this way. We went to church growing up, and I've never thought otherwise, it's just always made sense to me. Since becoming an adult, however, I am less involved in church because I'm so busy.” Because Matt's worldview is largely dependent upon his upbringing, I wanted to ask him on a more personal level what his thoughts are on God.

He told me, “I definitely believe in God, but I think I make my fate and nothing else. I also believe that there is an afterlife and at that point we will have a greater understanding of God.”

When I inquired about the personal role God plays in his life he told me, “I believe faith in God makes me a better person, makes me want to be more caring to people and be around people, involved in their lives in a positive way. I want to help people and be a kind, loving and influential.”

Many of the positive attributes of Matt's faith he attributes to his mom, he told me. “My mom's influence has helped me to be better person, I learned from her about themes such as sacrifice, love and kindness. Although I do not think about it often and try to just live my life it is there in the back of my head.”

Although Matt affirmed he does have faith, he is definitely not your run-of-the-mill orthodox Christian. He seems to have a post-modern flair contributing to his views. I noticed this when I asked him about his thoughts on the words good and evil; he told me, “Everyone decides what's good and what's evil, some peoples wrong is good and vice-versa. Morality is highly subjective. Growing up as a Christian has helped me focus and try to be moral but I also understand that different people interpret morals in different ways. I like to make judgments based on my own experiences and observations and not just on the Bible.”

Matt seems like a very open and honest person and someone who is willing to learn and grow with time. It was an interesting experience talking with him and seeing how he personally interprets the age old traditions he's been exposed to his entire life.