During college study I discovered Islam is not barbaric as portrayed: Revert Kristin

Kristin used to believe in many religions and philosophies before getting her final destination Islam. She had been a Christian (non-denominational), a Neo-pagan (mostly wicca), a Buddhist (sotozen), a Confucist (ancient learning mostly), and an agnostic atheist.
Recently she has reverted to Islam on February 22, 2013, at the age of 21. She lives in British Columbia, Canada. She is an undergraduate student of Ancient History (3^rd Year).

Born and raised in the mountains of British Columbia to mostly deistic/atheistic parents, she was always taught to seek knowledge and verify the information and keep an open and creative mind. She experimented with a few religions in her youth trying to find a place where she belonged, before settling on soft atheism after a few traumatic events piled up in her life. She reveals: ‘When my depression was at its worst I took a closer look at Islam and found some semblance of belonging and peace’.
Her interest in Islam began unfortunately with the bombing of the World Trade Centre. She was 10 at the time and had never heard of Islam before that. Until the 12^th grade Islam was that “scary religion.” In the 12^th grade and in her first year of college she took Western Civilization courses that covered the big three monotheistic religions and their contribution to history, human development and culture. Suddenly she discovers that Islam was not “barbaric” as it was portrayed, and was incredibly cultured and well-rounded. In her second year of college she took a few religious studies courses and in her third year she attended Al-Zahra, a local Masjid.  Finally she was overcome with the beauty of Islam and suddenly felt at peace.
About her defining moment when she decided to revert to Islam she says: ‘When I found that the Muslim people I knew and the masjid that I often went to offered me so much more kindness and peace than any other people or place that I’d been before. In addition, the teachings of the Prophet (AS) and the commandments of Allah (SWT) offered a much more structured and stress free life for me’. She is very happy in her 0tress free life now. ‘Not to say I don’t ever get stressed anymore haha’, she laughs.
About the reaction of her parents and friends about her new religion, Kristin says: ‘My parents are perfectly fine with it, the family that knows is fine with it, the friends who know (and aren’t Muslim) are fine with it. But she had some problem with the person she was committed with.
She never faced any problem at her work place. Everyone has been really friendly about it. She had one person ask ‘what country she was from’ only to be mildly bemused when she said Canada, but that was funnier than challenging, she said kiddingly.
About the support she got from the Muslim community or Muslims, she says: The members of Muslim community were very positive and supportive to her.
‘I got really close to one sister in my community who I view like a second mother. She’s taken very good care of me and made sure I understood everything I needed to. The whole community has been so supportive and friendly, I’ve never felt so much love!’, she said.
About her future plans, she says she doesn’t think too much about future. ‘I figure I’ll keep on keeping on and see where Allah takes me to’ she quips.

Her depression problem was resolved and she finally found the peace and solace in Islam and she recommends everyone to read the Qur'an with a open Heart to see how beautiful it is and it can only be from Allah and no one else.