Tomorrow, I turn 20. I am currently trying to revel in the
meaning of my last 24 hours as a teenager, before plunging into the awkward
limbo of no longer being a teen, but not really an adult.
Birthdays are my favorites. It’s
probably very self-centered of me, but I love the idea of having a holiday just
for you. After spending 364 days thinking of others, you get one day to think
of yourself. But more than that, I love having an opportunity to see my
favorite people, enjoy tasty foods, and celebrate how wonderful life is. Birthdays
are also an important time to reflect on your year and the year to come.
A few weeks ago, I started
attending a program called “One Hour a Week.”. Girls from McGlinn meet Sunday
afternoons in our Rectress’s apartment to pray and reflect together. I really
enjoy the opportunity to take a break from a studying and socializing to go on
a one hour “mini-retreat.”
Recently, Sister Mary Lynch has started
talking to us about discovering “our word.” It’s the idea that all of us have a
word, for the semester, or maybe longer, that we are called to reflect on in
our faith life. She insisted that our word find us and not for us to search for
it. She and several other girls in our group shared how words have caught them
and how they have grown from the experience. Sister Mary talked about how the
word “believe” stood out to her in movies and books. Another girl noticed the
word “aware” everywhere. One girl said that her word was “grow.” I wondered, what
would be mine?
I thought back to the past year. I
think my word for at 19, would be “brave.” Between lots of stomachaches and
Hail Mary’s, I felt like in the past year God challenged me to be braver than
ever before. Some of these moments were small acts of courage- going to serve
at jury duty in Downtown Detroit or driving on the highway by myself for the
first time. Others were larger in size, such as learning to be comfortable
sharing my thoughts (especially on politics and feminism—with links) on this
blog and going to France (also link) on my own.
Then I became aware of how I
described many things as “happy.” I realized that happy was becoming my go to word
to describe my mood (happy or lack of happy), moments in my life, and even
colors, foods, or ideas. The more and more I thought about it; the more I
realized that my word moving forward must be happy.
As
I transition into being 20, I hope to embrace “happy” as my new word. I can’t
wait to start looking for it other places in my life and I’m excited to see how
God will bring this word into my faith life. I hope to be able to live this
year being more jubilant, more alive, and more “happy” than ever before.
No comments:
Post a Comment