As a Catholic High School graduate and an avid believer in religion, miraculous events have occurred very often in my textbooks and lectures. When Jesus heals the deaf and brings back the dead, to Moses parting the Red Sea. They were always just there, and unexplainable things that happen because it’s in the Bible. Never did I imagine that a miracle of any sort would happen during my life let alone to that extent. That’s where I was wrong.
My hometown school district started to plummet during my 8th grade year. As this began to happen my mother and I started to worry about my future. At this point of my education, I was still in public school so I was basically planning on enduring the rough curriculum at my town’s high school and see how I went from there. After much thought with my mom and our financial planner, I decided to apply to a catholic high school in the town next door. I was surprised when I got into the private school and even more shocked when my mother agreed to spend the money and send me there because of the better education.
The only friend I had going there was Rose. She was from my hometown as well and we had become very close friends during our 7th grade year. We were both pretty anxious about starting at this high school because we didn’t know many people (although she did handle it way better than I did). As I went through the first couple of weeks and months I realized how amazing of a place this school was and I began to fall in love with being there and being around the family that I had established there in just the beginning of my time there.
Four years later I graduated as the Class of 2014. Tears. That’s all I could use to describe how I was feeling at that graduation ceremony. The decision to attend that private catholic high school in the town next door from me was the best decision I have ever made in my entire life. The friends, family and beliefs I had made during my short four years of high school will stick with me forever and I will never regret going, participating and loving every second of it. I knew that I had made the right choice for both myself and my future and my mother and her assurance of my success during my lifetime.
When I transitioned into a freshman going into college I was very anxious about everything again. The classes, professors, roommates, being away from my dog for long periods of time; they were all just scary things to prepare myself for. After a couple of crazy months at my college, I lost the college friends I thought I would have for my entire four years of my undergraduate program. Once winter break started, I didn’t know what to do. Do I transfer schools? Do I try to patch our friendship with these fake people I tried to surround myself with? Do I suck it up and make new friends? Or do I pity myself into oblivion and have such a crappy time at this school that I am paying so much for?
Thank god for the one sane roommate I had during my freshman year, Margaret, because with her help she made me decide to stay at my college. As I was walking to the counseling center one morning, I bumped into my friend Lorraine. I had met her during our summer orientation and we roomed together during that but we hadn’t been as close during the first semester of our freshman year. That was probably due to the fact that my devilish old friends shunned me from spending time with anyone else on the whole campus. When I bumped into her, she invited me to sit with her and her friends from her dormitory for their weekly ritual of Good Morning XYZ. I was hesitant at first but I told her I would come back after my meeting in a different building.
When the meeting with my counselor ended during which she had urged me to go have breakfast with my friend Lorraine, I anxiously walked over to her and her friends and was overenthusiastically welcomed with 4 pairs of open arms. That morning, after I had texted Margaret to join us, I had made 3 new friends; Joseph, Marie 1 and Marie 2. Ever since Lorraine had invited me to come spend the morning with her friends we continued to every other morning for the rest of that semester. And I never had to go back to the Counseling Center.
During my year and half of being a college student, I still have the friends I spent my mornings with during the Spring Semester of Freshman year and a lot more. Once I got out of my horrid room and the evil people who lived with me (apart from Margaret) my life continued to improve and I became super happy with where I was and I was only a freshman! Margaret and I founded a club for our campus and joined other clubs to spend our time doing. We spent little to no time in our room and were away from our roommates for a good chunk of time.
Now as a second-semester sophomore, I’m starting to see where my future is going and I am really excited to get there and grasp it by the horns. As for now my friends and I have many more memories we need to make and enjoy the life we are living. As I spend time with Michael, Lorraine, Margaret, Anne, Joseph and all of the other amazing people I spend time with I have realized that because I didn’t settle with the fake friends I had acquired during my first semester freshman year, my life is tremendously better. Don’t limit yourself to the friends, experiences and events just because you obliviously weigh the opportunities. Just go for it. Who cares who’s watching, judging or wishing they were you. Screw ‘em they usually only make you weaker or doubt yourself. You only have one life to live so why waste it?
Miracles, although not noticed at the time, happen all of the time in everyone’s lives. When looking back on my life; even though I only named a few, there have been a lot of miraculous events during my time here on this earth. It’s all so scary to think about during the time but afterwards when everything is positive and okay, is when miracles occur.
