Personal Narrative: Growing Up In A Catholic School

This has shaped me as a person beyond what words can express. Catholic schools truly prepare students for more than school and careers; they shape the whole person, body, mind, and soul, in Jesus. Imagine how different the world might be if every person realized and believed that God loves them just for who they are. Picture how different the world would be if we all viewed every other person as possessing that same degree of dignity and treated each other accordingly. Envision how different the world might be if people found their identity in Jesus rather than in the fleeting amusements and distractions so far beneath their worth. Can you imagine such a world? I can because of my education. Catholic school teachers can. Catholic school students can. Hopefully, together we will create a light that inspires others to realize the full truth of their potential and worth in God’s eyes, as well as realize the fullness of

The full name is The Holy Family Catholic Church. The location on this catholic church is 14500 NE 11th Avenue North Miami, FL 33161. I assist to this church on February 19, at 2pm. That place is the main service of the week.

Growing up going to a Catholic school and being a part of the Catholic faith my entire life has undoubtedly shaped me to the person that I am today. I have always done service without hesitation because it is just part of who I am and what I have been taught to do throughout the years. Throughout the years I have been apart of many different service organizations and projects. Some examples oh the community service I have been apart of would include Luke 18, Vacation Bible School, PSR teacher assistant, and School events that require student aid. The total amount of service hours I have on record with St. Dominic is one hundred and five hours as of Junior year.

In the fall of 2014, I embarked on the start of my ephemeral high school experience. Reminiscing back onto my first day of school, I can recall the exact moment as if it was yesterday. The adrenaline spewing out of my veins as if I had just consumed a large amount of caffeine, the anxiety boiling in my nerves not knowing who my teachers were or where my classes were. But most of all, I recall the coalescing of my fellow classmates’ personalities and the censure everyone had towards each other. It was in this moment that I had realized that Northwest Christian High School was not a banal Christian environment. In fact, Northwest Christian High School was the antithesis of a banal Christian environment.

Growing up in Catholic schools all my life I have always been told, “God created this earth now it’s our job to save it and keep it as beautiful as possible”, yet my High School did nothing to keep it beautiful like we were always told. We did not recycle the hundreds of water bottles kids drank at lunch, papers we used everyday in class, old textbooks at the end of the year, the list can go on forever. Instead, all of those items have ended up in landfills, polluting the world. Everyone agreed something needed to be done about the problem, but nothing ever changed. My school, Boylan Catholic High School, even created a Go Green club that would hang up signs saying “Save the Environment” or “Don’t forget the 3 R’s: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle”.

Throughout my adolescence, I have attended five different schools. They each had their pros and cons, but ultimately, I left each one except for Christian Brothers High School. For Middle School, I attended Lausanne; however, it became far too expensive. After Lausanne, I went to Germantown High School at the beginning of my Freshman year. This turned out to be one of my worst mistakes which, in turn, became one of my greatest failures.

As Catholic Connections comes to a close, Ruth and I complete our service project during her visit during spring break. She had completed her side of the project earlier in the year, while back in New Jersey, and donated her and her friend’s and family’s clothes to a clothing drive at her church. I was planning to do my project alone as well, but at the beginning of the 2016 year, I was told that she and her family would be coming to visit during Spring Break. When she arrived in Utah, we had to wait until later in the week, when she had more time. When she did, we walked to a Big Brothers Big Sisters of Utah Clothing donation box. With two bags of clothes in hand, we donated the clothing and spoke about how Ruth had volunteered there, when

Until sixth grade, I went to Shepherd Christian Elementary School. Once I moved on to sixth grade, I had to switch to a school that went through high school. I didn’t want to leave my friends; I was scared. I was touring multiple schools to see where God was leading us. When I came to Liberty, I immediately felt loved. Liberty was much larger than my old school. On the first day, I felt at home.

My time at Elk County Catholic High School is something that I will cherish for the rest of my life. I have made a large amount of memories throughout the past four years, especially on the sporting surfaces. I am upset about graduating in less than a month, but I am also excited to begin a new chapter in my life. I simply want to be remembered as a kid who made the most out oh his experience in high school. It has been my goal to keep good grades, along with having the most fun possible. This starts with spending time with my friends. I never pass on an opportunity to spend time with those whom I have made countless memories with since elementary school. I also made it a priority to play as many sports as possible. Sports in general are my

The Central Catholic placement tests served as the last test I took before summer break. I anticipated that I would engage in honors classes and willingly took the fact that my workload would be stacked. As soon as I was handed my diploma a couple days later for meeting the requirements to finish the eighth grade, I forgot about homework, reading, and writing with only the idea of traveling to new places and relaxing in the back of my brain. Relatively, my first month of summer was dry of excitement and I didn't experience activities I would have liked to. My days consisted of working out for football, sleeping, and then catching up on whatever binge watching series I was on on Netflix. The so dreadful letter containing a list of the "required"

Why would I spend some of the most important years of my life at a Christian liberal arts school? Because if I went anywhere else, I know that I would lose my faith. It is not that I do not trust that God would stay with me if I went to a state school, it is that I don’t trust myself to stay with Him. The world is a corrupting place, led by the devil and his schemes to take down the Kingdom of God, and I am very susceptible to that corruption. I do not know who I am just yet, I’m still learning, still growing as a follower of Christ and I always will be. However, as a baby Christ follower, I fear that if I went to a state school I would get lost in the world. But here I don’t have that fear, because I can feel God here.

I started middle school at Bethany Middle school, I had my two older cousins going to school with me. One is the same grade I am and the other is two years older. It was nice having them but we all hung out with different crowds and sometimes we would not agree on the same things so we would not always get along. My first day of middle school was not as bad as i thought it would have been due to the fact that the Bethany middle school was not big at all. My 6th grade year was tough for me when it came to school work, i was used to the work from Central Elementary school and the Bethany Schools were much more strict and left a lot of homework so it was a big change for me. I remember my English class was the hardest along with science but I

Getting the opportunity to go to St. Louis Catholic Church was a great experience for me, St.Louis Catholic Church is a great, loving, caring place where you will get to learn your faith, I really did enjoy every second. I live in Crystal Beach Texas, but I choose to come to St.Louis Catholic Church because I knew it is such a great church where,I was able to learn my religion. I love my teachers they are very supportive and loving.

I had the opportunity to interview Andrea Kier who is the Children’s Pastor at Manor Church. She has been working there for five years. Previously she worked as a Children’s Pastor at a Korean-American church in Chicago. She is very passionate about children’s ministry and about equipping parents to be the prime spiritual influencer in a child’s life.

Getting dressed each morning for school, I slip on my blazer, tighten my leather Oxfords, and pick a pair of glasses that match my outfit. Just a block away from my house, my town's high school is a two-minute walk to my left. However, I turn right and begin my hour-long commute to St. Peter's Prep. On my way to the bus stop, I always run into my childhood friends as we go in different directions. I wonder, “Why is my life so different from theirs? Do they think I'm pretentious, going to a prep school?” I don't live in a dystopian town where gunshots go off every day. However, many of my friends just don't care about school and use alcohol, drugs or sex to escape from their socioeconomic realities; the majority of my town is low-income and Latino.