School, Life and all that Jazz.

I started school. Graduate school. Catholic graduate school. The fact that I'm a student at Franciscan is still a little overwhelming. I've wanted this for so many more years than I have let on. Sure, I'm still stuck in AZ and my classroom is wherever my laptop takes me but I suppose that's not the point. My lectures, assignments and exams are all from FUS professors. Perhaps during the lectures if I try really hard I can imagine myself in a classroom in Steubenville, Ohio.

I'm excited about my classes. Excited that both my Catechism and Bible will get some much needed work. Excited to dive deeper into my faith and fall more passionately in love. I'm excited to know that although up to this point my life has taken too many unwanted turns and I'm not where I want to be, in this I have a plan. My dreams are still very much in reach. Sinner though I am, I'm still answering yes to His call.

And nearly equally important, I do this for you.


When I was in third grade I wrote a story. Try as I might, I can't remember all the details. What I do know is it had to do with a tree in the woods. A tree that I had to find. Sometimes I think throughout my life I've been searching for too many things. Searching for understanding, for meaning, for friendship, for acceptance, for love. I get so caught up in my search. In my perceived failure of not finding what I have told myself I needed that all I do is get lost in the forest. I get lost in the vast beauty of hundreds upon hundreds of trees and I take no time to admire their greatness. I don't stop and value all the life surrounding me and budding throughout. I'm simply caught up in the fact that I'm lost and the tree I seek is not any of which surround me.
To live this way is a shame.

In a little over three months I will be 23. Three months after that I will hold you in my arms. No one will ever convince me that you were a mistake. That you were not supposed to happen. Whether it be through their ignorance, closed mindedness or even their fear, all those who look upon me and see less than who I am, who you are, who we are, are wildly incorrect.

Everything will be fine.