Choosing to attend St. Vincent Pallotti High School was personally the best decision I have made in regards to my future.

Being that I have never attended a religious school before, I was skeptical at first. I had been going to public school my whole life and just thinking about how different Catholic school would be worried me. All I had as a resource, are the movies I would watch on Netflix, where there would be those nuns and priests who were very strict.

I thought the transition would be hard but when I finally arrived at Pallotti, it was an easy journey. It was my first time having to learn about God and being tested about it, which was weird to me; because, in Sunday school, we would learn about all these stories and gospels and I would never remember what happened the next day.

It was very helpful that Pallotti’s curriculum doesn’t require you to know a lot about the Lord in order to do well in a religion class because they start from the beginning. I bought my very own first Bible for my Foundations of Faith class and could tell this would be the beginning of a meaningful journey. Freshman year I learned about things like spirituality (but not in depth), the Shroud of Turin, and basic things like finding my way to different chapters in the Bible.

At first, I thought it was a little strange that someone else who is supposedly the same religion as I am, practices in a way totally different than what I learned. I noticed there were aspects of other religions that are similar to what I believe. I think Kairos was a big turnaround for me as a person. I didn’t realize that I had been changing as a person since freshman year even though I didn’t notice it at first.

Experiencing Kairos made me want to have a better relationship with God and even myself. That summer of my junior year, I reflected on my time in Belize and how similar I am to others around the world and I had the chance to truly see God in many things. I made a vow to myself that I would start treating others with love and to pray more.

By my senior year, it is easier for me to pray and it has become a part of my everyday routine, that at first was difficult for me to do when I was younger. I know if I had chosen to go to a public school instead of Pallotti I wouldn’t have had the same opportunities.