Finding Home - by Andreina Coronado, CRHS class of 2017!

    It's kind of scary how easy it is to give into temptations that distance us from the church. You kinda just go through the motions of being a Catholic without thinking much of it.  So between the temptations of sports or school or extracurriculars, which most of us  high school students are a part of, it's so easy to come up with excuses for how to get out of church.  I’m sure all of us are guilty of that.

   I found myself really distant from the Catholic Church in middle school. As a 12 year old, you're so easily persuaded. All my friends were going to a popular non-Catholic church. Where everything is basically a party and all young students are automatically attracted to. I decided to go on a retreat with that church one summer to spend time with my friends. There I realized the setting I thought I would enjoy became a place that filled me with uneasiness and discomfort. That weekend I came home and immediately jumped back into routine. I went to mass that night with my mom. It’s crazy most of us have never really experienced an epiphany when it comes to church but in that moment I really did. It's really a hard feeling to describe and I can really only relate it to a homecoming. As soon as I walked through those doors and into the chapel, all that uneasiness from the night before went away. I was finally home.

    When high school school started I found myself distracted again, a new school, new friends, and new extra curriculars that now for some reason take so much more time. I would go months at a time without stepping into the church. Then my mom signed me up for CCE classes, and I know I relate to many when it was just something you did to make your mom happy. There I met the greatest and most influential people I have ever met. I started to enjoy coming to church and it became my choice to want to be there, not my mothers. I had found a second family in my second home.
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    Something I realized is that I wouldn't have survived high school without this second home which never gave up on me. Whether you get distracted and walk away, the Catholic Church will always be there. Whether you're ready to get confirmed or not or even if you've already been confirmed and find yourself distracted, you will always have a place to come back to. No matter how far you wander, the Catholic Church will always be your second home.

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