Ah so its 2005. It is my 3rd year attending a HUGE catholic retreat called Steubenville, Ohio. I had gone to Steubenville, Atlanta my first two years and they had both been a blasts. Great friends, fun times, and a weekend away from it all. But the 3rd year was not to be. The trip to Ohio took 18 hours. And needless to say, people get REAL grumpy when a trip last longer than 6 hours. And there were other things that aggravated even me. But enough of this. On to what I like to called "3 miracle weekend".
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| A culmination of 3 churches from Jax all rode up. |
It is Saturday night of the retreat and we have just finished the Adoration portion of the weekend. We are all walking about, several of us literally starving. So I offer to buy myself and 3 of my frans a pizza that we can share. I figure for $10, 2 pieces for everyone isn't too bad. So I buy the pizza and bring it to where my frans are. Unfortunately this just happened to be standing in a massive circle with other people who I knew. And it wasn't long till 4 more people wanted in on this pizza. Since I was too kind, I said yes and was left with 1 little piece for myself.
I thought to myself "Gawd. If only I could be Jesus and make more pizza". And as if someone had a sense of humor, the crowd parted and in came several chaperones bringing in at least 15 more pizzas. Needless to say I had my fair share to eat that night.
Moving on to Sunday night, on our way home, was when this 2nd incident happened. And I can only wish I had some way to record it.
So I was sitting next to a girl named Hannah. Long before I turned my back on the church and arguments between her and I were commonplace, I saw her as a cute girl. And this night was significantly special. Sitting in the same row, the bus driving through the mountains, we were having a chat about the retreat we had just had. And I looked past her and you could see the night sky on the ground. I told her to look behind her and she merely whispered "Beautiful". This was probably the closest she and I would ever be emotionally and spiritually.
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| So this was the girl. Don't really hang anymore. |
Of course the 'night sky' was actually a town with well positioned lights. But we were so high up in the mountain that the town actually mimicked a night sky full of stars. O if only I had a way of recording it, it would have truly been a spectacular video to share.
This 3rd incident is a stretch at best. But in my mind it is still considered one of the 'miracles' due to the timeline of events that led to this. So one of the rules had stated that no electronics were to be used. Which I thought was rather ridiculous for a trip of this length. But since there was no flex in the rules, I had my cd player confiscated. On the trip home, it was discovered that the buses had a way to plug a cd player into them so that we could listen to some music of the people's choosing. Of course, to do so one would have had to have their cd player confiscated.
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| I figured out that if you slept on the floor of the bus, it was far more comfortable than trying to sleep in the chairs or on each other. Unfortunately, everyone else adopted the idea and my 1 good nights rest on the bus turned into misery on the night back home. |
Of course, since mine had already been confiscated it was figured that we would just use mine for the rest of the trip home. So despite the crappiness of having my cd player taken away, it atleast came back to have some sort of use.
So that's my little tale of Steubenville convention. There's o so much more to tell. But sometimes, you just don't want to revisit the past more than is necessary. So. There you have it. A brief telling of the time I felt closest to God.
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