Here is me, the cut-and-dry truths of my life, my faith journey, and the person it is forming me into, the honesty to grow, forgive, confess, love, and learn. I am young and alive, and I have the opportunity to use that to glorify God in all his glory through my life. I grew up Catholic, like many generations and people that you see on Christmas, Easter Sunday, and maybe even every Sunday, believing in the church for the sole purpose of habit, trust, and growth with the only thing you have ever known. For as long as I can remember, that is just the life I lived on the outside, church every Sunday, Catholic elementary and middle school, wearing the strict uniforms, no make-up, no nail polish, no colorful shoes; the school experience that showed the life that I was living because that was the life that my parents chose for me and raised me in. I am grateful and learned a lot from that experience, but I have somebody hold your hand while you understand that the actions aren’t fair. I am not writing to tell you that tradition, habit, and action are not part of your life, but doing something that you don’t believe in doesn’t do much. Imagine going through the habits of eating, drinking water, and working out without getting the benefits or enjoyment from them. That is what faith looks like when you are believing through habit. Believing through habit leads us to an unsteady relationship with the church and God, so why position ourselves in a life of habitual faith? Catholic education is extremely beneficial to the younger generation of Catholics, the parenting generations of Catholics; this is because it shows that somebody is still getting the education of the Catholic Church. Eventually, the education that is guarded by the church will end. For me, this started at a nondenominational Christian middle school, moving from going to a Catholic mass once a week, starting daily with prayer, and I knew to a Bible-based education that disagreed or didn’t follow the same traditions that I was accustomed to. The moment that I understood I didn’t fit in here and that these people believe Catholicism is a fallacy was probably in the 8th grade, discussing the purity and holiness of Mary, the Mother of God. The Catholic Church believes that Mary was born without sin, leading to the Immaculate Conception, which is the conception of Mary without original sin. The New Testament book of Luke discusses the blessedness of Mary. Catholic Answers provides eight distinct reasons for Catholicism’s belief in the Immaculate Conception. In the Gospel of Luke, it is stated that Mary was “full of grace” (Luke 1:28). Fullness of grace is the presence of God and the absence of sin. Following the understanding of the Immaculate Conception, the Apostolic Constitution was used to define the teaching by Pope Pius IX’s book Ineffabilis Deus, and through the review of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which is the understanding and answers of the beliefs and traditions of the Catholic church. Through these, the dogmatization of the textbook example of the sensus fidelium, that is, the “supernatural appreciation of faith,” is maintained by the entire body of the faithful. (CCC, 92). The experience of having multiple teenage girls tell you what you have believed your whole life is not a mundane experience, to say the least. The most memorable and most heart-wrenching part of this experience was that one of the girls’ dads was a pastor at the local nondenominational church. The conversation got rowdy because of the defensiveness of all the beliefs, leading to a phone call to this pastor and being told that I was wrong, not only wrong, but that everything I had to believe in was a fallacy. Looking back on this event now, it is much less significant, but to a thirteen-year-old who is just trying to figure out all the things that growing up has to throw at you, being told by an adult who probably knows more than you do that you are entirely wrong is a big deal. Looking back on my faith journey after this conversation, I was challenged not only by myself, friends, family, and the sinful world that we live in. Throughout the years that followed, I explored and bounced between being a non-denominational Christian and remaining a faithful and wholly believing Catholic. During the ups and downs of high school, I regularly questioned what I believed in. The number one issue was that I was not surrounding myself with people who would run towards Jesus, God, and heaven with me. Looking back to what I was choosing to do and living a life that was sinful and painful on many different levels, the thing that I needed and wish I had was a friend to grab my hand and say we are running full speed towards heaven and we are ignoring the world have we run, we are looking past temptations whether they are from relationships, situations, and day-to-day actions. This leads to my goal that I will be that person for everyone that I love and care about, no matter how hard it becomes, to find the people that want to run heaven’s race with me. I was asked if I remember the day or moment when I knew God was there and he was real, or how I needed him. The answer is yes, I remember this day more than I wish I did for two reasons, the first reason is that it was probably one of the most real nights of my night forcing me to grow up and the second is that it is mostly a reminder of the lack of respect that I have for myself, faith teaches us to be selfless; however, you should never be so selfless that it eats away your faith, joy, and the light that the Lord has cultivated within you. There was a night that answered the question of your original God moment, which was the night that I had to make a call to save a life that led to months of hurt and resentment. I remember lying in my bed, fearful and in tears, the first thing that I asked for was a rosary. The one thing that I knew by heart was that God would be listening to my begging to have his grace and protection in this moment. Reflecting on picking the rosary, which had been engraved into my head from such a young age, I was home. The rosary was a spiritual state of peace with the woman that I strive every waking minute of every day to be like, and the holiness of Mary is something that we women will never come close to because of how divine she is, but the best we can do is strive. The peace of knowing that we will never be that good or come even close is something to be grateful for because our God is so forgiving and full of grace. This was the recall to Jesus such a dark and scary moment that the one desire that my heart had was to speak to him since that day I have grown in life which in turn is leading me to share the journals, stories, and lessons that I have learned so far on the journey of earthly life to reach eternal life in heaven with Jesus and the journey of faith is the greatest journey anyone can embark on.