Why I like to Volunteer at Holy Cross Hospital

I have been volunteering at Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring,Maryland, for a year now. It is the best thing I could be doing right now. It's a great place to be! Right now I'm working in pre-op. It is so great! I love being with the nurses and doctors. I learn something new every week. When I get older I want to be a nurse like the ladies I work with.

I've always felt like it was my place in life to help others who truly needed it. I think being a nurse is a calling not something you just do. Anybody can get into nursing school, but you only pass your boards if its your plan. But you can't really pass them if you are only half trying! That's not what it's all about! We are there for the people, not ourselves. Some nurses went into nursing for the good money or because their family wanted them to. That's not why anyone should go into the profession; that's a really bad reason.

I work with a lot of nurses who are called to nursing and it's great to see the joy they get from making people feel better. That's another reason I know I want to be a nurse. I get so much joy just making people smile when they are scared; that little smile can make everything alright. Its the best feeling just to make their stay a little better. Sometimes when they thank you for taking care of them, you want to thank them because it is as great for you as it is for them!

Oh yeah, there is one other thing I love about Holy Cross. They pray with people a lot. I love when someone asks me to pray with them; it is so amazing. I have been asked a few times, and it is really helpful to pray for their safety.

Holy Cross is a great place to be; I wouldn't ask to be anywhere else.

Wait, I'm Having a Senior Moment

I am a Senior!! I can't believe it. I have been dreaming about becoming one since I was 12. Some girls dream about Mr. Right or their wedding, but I dreamed about being a senior.

I know its kind of odd, but I am the youngest in my family so I grew up with people growing up and moving on to the next part of their lives. I always knew what I wanted to do, but I was just so far from it! But the time is here now and I can't even believe it. I will be 18 in two months. It feels like last week I was going into Cedarbrook Academy (my homeschool academy) as a 7th grader. Now I am going to have to plan out what's going to happen next in my life. I already know I'm going to go to school to become a nurse. After that, my plan is to get married and have a family.

I am thankful that my life its turning around and going the right way. As a teen there have been lots of ups and downs. But I have grown up and matured; I now know that God as a plan for me. You may ask how do I know that? Well I have had lots of downs in the last 2 years, but in the summer before my senior year He has shown me the light to my darkness.

If my Papa (my Grandfather) was still alive he would say “I'm proud of you my angel!” My papa and I always talked about my growing up. He may not be at my graduation but he is my angel now. I wear his class ring, because he is here for my senior year; he is with me every step. He can still see his angel grow up even if he isn't alive anymore.

We all have lost someone in our lives; but they are always there with you, walking with you in the hard and even easy times. I'm so thankful and happy that my Papa is with me for my senior year! I'm so blessed. 

Perfection Deception

Lots of families want to be the perfect family.   But we all know that no one is perfect, so the dream of a perfect family isn't possible to have.  Some families even try really hard to hide the fact that they aren't perfect from everyone around them because they are too scared to let anyone know that their family's having problems. We think we are doing the right thing by hiding and lying; but we aren't. I don't really know if it makes things worse or not, but it doesn't make them better!

Sometimes a  family member just drops off the face of the earth. All the family says is they are away “finding themselves.”   But everyone knows that's just a nice way to say they “went off the deep end” and they just don't want you to know that their family isn't perfect.  But maybe if that family just said what was going on, they could get some help or even just have someone to talk to.  Someone they wouldn't have to hide from everytime they didn't want to be asked about how the was doing family! If this were you, you could actually tell this person what was truly going on. 

We are imperfect people because of sin.  Why would we even think that our family is going to be prefect?  It doesn't make any sense to me.  We are full of sin and we can't change that on our own, apart from God’s grace.  And apart from God’s grace, no one’s family can change, either.  

Say what you Believe, Believe what you Say

Beliefs are very important.   Sometimes, though, we don't want to speak out because we don’t want conflict.  Some may believe one thing but say another; they don't want other people knowing what they really believe because they feel like it will change the way others look at them.   The bad part is, it can.

I’m not the kind of person to hide what I believe.  I am pro-life and I would yell that into the sky if someone asked me to.  But I have had some friends who they were pro-life and would never have an abortion.  Unfortunately, each got pregnant twice; both girls had a baby one day and then a few weeks later, no baby.   How do you even ask what happened? You really can’t.  Plus they knew what I stand for so they wouldn't tell me anyway.

Holding on to your beliefs isn't always easy.  Sometime it can get in the way of your friends being themselves.   But it doesn't have to be easy! Things were never easy for Jesus, but he never said “this is too hard so I'm going to hide what I say from everyone.”  Why can’t we be more like Jesus and show our love and make a difference in the world?  But sometimes showing our love means saying things that people may find hard to hear.  One of my favorite Catholic bloggers, Jennifer Fulwiller, wrote about contraception in this post for National Catholic Register; people may not want to hear what she says, but she has the courage to say it.

We didn't fight for the freedom of speech simply to say nothing at all. I just don't understand people who believe something but don't say anything about what is going on around them.  We can't make a difference in our world if we don't say anything.  If we don’t say anything, we really can't do anything about it.  

Depression in Teen Girls

I have had a lot of hard times in the past several years.  In the last 2 years I have suffered from depression; all I could do was think about how bad my life was.  I didn't even think parties were fun, and I love parties!  So you see my mind set was so wrong.  All I wanted to do was stay in my room; I would want to do nothing but just lay there.  The problem was that I couldn't for very long. I couldn't let anyone know that I was down; I felt that I had to fake being happy.  I also spent a lot of time thinking that everywhere I went someone was thinking something bad about me.  This was pretty constant; so for the better part of two years I felt sad and miserable.

Things are different now.   I am 17 years old and I am not DEPRESSED anymore!  Don’t get me wrong, now, I still have my bad days.  But my life does not seem hopeless anymore.

 

I’m sure a lot of teens would love to know how I got out of my depression.   Depression is something you get because of hard times; but it’s your choice how you want to take what happens to you.  It’s always our choice.  But a lot of times we let what the world says get to us when we really should say, oh well! Or, it doesn't matter!  But no!  People with depression take things to heart when they don't need to.    When bad things happen, you should just try to let it go.

A lot of people hide their depression from everyone.  That makes things worse because we are only human; we can't free ourselves from our pain by ourselves.  If we want to be free, we need help from other people.   When you are depressed, sometimes you don't even want to be saved; I know it’s hard to ask for help.  I have been there.  I really get what y'all are thinking--no one will get it.  Well I’m here to tell you that there are so many people that get it.  I have been so much better for telling people!  When I could say it out loud, it made me feel like I needed to change and guess what?  I did!

Depression is all about what you put in your head. Before you can even begin to get better you have to change your mind set.  Now I’m not saying that its easy.  But it is something that needs to be done; if you don't change your mind set you will never change your life! Maybe your depression will fade and seem like it’s gone, but it will come back--maybe when you are married or have kids.  I don’t know about y'all but I knew I needed to find my way through life without my depression following me.

Kids are a Blessing in our Churches!

Today I was sitting in church.  Suddenly, I heard little voices and little feet; I looked behind me and saw some of our little kids running to sit down.  I smiled; I feel like church is so much better when you have little voices trying to sing and pray.  I sometimes feel like kids can be closer to God than us older people.  They have so much faith in everything they do!  That’s not as easy for us sometimes.  Also, they are so care free--no worries, no hard times!  They have such free spirits.  If they do have a hard time it’s because they had fallen; but unlike a lot of us, little kids just get right back up and keep going.  I wish I could do that all the time.

I think we would all be better Christians if were had more faith like kids.  Jesus tells us we should have faith like little children.  Today I was sitting there praying.  Then from behind me I heard a little voice saying "amen!!!" This little girl just yelled amen! In a Catholic Church! And at the right time!  Sometimes we don’t think the kids know what’s going on, but they really can follow along with the service.  I know this other little girl who is only 5 years old who looks up to the sky and talks to God.  Whenever she needs him she just looks up and tells him what she needs! They know better than we do what to do.  It’s pretty amazing!

Why I Want to be a Nurse

When I was growing up my Grandfather (I called him “Papa”) was sick. He had lots of health problems. One day when I was 12 or 13 my mom called the whole family into the living room, sat us down and told us, "Your papa is very sick; he isn’t going to make it." So we asked her what we were going to do.  She told us that she was going down to Florida, and then my Dad would bring us down the coming weekend. So when the weekend came we drove to Florida.   What I didn't know is he wasn't home; he was in a hospice.  When I got there I saw all the amazing nurses helping all the very sick people. I figured out that nurses get to see one of the best gifts of God! The two greatest gifts God gives us are life and death; and the day my Papa died was the day I saw what God wanted me to be when I was older,  what I was meant to do—be a nurse and help people!

When I turned 17, I knew I wanted to become a volunteer at Holy Cross Hospital.  I put in an application; but it’s a huge hospital, so I was praying really hard that I would get the job!  One day I got the call of my dreams.  They said yes, they would love to have me come in and talk about where I would like to be placed in the hospital.  The next week I went in.  I wasn't sure where I was going to end up; all that I knew was I just wanted to be there to help out as much as I could.  I talked to the volunteer director, and she thought I would be just right for Pre-Op. I told her I would try it! I wasn't sure about it at first; I didn't know if I wanted to work in surgery, because I thought it might be too hard.  I was afraid that a lot of people would die, and I didn't know if I would be ok with that.  I tried it, and I loved it!  I loved everything about it; people told me they loved seeing my smiling face.  I learned it makes everything better if you are happy and smile; it can make even the worst day better.

My First Confession!

I grew up in a lot of different churches.  Some we stayed at longer than others. But there was always something missing.  We could never find what it was. But then we came to the Catholic Church!  We found the place God always wanted us to be!

As much as I liked the worship and the people, there was one thing I wasn't sure about-- Confession!!   I didn't understand why I couldn't just pray and ask Jesus for forgiveness?  I was certain that when I prayed, God heard me; He knew about all the bad things I had done; He would forgive me; so why did I have to tell my sins to some person?! How could this person tell me my sins were forgiven? 

But then I found out that Jesus takes the place of the priest in confession! So you’re not confessing to a person; you are really confessing to Jesus!  I learned that after His resurrection, Jesus told the apostles this:

In the evening of that same day, the first day of the week, the doors were closed in the room where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews. Jesus came and stood among them. He said to them, 'Peace be with you,' and, after saying this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples were filled with joy at seeing the Lord, and he said to them again, 'Peace be with you. 'As the Father sent me, so am I sending you.' After saying this he breathed on them and said: Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone's sins, they are forgiven; if you retain anyone's sins, they are retained.  (John 20:19-23)

Jesus gave the apostles His authority, including the authority to pronounce forgiveness of sins.  And the apostles passed that on to the men who they ordained bishops and from them to priests, all the way down to the present day.  How amazing is that! And so guess who forgives you? No, not the priest!  Jesus forgives always, even in confession! 

So after I learned all this, I was ready for my first confession.   Well, kind of.   It was still kind of scary telling everything bad I had ever done in my 17 years of life to someone I had never met before!   But the morning of my confession I was ready.   My family and I got to the huge Basilica in Washington, DC and went to where the confessionals were.  There I was sitting there waiting my turn.  I was talking to my Mom.  I asked her if I could be a Baptist--it’s easier.  She wisely told me NO, this is where we are meant to be.  (Much later, I found out that she then turned to my Dad and asked the same question; so I wasn’t the only one a little scared).  

Then it was my turn to go in.  I had my confession! I came out feeling amazing and free and so much forgiven!  I came out feeling better than I ever had!  I when through the Basilica jumping and skipping like I was four years old again!! That confession changed my life for the better.  Now I know that my sins are really forgiven.  I don’t lead a perfect life; I still sin.  But I know that when I do, I can go to confession, tell the priest what I did, get some good advice about how to not do it again, and receive Jesus’ forgiveness.  

 I personally think everyone should go to confession! There is no point in letting your sins pull you down. After your confession, you don't have to feel bad anymore.   Jesus has taken all your sins away!   So go to confession and let your soul be free!!!