Seeing all these people come together for a weekend of rest, but also connection and education, filled me with a sense of feeling alive. In addition to the community from Steubenville, friends also joined from New York and Washington D.C.

Talking to Giorgio about his work and the questions I had about the universe made my jaw drop several times. My wonder was reignited by him and Ana. Ana’s exuberance with her presentation and tour reminded me that I want to be that passionate again. Initially, I wasn’t quite sure about how Fr. Vincent and Sr. Agnes’ talk about peace and how my experience relates to it. We learned in that talk that peace isn’t the absence of all negativity, but rather it is in recognizing Christ’s presence within each moment. I had an experience during this vacation with a new friend I made that helped me to truly understand that lesson. I didn’t realize how solution oriented I was and how I thought that my solutions and desire for control would lead to peace. I kept thinking about how I could at least relieve some of the problems this friend was going through during our time together. However, my friend didn’t need a solution at that moment, but rather a presence and a companionship. Our time together taught me what it really means to co-suffer and to see the presence of Christ in our life.

I remember asking Suzanne before the vacation how I could help and was given the task of helping to lead the games. I’m not the most organized person and was unsure if I should even be in charge of that. Initially I didn’t think that the game planning committee did anything special for the games, but upon hearing the feedback I was greatly surprised. I was nervous that the games wouldn’t be fun, or would end up just too hard for all age groups. Putting bubble solution on a wet tarp and having people roll watermelons uphill while being pelted with waterballoons in a race sounds like it belongs on a game show and a guaranteed injury. Was it right for the vacation? Caroline and I had a couple of disagreements on what was the appropriate level of difficulty. I was the first person to be victimized by that game while trying to spread the solution down the tarp. It ended up being the best game and loads of fun, more fun than I thought could be possible.

The weekend reminded me of how the setup of the New York Encounter is. It all starts with a sense of unknown, but then it comes together beautifully. God provided what we needed to make this happen.

I realized that my fight for control brings me no peace. I think back to Fr. Vincent’s words “I know You are doing something. I don’t know what it is, but I’m here for the ride.” Those are words I truly want to live by and this vacation helped put me on that path.

Ses, Pittsburgh