That Weekend [July 11th - July 13th 2014] [Long Story]

Before I begin this thread, I want to point out a couple of things. First of all, this thread will mention Catholic religious practices. If I see any religious arguments going on in this thread, I will simply report any negativity against any religion whether it is mine or someone else's because I don't want people arguing about who's religion is better or not. I respect whatever religion you follow and you should respect mine the same way even if you don't believe in God. Second, this thread might make you cry in some way. It is ok to cry because what I have experienced was very emotional during the weekend and some of us have those feelings too. There are also some things mentioned in here that you probably don't know about. If you wish to know more about the stuff I am saying, you can google it on your free time. I give you my story about what I have experienced during that weekend. Also, this thread will be VERY long so bear with me.

July 11th 2014 Friday
I woke up around 5:30 in the morning, went to get ready to leave the house and went to my church. Lot of my friends were on this trip so we were talking for like half an hour before leaving. There were about 80 people from my parish going on this trip so there were two buses. We were going to Steubenville Atlanta where a Catholic Youth Conference was being held for the weekend. This was my first time going to this conference so I did not know exactly what I was expecting. We left the church about past 8am to Atlanta. During the bus ride, a lot of my friends were on the same bus so it was cool hanging out with them during the ride. There was also a girl I liked who was on the same bus as well, but I'll get to that stuff later.

After about a 6 hour bus ride, we reached the convention center where the conference was being held. Now the actual conference was later that night, but we couldn't go check in at the hotel because it was too early. There was like a pre-event that happened for a couple of hours called "Sound Check". There were some volunteers from the audience that played a few games, there was a skit played about good choices and bad choices which was very dramatic. Also, a couple of speakers spoke during this time including one who would talk later on during the weekend.

After the pre-event we had dinner and the conference officially started that night in this big auditorium that could hold about 2000 people. Over 2000 people were at this conference! I normally don't see that big of a size of people considering that I go to a small Catholic high school that has about 200 people. There was worship music at the beginning and I remember just lots of people having a lot of fun. Afterwards, the host introduced himself and we went into our first mass of the weekend which was a regular mass and adoration. Adoration that night was kind of emotional but it was like every adoration I have been to. After adoration was over, we went back to our buses and it was about 11pm when we left for the hotel. We had pizza and roomed in with my friends from my school. They had to tape our doors during the night! Kind of harsh right? I slept on the sofa bed while others slept on the bed or on the floor. We went to bed about close to 1am.

July 12th 2014 Saturday
Like everyday, we woke up at 6am, got ready, ate breakfast, and left for the convention center for a new day. We had daily mass during the morning and something happened. A guy comes over to my deacon who was sitting next to me, and he told me to read Psalm 23 from the Bible. I read it and handed it back to the deacon. The guy who handed the deacon the bible for me to read told him that he wanted me to read the same psalm everyday for 30 days. I have been doing that recently. After mass we had a speaker come and talk about a specific topic and then lunch happened afterwards from Chick-fil-a. After lunch we had another speaker talk and after that there was some free time. There was entertainment going on the in big exhibit hall. There was also reconciliation or confession going on upstairs so I went to go to confession. After confession, we ate dinner and then the big mass happened that night.

Saturday night was the night that we had our big mass and this huge adoration session at the end of the mass. Now like I said, adoration is very emotional to some people, well it got more emotional. During adoration, instead of the monstrance being on the altar all the time like the night before, the priest picks up the monstrance and carries it with him throughout the auditorium while the worship goes on. It felt so powerful and intense that what happened next will probably be where you will cry a little.

So I mentioned a girl earlier. We were good friends at the time and throughout the trip I didn't talk that much to her because she was hanging out with her friends and I was hanging out with my friends. During that night in adoration, it gets very emotional like some people left the auditorium just bawling their eyes out in tears because of how intense it was. I was sitting a few rows ahead of her while she was sitting farther back in another column of rows of chairs. When the monstrance was set back on the altar, I looked back to her and I see her in tears. She was just crying and just very emotional. Now like a good friend, I was thinking about just over to her and just check to see if she was alright. However, as the shy boy I am, I had other thoughts like if I am bothering her. Well, at that moment, I had this feeling all of a sudden and I think I heard someone say "Go to her". I think I was just given confidence by God. So I got up from my chair, walked out of my row, walked down the walkway to her row. Without anything holding me back, I entered the row of chairs, she was in the middle so I had to go through some people. When I was near her, I looked at her, and she looked at me, her eyes meeting mine. And then the next moment, I went up to her and...



wrapped my arms around her and embraced her so tight. My body was shaking while I was hugging her like this for like a minute while the music goes on. I don't normally do this so this was like the first time I have ever done this. I wanted her to know that I was there for her, that she was not alone and to show her how good of a friend I am to her. I was on the verge of tears coming out my eyes. This went on for a minute or two and then I went back to my seat. After adoration, I told her why I went over to her and embraced her and she thanked me.

Later on the bus ride back, she sat next to me. She was pretty tired I think and just rested her head on my shoulder so gently with my arm around her. We got back to the hotel and ate pizza again with our small groups. We went to our rooms and went to bed around 2am.

July 13th 2014 Sunday
We woke up, did this and that, you know what happens in the morning. The first thing I remember when I woke up however, was that moment I hugged her. It was like the first thing that popped into my head while I was still wondering what happened the night before. We packed everything on the bus and went back to the convention center. We had one final session that separated the men and women. After those speeches, we met back in the auditorium where we had one final speech from the priest which was amazing. His vocational preaching was very touching to a lot of people like me. I have never met a priest like him, and he's from Haiti. He's experienced the earthquake back in 2010! His family was in that earthquake. He was very energetic about his vocation. We had a small prayer session with a few people around us. My group was my friends and I just remember we formed a very small circle around our seats, prayed for each other, and that was probably when I was on the verge of crying again. After the speech we had our closing songs and left for lunch and got back to our buses.

For about the first half of the ride back home, I was sitting with the girl that I hugged. She was still resting on my shoulder and I had my arms around her. My friends were asking me "Are you two a thing" and "Did you ask her out" and other similar stuff. Just want to make things clear, we are not dating and I believe she is already in a relationship with someone else. I don't care if she is already in a relationship, I'm still a good friend of her. The 2nd half of the trip was her having girl time with her friends and me just napping basically. We arrived back at the church at around 7:30pm, I stuck around until 9:20pm because of the usual Sunday youth group gathering. We didn't do much afterwards and after that I went back to my house with an almost lost voice and here I am now telling what I did that weekend.

I have never been on a trip or weekend like this in my entire life that was so intense and powerful to me. When I got my phone back, I looked at my alerts on the forums. 99 alerts over the whole weekend I was gone. So that's how it went. I feel changed at the moment because of this experience I went through.

The way I changed is going to affect me for a while now and you will notice that on the server a bit. Hey, you guys are like family to me, I would never leave you guys. I want to thank all of those who I am friends with which is most people I know. I want to help more in this community basically. I feel like that I want to do now. Thanks for supporting me throughout my time on here and thanks for like being there for me you know. I am thankful. Bless you.

 

Almost cried again.

 

That was a very spiritual topic, everything was very well said. :)

It inspires me as a person and I hope that it inspires all the rest of the community on these forums. :)

 

Oh God, Cobra, that was inspiring. xD WHY U DO DIS TO MEH?

 

i cri evrytiem ;-;

 

Same, bro. Same. xD

 

You went to Atlanta?
Was it rad? :>


*edit: that actually made me cry. ;n;*

 

Well I didn't see much of Atlanta. I went to Atlanta one other time for the aquarium and a couple of other things.

I'm sure Atlanta is a great city to be around.

 

ikr guys

 

For some reason I didn't cry...

 

It is ok if you didn't cry. I expected only a few people to get teared up a bit, not all.

 

CATHOLICS! That romance almost make me cri

 

I teared up, which I'm not the crying type of person. This is a very inspirational story to me. Cobra, you have given me confidence to actually speak to girls and I thank you. I'm glad you had fun.

 

...

This is who I am right nao.

 

;-; If you need anything, come speak to me.

 

First thing that made my cry. Ever.

 

Its ok, I did not cry either :)

I don't cry

 

Sounds nice.
Considering I can't really understand "emotional" stuff, I can only say it was nice to read and inspiring.

 

this story was very touching. God blessed you in many ways cobra. When i die of old age. I hope i see you in heaven as well :)

 

I'm catholic too. There aren't many Catholics where I live. We have a hand shake. This is what it looks like:

(Not kidding lol)