Little Girl, Your Time Has Come

            When I think of friendship, I think of the person who I know will be there no matter what.  The person who you can go weeks and months not talking to, and then one day you reunite and everything will be as if you had never been apart.  People that you can share this type of bond with are rare to find.  Sure, I have lots of so-called “friends”.  But will they still be my friends after this journey we call high school ends and we move on to the next phases of our lives? 

            As we all know, friends tend to fade in and out of our lives.  As we progress through the various stages of life we lose friends and gain others.  I have had this experience with many of my friends, but there is one in particular who stands out.  Through most of our junior high years, we were pretty good friends.  We were close, but not on a super personal level.  As we ventured into high school, I changed friends.  I grew extremely close to another girl who became my best friend.  We spent endless hours together and might as well have lived at each other’s house!  Consequently, I completely lost touch with my previous close friend, and I believe she actually became angry with me.  Walking by her in the hallway became awkward.  No exchange of words.  No friendly hug.  Not even an uneasy smile. 

It wasn’t until the Life Teen retreat, I believe my freshman year, that things started to turn around.  We each had our own individual jars in which we could place notes to each other during our free time.  I knew this was the perfect opportunity for me to attempt to amend my relationship with my old friend, but I was too scared of her bitter feelings towards me to take that step.  Luckily, she was caring enough to sneak a note into my jar.  This little, orange paper gave our friendship a new life.  Not because of what it had written on it, but simply because of the fact that she stuck it in my jar.

Jess' nasty hairy legs! Grrrooosss!

From that moment on, we have been continuously growing together both in our friendship and our faith.  In my rough times, she places her hand on my shoulder and prays over me.  In my joyful times, she joins me in my celebration!  Thank you for never giving up on me.  Thank you for the prayers, laughs, support, and words of encouragement.  Whether we have time to laugh with each other or not, remember that I am never more than a phone call away.  You’ve helped me grow, and for that I am eternally grateful!

Now that she is days away from what will be one of the most memorable moments of her life, I am so happy to be able to return the favor.  I was there with her in the hospital room when she was about to break.  I saw her heart hurting because she was afraid that her dreams would not come true.  And, most importantly, I witnessed over and over again her immense amount of faith, perseverance, and optimism that she was forced to keep on the journey to achieving this goal!    

Well, little girl, your time has come!  You made it happen, and I am more proud of you than I could ever be!  As you walk through that tunnel and into the arena on Friday night, I pray that you realize the potential that you possess.  I pray also that you give your best and leave nothing to be regretted.  Thank you for showing me what true strength, perseverance, and friendship are all about.  Trust in God, believe in yourself, and keep being you anyway!                  

Come Just As You Are

            When I hear the word “forgive”, bitter, resentful feelings boil up in side of me.  I’m sure this is true for all of us.  If we are in a situation in which we need to forgive, whether it is another or yourself, obviously something occurred that brought anger or sadness to your life.  Forgiving is without doubt not an easy task.  It takes an immense amount of effort, and humbling to be able to forgive.

Last Sunday I arrived at church, a little late like always, for choir practice before mass.  Because I was late, the group had already begun practicing and sounds of praise and joy filled the church.  I walked through the congregary and opened the beautiful, wood double doors and entered the church.  Directly in front of me, bowed down prayer before the altar, were three people of who I had never seen before, as well as one sitting patiently in the pew a few rows back.  These people were visibly in a rough situation and appeared to be homeless.  For the past few weeks I had seen this same image as a came into church, so this day I paid no mind to them, and walked to the rest of the choir to begin practicing.  As we worshiped God through song, I could see the people become fully engulfed in the spirit.  They lifted their hands in praise and released emotions that proved that the Holy Spirit was running through them.  As an observer of this occurrence, it was a beautiful sight to see people, who just stopped in because they were probably trying to keep warm and have shelter from the oncoming storm, be moved by the Spirit.

            As mass time approached, the three before the altar relocated and joined their friend in the pews.  You could tell that they were still emotional and moved, and you couldn’t help but feel for them.  Mass started and the altar servers filed in, followed by the lector, and then Father Anthony.  Throughout mass, the four people who I had seen so visibly in touch with God earlier were surprisingly not participating at all.  When it came time for Father’s homily, he approached the stand and proclaimed, “Jesus said, come before me just as you are.”  He then went on to explain that we need not alter ourselves or be ashamed to come before God because of our “unworthiness”.  He will make us clean.  He will make us worthy.  He wants us just as we are.

            This spoke wonders to me because I had witnessed the broken hearts begin to be mended just an hour prior.  The people were not too ashamed of their brokenness or hurt to enter into our Father’s house and ask for forgiveness.  I believe that this lesson reigns true in all aspects of our lives.  We oftentimes are burdened by the decisions of our past and thus we feel unworthy of forgiveness.  Of course we make mistakes; we’re human!  The difficult, and probably most important, part is being able to humble ourselves, yet still be brave enough, to ask for forgiveness.  So, just as the broken and lost wanderers entered the church that day, practice forgiveness in every aspect of the word, and come just as you are anyway!

Love Always,

Kylie K.

 

        

 

                    

I Found a Coconut!

            Every Sunday, I have the privilege of hanging out with and teaching catechism to several children between the ages of four and six.  Sure, I am supposed to be teaching them the Catholic faith, but with children of this age, sometimes it is more effective to just simply talk to them.  So, that leads to my classroom being a very casual, friendly, and fun place to be.  Through this I have grown to love and care about each child that has walked through my door.  Relationships have been established.  Comfort has been developed.  And myriad memories have been made!

            As we all very well know, young children have a tendency to imagine and say things that we, as “grown-ups”, find humorous.  This morning I was in my classroom waiting for church to let out and to see the smiling faces run through the door, excited to begin class.  Sure enough, I was not disappointed as Stephanie bolted into the room.  Grinning from ear-to-ear, Stephanie ran straight over to me and gave me a huge hug!  I could tell that she was very anxious to tell me something, so I asked her, “What’s up Stepha…?”  Before I could even finish my sentence, Stephanie excitedly piped in, “Teacher Kylie!  I found a coconut!”

            “A coconut?!” I curiously replied.  Then, Stephanie stuck her hand in her pocket, searched around, and pulled out what she believed was the coconut that she had found.  When I saw that she was proudly holding a pinecone up in the air, I couldn’t help but giggle.  I knew that I could not allow Stephanie to continuing believing that the pinecone she held was a coconut, so I gently informed her that what she had found was a pinecone.  Upon doing this, I saw Stephanie’s smile fade a slight bit.  She was so proud and ecstatic about her “coconut” that she had told me immediately upon seeing me.  Had I done wrong in telling Stephanie that her “coconut” was in fact a pinecone?  Had I lessened her excitement in finding something new?  These were all questions that ran through my head as I saw Stephanie walk somewhat solemnly over to her seat.

            Ok, now I know that many of you may be thinking that I am overreacting. She obviously needs to know that what she had was a pinecone.  But had you seen the joy on her face when she presented her coconut to me, you would understand my struggle.  This is not the first time that I have run into this situation, however.  Every class I am bombarded with stories and rambles from the children that are obviously not true.  As their teacher, I feel that it is my responsibility to teach them the difference between imaginary and reality.  But, on the other hand, I feel that I will be rejecting creativity and imagination from the world by focusing solely on reality.  It is important that we understand reality, yet imagine anyway!   

Love Always,

Kylie K.

 

Why Not Me?!

            Coming from a relatively small town in Northern Arizona, it seems as if nobody cares, or even knows, about us.  It seems as if we are insignificant compared to the major cities in Arizona.  This is the mindset that I regretfully found myself having for as long as I can remember.  I often found myself not doing something and missing out on a great opportunity just because I thought that everyone else had a much better chance than I did, so why even try? 

            One day, in August I believe, I was sitting in my college readiness class, preparing my supplies for the day.  Mrs. Caffey was reading the announcements of new scholarships to the class and when she came across the Arizona Milk Producer’s Scholarship everyone let out a chuckle, including myself.  She read off that all we had to do to enter this scholarship was to submit a picture of our self with a milk mustache and some sort of dairy product.  Pretty simple, right?  Mrs. Caffey then announced that any student who wishes to enroll next fall in an Arizona university could apply.  Then, I immediately counted myself out.  Thousands of people would apply for this, and, with my past luck, there is no way that I would even have a chance of being considered for this scholarship!

            But, Mrs. Caffey, being the hopeful optimist that she is, urged our class to apply.  In fact, she did more than simply urge us; she required us to apply.  I assume that she saw all of us give her the “why do we have to apply if there is no possible way that we will when” look, because she then went on to say three of the most inspiring words, which I will never forget, “Why not you?”

            With her words as motivation, I came up with an idea for my picture, made it happen, and got it submitted for the first round of drawings.  I was pretty confident in my picture, but still, in the back of my head, I had myself convinced that I had no shot of winning the scholarship.  A couple weeks passed since I first submitted my photo, and I received a letter in the mail from the Arizona Milk Producer’s.  This was notifying me that I was one in thirty-six semi-finalists for the scholarship!  This gave me an inkling of hope, but I knew that there were still several weeks left for people to submit incredible photos.  A few months later, I received another letter.  I ripped the envelope open, and the first thing I saw, in bolded letters was, “1 in 15 finalists”. Without hesitation, I ran, actually more like skipped, to the kitchen, yelling and screaming, to share the incredible news with my mom.  We were both in utter disbelief!  Not only had one girl from Holbrook been selected as the top fifteen, but two!  I was soon to be informed that Samantha Smith had also been selected! Wow, we had already defied so many odds set against us! Before I knew it, we were at the Fiesta Bowl, sitting seven rows up from the field!

On the field at the Fiest Bowl!
Why not you?!

            On January 3, 2013, I made my way around the stadium, down the escalators, through the tunnel, and onto the thirty yard line at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.  There, in front of the 65,000 people who attended the 2013 Fiesta Bowl, it was announced, that out of thousands of applicants, I had been selected as the first place recipient of the Arizona Milk Producer’s Scholarship!  My mind and body were overwhelmed with shock, excitement, and awe.  65,000 strangers cheered for me as I was presented with an oversized check written in the amount of $12,000!   In that moment, I realized that I was no longer insignificant.  Holbrook was no longer insignificant.  In fact, the size of the town you come from, or the amount of people that go to your school are what are insignificant.  If at first you doubt that you will ever have the slightest chance of being able to accomplish something due to the fact that you come from a place with less opportunity than others, reconsider, and instead think, “why not me?!” and do it anyway!

Love always,

Kylie K.