I definitely sense that my graduation is still having an impact on my life 10 years later as its effects are dispersing throughout the various parts of my life. Writing about and reflecting on my life with this blog has made me more aware of the significance of what's happening, which is more reason to celebrate as I mark 10 years since the event that inspired the launch of this blog.
Attending Valparaiso University was the first time in my life that I seriously considered the idea of vocation, and how it brings immense purpose to my life. I'm glad that I was in an intentionally faith-based environment that helped me put my pathway to a career in the context of fulfilling my vocation. Surely that mindset was at play when I discerned attending graduate school.
A sense of spirituality pervaded my ValpU experience, even my meteorology studies. While my science and math-driven classes helped me better understand what happens in the atmosphere, I still had a sense of looking up in wonder at the sky and marveling at what it does. Studying meteorology in a liberal arts unviersity also helped keep me aware of how it impacts society.
It's been great over the past month to reconnect with my ValpU experience with visits back to campus, coming after attending an event with alumni and admitted students in Chicago at which I had my first opportunity to meet President Padilla. I've reflected so much on what was meaningful about my ValpU years, most especially the people. Visiting former professors has been great as I share about what's happening in my life and hear about what's going on with them. I was intrigued that the day I visited my meteorology professors, the department was gearing up for the annual Great Lakes Meteorology Conference, which was always a meaningful experience for me as a student.
My conversations with Christ College professors during these recent visits were aptly stimulating. Professor Upton told me that I'm now part of Christ College lore, as he shared a story about me with his students about how I analyzed the text of the Gospel according to St. Mark in the first-year program. When I talked with Professor Smith, he posed a couple of questions: What I have in mind for the next 10 years and what I'm reading.
Christ College is the component of my time at ValpU that speaks to how something in me got awakened more strongly than ever before in my life: I describe it as a yearning to ponder more profoundly the meaning of my life's circumstances. As a way to keep connected with the people I knew back home as I responded to homesickness, I wrote a weekly e-mail describing what was happening with me, and then I would conclude it with a reflection--and some of you reading this blog may remember reading those messages. They became a way for me to reflect more deeply and be aware of how extraordinary my college years were as they unfolded. I'm glad that this blog has been an opportunity for me to keep up that spirit of reflection.
When I was headed into college, I regarded it as the next level of schooling, much as I had with every other transition to a new school. College meant I was entering a new multifaceted world, including components outside of the classroom. St. Teresa's was an enormously significant component of my ValpU experience. I was delighted earlier this month to be back for a visit at St. Teresa with the purpose of assisting with preparing and serving the meal following the evening student-geared Mass.
It was the final student Mass of the academic year, and among those in attendance were 2023 graduates wearing their brown robes and other attire. I was glad to congratulate them on behalf of the class of 2013 from 10 years prior. While the faces that are part of the St. Teresa's community today are largely different from 10 years ago, the presence of the Holy Spirit is still at work edifying the community and bringing it alive. It was special to be there to offer something back to edify the sense of community gathered there that has done so much for me. And through the Holy Spirit, I continue to be connected with St. Teresa's even as I live out what I have gained from being part of this community.
Not only do I celebrate the graduation of 10 years ago, but I also delight in what has become of it. I have often written about how extraordinarily meaningful it has been for me to teach Religious Education. I have done so each year since graduation, which has been an intentional way for me to live out what I gained from my college years, an abundant new understanding of faith. I feel it's been a constant answer to a calling to act upon my faith for the good of others.
It's amazing how the most important parts of my life converge in teaching RE, including what I gained during my college years. I felt like I brought RE full circle back to my college years at the recent Confirmation Mass last month. I wore the same suit and tie that I first wore at my college graduation 10 years ago, and which I have consistently worn for Confirmation Masses. The Holy Spirit has truly been at work in that suit, especially considering that my ValpU graduation was on Pentecost Sunday. (Here's a link to view the Confirmation Mass. I come in around the 15:00 mark.)
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| Here I am proclaiming the first reading at the Confirmation Mass from Ephesians 4, taken from a screenshot of the Mass video. |
When it comes to occasions like Pentecost and Confirmation, I sense how they live on as we continue moving with the spirit. They are nexus points, as the preparations lead to these Kairos encounters with God and send us forth, much like my ValpU was a nexus point. It was inspiring to be present with my students at an important moment in their lives, recognizing how I've made much of my faith experiences by passing it along to them, just as I proclaimed a Scripture passage at Mass from Ephesian 4 that speaks about our one faith, which we are called to uphold. Indeed, I could truly celebrate with them because I was part of their journey to this moment. Furthermore, I could be renewed in all that Confirmation means through the process leading to the sacramental encounter with God, even in refreshing myself on what faith is about while teaching it.
It's like how I came to St. Teresa's knowing lots about faith, and then having the opportunity to get a refresher in it while building my faith thanks to the support of the community there. All of that was very much at work while I taught class all through the year and then leading to Confirmation. This year was different because Confirmation just past the end of the year, and during the Easter Season. The timing was a way for us to celebrate Christ coming alive in us. Bishop Birmingham's imagery of the warm weather pastime of kite flying was apt in thinking about the bloom of springtime: He described how we might want to cut loose from the string, yet it helps us soar, like a kit. And the Master of Ceremonies for the Mass, Deacon Francisco Pagano, is scheduled for ordination on May 20, 2023.
Much as my Julian years brought me alive in faith, ValpU built upon what was there and shaped it even more. From the start of my time at ValpU, it was clear that college would be largely about getting an education, and so much more. I experienced an intersection of studying, vocation, and faith on the fields of Valparaiso. I'm glad that I chose to attend ValpU because the atmosphere was focused on faith, more so than my public K-12 schooling, although certainly the atmosphere at Julian during my time there helped support me in faith. So when I graduated, I had lots to celebrate. It was so fitting at the Baccaculate Service in the Chapel that morning to hear the spirited "Baba Yetu", the Lord's Prayer in Swahili. (To continue that sense of celebration, I have customarily played this song as the opening prayer for RE class for the past 5 years.)
I was glad to celebrate it in the company of a great group of my family who came, and also Dan and Ann Ruggaber. My relationship with the Ruggabers is just one of many I forged during my years there that continues, reminding me of how I'm connected with relationships and experiences of that time, much as I kept close to family and friends back home during those four years.
While I'm celebrating my 10th anniversary at ValpU today, the students I've taught over all those years are very much a part of my anniversary celebration, because they benefit from the blessings of that time. Teaching RE has been about so much more than class, as it reminds me of how very much connected I am with my past experiences, and how they continue to inform my present as I live out my vocation. It was only appropriate that my college years, touched by faith all over, would conclude on Pentecost Sunday: I could celebrate the role of the Holy Spirit's working through those four years, and graduate with a sense of being sent forth to do what Jesus described in the Last Supper discourse in the Gospel according to St. John as the greater works.
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| Above, I am posing in the St. Teresa's parking lot. The Chapel of the Resurrection appears behind me off in the distance. Below, I'm in the St. Teresa's kitchen awaiting the start of serving the students their dinner. I thank Carolyn Mikovich for getting these photos of me. |
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