Well, I think I've had about enough time to digest what happened at KCCSC, so I guess it's about time I wrote about it. I've actually already written extensively about it in a letter to my brother (who is a monk, for those of you who don't know). That turned out being 11 pages long. Let's hope I can be more concise here.
KCCSC was a blessing and a blast! It turned out better than I expected in a quirky way. You see, I registered with a college I don't go to because I thought that nobody from my college was going. Well, a few weeks before KCCSC, I found out that there actually were some people going. Oops. At first I felt horrible and thought it would be super awkward, but after I got used to being called traitor by people from both groups, it was great. It just meant I had extra friends to hang out with.
Anyway, I went up Friday night in a little Honda full of hyper girls listening to Taylor Swift. We got there kinda late, just in time to hear the first keynote, which was given by Dr. Ted Sri. It was about JPII's Love and Responsibility. He talked on the different aspects of true love and the way that JPII meant for us to see it. EPICNESS! I keep meaning to get his book Men, Women, and the Mystery of Love.
After his talk had an hour of adoration, which was of course awesome. And then I went out with some people from my college for one of the guys' 21st birthday. For being a college town, it was awfully hard to find someplace that wasn't a bar. I mean, come on, it was only 11 o'clock. And then when I got back to the hotel I stayed up late talking.
On Saturday, I got to hear Dr. Sri again giving a talk on the new translation of the Mass. Then I heard Andrew Swafford, who is a professor at Benedictine College, give a 45 minute talk about salvation history. Man, that guy has charisma. Imagine a big football kind of guy getting all fired up about types covenants. That's what this was. And then we had Mass with a homily by Fr. Bernie Gorges, which was of course also epic. (Are you sensing the pattern here? Yep, it's epicness).
After lunch, which consisted of awesome friends and delicious turkey sandwiches (no, I was not eating my friends, they were just there), I went to a vocations panel for a bit. After that I went and saw Sarah Swafford talk on Emotional Chastity. Now, I think it incumbent upon me to relay to you how excited I was to hear Sarah give this talk in person. I have heard other people give talks based on hers before and I am a huge fan of the concept of Emotional Virtue. Let's just say I may or may not have been in seventh heaven while listening to that talk. If you are not familiar with Sarah or Emotional Virtue, you MUST visit her website www.emotionalvirtue.com, right now. Go. Forget reading this post. Really. Her website will do you a world more good.
Then I went to a gathering with my diocese, which was presided over by the eternally legit Fr. Jarrod Lies in the absence of our bishop. He talked about the bishop's vision for the young people of our diocese. That kind of flowed into a passionate speech about us being the salt of the earth. Yeah, that guy is awesome. Basically, by the time this talk was done my mind was about to explode from all of the holiness and awesomeness of the day. When I went back to my room, I had been intending to take a nap but instead I ended up talking with one of my roommates who I had just met for the first time the day before. We leisurely did our hair and makeup for the dinner and dance and talked about all sorts of girly things. I had a lovely time.
Then we went down to the banquet. Um, that afternoon I had made the mistake of drinking Pibb Xtra on an empty stomach. The girl I sat next to during the banquet had just chugged a Monster for the first time in her life. All things said and done, basically nobody at our table heard much of the keynote. Me and the girl next to me kinda giggled through the whole thing. The food was delicious though.
We had about a half hour before the dance started, so I went to the adoration chapel. I needed time to digest everything that I had heard and experienced that day. And then the dance started. I kinda had mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, it was really crazy how many friends I had at KCCSC and kinda mingling around with all of them was awesome. I also swing danced with some random guy, which is always entertaining. On the other hand, I was really tired and some of the songs they played were obscure, so I had a hard time getting into it.
Afterwards, the group from my school followed tradition and went to IHOP. Of course, like 10 minutes after we got there a big group from the college I came with showed up, but I didn't care because I was well on my way to having chocolate chip pancakes.
On the way home, all I know is that I was far too tired to talk, much less talk in an accent like everybody else was. About all I had energy to do was giggle at everybody else's antics. Despite the fact that I was exhausted, when I got back to my room I still managed to stay up until 1:30 talking.
Sunday morning, I went to breakfast early because I couldn't sleep. Our first talk was by a Benedictine monk and I think it was about vocations but I honestly can't remember. At Mass, the homily was given by a bishop from a different diocese. He gave an excellent homily, but I don't remember what it was about either. After Mass the conference was over and we left. Halfway home we stopped at this pizza buffet. Apparently everybody was really hyper from sleep deprivation, because a bunch of guys were putting on (sometimes multiple) pairs of sunglasses from the girls. Pictures of them=priceless. Then I got home and crashed. The end.
So, that's about as short of a summary of KCCSC as I can muster. Just reading back through it, I feel like I did not adequately convey the amazing things I experienced. I think what made it so awesome was that I not only spent a lot of time praying and hearing awesome talks, but also hanging out with friends from two different groups that I frequently hang out with. Talk about the best of both worlds!
So, KCCSC may have ended almost 2 weeks ago, but I am still feeling the effects. I guess you could say I'm still on a God-high. And also, as a result of lots of prayer and talking to friends that weekend, I have applied for Totus Tuus and I have an interview on Saturday. So pray for me!
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