Carpool Week

Sacrifices are meant to be difficult, but for me, this sacrifice was the hardest of all the spiritual growth projects I have completed this year. Having my license and own car, it is so easy to get in the car whenever I want and drive anywhere I want without discussing it with my parents. I can leave when I want to, and the only person that would make me late somewhere would be myself. I attempted this project when the entire class did it, but I failed within the first day and then gave up. When I re-tried it a couple weeks ago, I failed a few times but worked really hard to make it work. 

I live in Wadsworth and go to school in Akron. Both of my parents work in Akron, but we all drive separate cars. The week of this project, my brother and I rode with my dad to school every day. In addition, I would ride home with my parents after my games or my dad would leave work whenever I was done with practice. There was sacrifices made by both of us, but we made it work. I never realized how dependent I was on having my own car, and how little I'd be able to do without it. After doing this, I also realized how much more I got to talk with my dad. Pythagoras said that, "Friends are as companions on a journey, who ought to aid each other to persevere in the road to a happier life." Me and my dad got to communicate more and build our relationship during the one hour each day of being in the car together. This project definitely led us to an improvement in our relationship for a whole week. Now every once in a while we still carpool to school and work. 

H2O Project

      Benjamin Franklin once said, “When the well is dry, we know the worth of water.” After drinking only tap water for one week, I have realized not necessarily what it is like to have a dry well, but what it is like to realize the worth of a variety of beverages. Although it does not seem like much of a big deal, this week was a big sacrifice for me. I am a huge water bottle drinker, and this week only allowed us to drink tap water. Because of my habits of packing plastic water bottles for lunch and practice every day, I found myself slipping up a few times. There were a couple times at school when I had to pour out my water just to fill up my water bottle with water from the drinking fountain. 

      I thought this week would be easy, but I never realized how convenient it was to have so many options for things to drink. After making this sacrifice for a whole week, I realized how lucky I am. Many people do not even have clean water to drink, and I lack appreciation for the thing that keeps me alive each day. 

Media Fast

For someone who is constantly updated with social media activity and spends most of their free time on it, a media fast can be both challenging and rewarding. This is exactly what it was like for me. Although I am not constantly on twitter, instagram, snapchat, and facebook like many teens today, keeping away for all of these for a week was difficult. 

Brene Brown says, "Social media has given us this idea that we should all have a posse of friends, when in reality, if we have one or two really good friends, we are lucky." The most rewarding part of this media fast for me was that I got to use the time that I would of spent on social media doing other things such as spend time with the people that matter most in my life. I am lucky to have a handful of amazing friends and I rarely thank them for always being there for me. I constantly take my family and friends for granted, and during this weekly fast, I took the time to thank all of those that help me get through the day with a smile on my face.

Going to a Catholic school that supports spiritual growth, we were lucky to have this assignment to help us experience the kind of things that the Church preaches about. Pope John Paul II reveals one of the problems that the Church experiences today when he says, "The question confronting the Church today is not any longer whether the man in the street can grasp a religious message, but how to employ the communications media so as to let him have the full impact of the Gospel message." Social media is one of the biggest helps and one of the biggest detriments to our society. The most challenging thing for the Church is getting across the full impact of the Gospel message to those consumed by social media. The best way for people to experience its full impact is by taking a step back from social media and experiencing and living out the Gospel message in person. This is exactly what we got to do for an entire week, and I hope to continue cutting back on social media so that I can fully be who god wants me to be without distractions.

Traditional Fast

Traditional Fast

Ash Wednesday, the start of the season of Lent, Catholics promise to fast and abstain from eating meat. As a sacrifice, our class decided to keep this going for an additional six days. my week of fasting consisted of not snacking after dinner time. For me, eating is a "go-to" when I am just slightly hungry or even bored. It takes an extreme amount of effort and self-control to keep this up. What got me through this was thinking of those who cannot even eat one meal each day. The way that so many of us take advantage of our ability to purchase food in surplus is an injustice if we take into consideration the amount of people who die from starvation each day. By fasting, I was able to spend more time reflecting on these things, and I was also able to put the money not spent on food towards my college education which will prepare me to contribute to society the best way that I can. 

Pope Francis offers some encouraging words in preparation for Lent by saying, "We can do this to the extent that we imitate Christ who became poor and enriched us by his poverty. lent is a fitting time for self-denial; we would do well to ask ourselves what we can give in order to help and enrich others by our own poverty. Let us not forget that real poverty hurts: no self denial is real without this dimension of penance. I distrust a charity that costs nothing and does not hurt." Here he points out another source of encouragement-the fact that Jesus fasted in the desert for forty days right before he was put to death for the sake of all humans. In order to show Him our love, we can take this time during Lent to sacrifice a little bit of the excess in our lives. It is a healthy way to live out the Gospel message. Never forget what Jesus did for us, and never forget what we can do for Him.

Fast Food Fasting

Mark Kurlansky was the one to say, "Food is a central activity of mankind and one of the single most significant trademarks of a culture." Food is necessary for survival, but often times, we over-exaggerate that necessity. The food we eat defines who we are. Those who can afford it and take the time to prepare healthy meals, are those concerned with what they are putting into their body. Those who eat fast food, do not find it more valuable to spend the money or take the time to prepare something that they will no longer be in their possession just minutes after eating it. There is nothing wrong with either, but our culture and values are expressed through food.

When the assignment of restraining myself from eating fast food for a week was presented, I did not think that it would be a challenge for me. After that week, I came to realize that the most challenging part of this task was keeping myself from something that I knew I could not have. I am one who satifies my Chipotle or Panera craving that happens once a month, maybe, but because I knew that this was no longer an option, I wanted it that much more. 

In response to St. Augustine's warning to "Enter again into yourself," John Paul II agreed and said, "Yes, we must enter into ourselves, if we want to find ourselves... One of the meanings of penitential fasting is to help us recover an interior life." This challenge was not a step towards eating more healthy or a way to save money, it was a way to eliminate something that is so easily accessible to today's world. By eliminating unnecessary things in our material lives, we are able to remove the layers that cover our actual life as a human being. 

This week was somewhat of a challenge, but I successfully refrained from eating fast food the entire seven days.

Shared and Unshared Happiness

"Happiness is not real unless shared."

Agreeing with this statement, my opinion is that happiness only exists when a second party is involved.  In my life my happiness  comes from being with my friends and family. They are what make me happy in my everyday life. Since Gods greatest mission is serving someone else must be involved to be truly happy.  Although this is all true I do think there are some people who can be happy alone and like  their own form of happiness. Introverts may also find happiness by bettering themselves and their own thoughts about life. Overall, relationships are made to better improve and strengthen the happiness in each of our lives.

Excuses: Guarded Lies

"An excuse is worse and more terrible than a lie. For an excuse is a lie guarded." -Pope Benedict XVI

I find this line quoted from Pope Benedict XVI to be very interesting yet very true at the same time. I often find myself formulating excuses for the wrongs that I do, but who ever said that excuses were any better than lies. Once I truly thought about it, I came to an agreement with the former Pope. When someone lies, they know that they did something wrong and have to tell a fib in order to cover it up and avoid the truth. Whereas, when one tells an excuse, it is something that they convince themselves to be true so that they do not have to consider what they did to be wrong. These excuses guard the fact that what they did was wrong. And because they think that what they did was wrong was actually not wrong at all, they are lying to themselves. The sad thing is that they are usually unaware of these lies. For if they were aware, it would no longer be referred to as an excuse.