"The End is Just the Beginning"

Well the end of a long beautiful summer vacation is slowly coming to an end. It felt so good to sleep in a little bit and not worry about homework and tests and grades for a while. Unfortunately school starts up this Thursday! To tell you the truth, I am not ready to go back to school, then again who really is ready for school to start?

This summer was an extremely busy one for me. I had the unique opportunity as many of you may know, working two jobs; one as a maintenance assistant at my parish and the other as a dietary aide at Heritage Assisted Living Complex. It was definitely an interesting and rewarding experience.

My job as a maintenance assistant began with a brisk five mile bike ride at 5:30 in the morning. It definitely helped me work up a sweat. I learned a lot this summer; I learned how to fix broken desks and chairs, how to strip and wax church and school floors but most importantly, the importance of hard work, taking initiative and never giving up when things get hard or difficult.

My second job as a dietary aide at Heritage Assisted Living gave me an excellent chance to meet and work with all different kinds of people. I am so fortunate to be able to create relationships with some of the residents, being able to talk to them, ask them how their day is going and just being able to put on a smile on their faces. These are things that I am so grateful for everyday. We are all called to live and show Christ to others, so I am so happy that I can bring just a little bit of joy and happiness to some of the residents with just in a simple "hello".

Since this is my senior year, it is also a year of continued college searching, continued studying for ACT tests, writing papers and doing homework, but also a year of making memories with my friends at Nathan Hale High School. It will be a different year with different teachers and different classmates but all in all, it will be a lot of fun! Starting something new is always great! I am anxious about beginning my last year of high school this year. I know that it will be a lot of work so you can bet that I will be leaning on God for help so that I can finish my high school career strongly and will also depend on Him as I move on to a new stage in my life. I ask you to please keep all students who are returning to school this year in your prayers.

"The end is just the beginning!"- From the movie "Soul Surfer"