I had never understood just how capable a parent could be of worrying or how understanding a stranger could be towards another stranger. When you 're hurt or afraid it becomes hard to see that everyone around you is also suffering in their own way. The greatest spiritual awakening I 've ever experienced was the moment I realized that other people are just as fragile and emotionally incapable of being alone as I am.
I grew up Catholic. My father and mother were Catholic; they raised me to know God. I was methodically reminded that I couldn 't hide anything from the Man in the Sky and that I could always find forgiveness in Christ, but I was also told of the dangers of sin and the eternal punishment of Hell in the afterlife.
At the age of twelve I began to find conflicts between my faith …show more content…
All of this made me hate myself more and more and this hate branched out to affect my opinions of my parents and siblings. I didn’t feel safe in my own home anymore. I felt like everyone was constantly thinking badly of me and that nobody wanted me in the house.
Freshman year is when things began to change. I joined NHI (the National Hispanic’s
Institute), and met someone who would change my life forever. I was put in the competitive team of oratory at NHI which was led by a beautiful, stunningly compassionate and loving Dominican senior from IB named Yvette Peña. Yvette created an exercise called “Make Me Feel
Something”, which required each member of the oratory team to think of an emotion and make the audience of coaches feel it by telling a personal story that directly related to the emotion of our choice. Something about Yvette and the other three coaches made me feel confident enough to tell about my troubles at home. I struggled and choke back whimpers and tears as I recounted everything that had happened with my parents in the past year and how I felt that everyone despised me. I ended my oratory by telling them that I was okay with being hated and
I grew up Catholic. My father and mother were Catholic; they raised me to know God. I was methodically reminded that I couldn 't hide anything from the Man in the Sky and that I could always find forgiveness in Christ, but I was also told of the dangers of sin and the eternal punishment of Hell in the afterlife.
At the age of twelve I began to find conflicts between my faith …show more content…
All of this made me hate myself more and more and this hate branched out to affect my opinions of my parents and siblings. I didn’t feel safe in my own home anymore. I felt like everyone was constantly thinking badly of me and that nobody wanted me in the house.
Freshman year is when things began to change. I joined NHI (the National Hispanic’s
Institute), and met someone who would change my life forever. I was put in the competitive team of oratory at NHI which was led by a beautiful, stunningly compassionate and loving Dominican senior from IB named Yvette Peña. Yvette created an exercise called “Make Me Feel
Something”, which required each member of the oratory team to think of an emotion and make the audience of coaches feel it by telling a personal story that directly related to the emotion of our choice. Something about Yvette and the other three coaches made me feel confident enough to tell about my troubles at home. I struggled and choke back whimpers and tears as I recounted everything that had happened with my parents in the past year and how I felt that everyone despised me. I ended my oratory by telling them that I was okay with being hated and