Hey Everyone! My name is Erika Glover; I’m a junior in high school this year. I play golf, I swim, I enjoy painting, and singing and dancing, even though I’m not exactly the best at the last two. But hey it’s the thought that counts right? I have two little sisters who never fail to record me doing all those horribly embarrassing things. I am a parishioner at SMOY, and have been since I was about 4 I believe. And that’s about it. I’ve been raised catholic. Catholic mass every week, catholic Sunday school, and now a catholic high school. Which until recently I never would’ve called a blessing. I was “catholic.” I was present at mass, I occasionally attended youth group (but only because my friends did). My main focus was sports & becoming this so called idea of “popular” I had in my head. So during my freshman year of high school, I made it my goal to do just that. Shy little Erika was going to be popular. But then the first day of school arrived, and I walked into school knowing three people tops. As the months passed by, I met people, became friends with tons of people, and life actually going okay. But that was my idea of okay. That’s when my mom forwarded me an email in the spring of that year. It was from matt, and it was about the high school summer mission trips. My mom said that I was supposed to pick one that I wanted to go on. Now there were two options for me, a mission trip, or Steubenville retreat. The mission trip was a week, and Steubenville was three days. So I think we all knew which one I was going to pick.
Now time passes, and we’ll jump to the retreat itself. We showed up at Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio and walked into probably the biggest room I’ve ever been in, Filled with thousands of teens. People wore matching shirts & there were girls with some of the most colorful skirts id ever seen, people were running to each other, and others were dancing to the hype music that was playing. But I kinda just stood there. What in the world had I gotten myself into? Jump forward two hours and you’d have to beg me to leave because that night we had a session of worship & adoration. I remember the song ‘Cornerstone’ playing, and starting to cry like crazy. I had no idea what I was doing or why I was doing it, but as I was sitting there I thought to myself, all of these people, from all over the country, are here in this room tonight, singing their hearts out, raising their hands and praising my Lord and God. Everyone in that room wanted to be there, chose to be there. My mind ran circles around me, and I began to get lost in my thoughts. I think my mind fluttered off into a day dream, and I began to imagine sitting on the dock of the lake my family goes to every year, and someone was sitting next to me, but I couldn’t tell who it was. We were talking about life and about how beautiful the sunset was. And quietly I could still hear the music playing in the background. I felt so at peace, it was indescribable.
It could have been described as putting on a pair of glasses, after you never knew you needed them. Like everything is super crisp. Without them, its like “oh I can see fine” and then you put them on and its like BANG you can see with a whole new level of clarity. Life hit me. That moment I think, is when I realized life is to be lived, and all for him. I had to really take a step back and let God take my hand and allow me to take the next step or else I wouldn’t be who I am today.
And today, if I had to reintroduce myself, I’d say hello, my Name is Erika Glover, and I’m a disciple for Christ. I’m also a junior in high school & enjoy playing golf and swimming. I help out at my church being a mass coordinator, Eucharistic minister, usher, lector, a member of the peer ministry team, am a campus ministry aid at my school, and do everything I can to make sure that Christ’s light is reflected through my life. As I took this step with my best foot forward, Jesus was holding my hand, and I know that he’s leading me on the path that I’m supposed to follow, as long as I trust in him. Because trust me, if I was freshman year Erika, I wouldn’t be up here in front of you today.