5 years.
Add a month and a couple of days and that’s how long it’s been since I returned home. In the summer of 1999, I packed my suitcase with long skirts, dresses, and pantyhose, and boarded a plane (alone for the first time) to Rhode Island. I was 4’11 and weighed 93lbs. Since that summer I have pursued my vocation in life.

Weeks before leaving for Rhode Island. Summer 1999.

Today I chatted with two girlfriends of mine. It was a long overdue chat and after a week of Skype-tag, we finally got a hold of each thanks to the snow invasion that seems to have advanced all the way from PEI right up to the Californian state borderline! After lots of squeals, story-telling, ring-showing, and smiles, we said goodbye. Before going, Nicole reminded me to pray for the consecrated as they renew their promises today. Today is February 2nd-consecrated life day! Blame being in bed convalescing for the last couple weeks, but it had totally escaped my mind!

It’s not that I have completely forgotten, but life’s busyness keeps the reminiscing of my days as a consecrated woman to moments like these when I’m reminded of that life, or when I find myself back in Greenville (formation center) or Wakefield (high school) in strange, murky dreams…some quite humorous and almost always confusing. How much has changed.

ICA in Wakefield during the wintertime.

High school days. An outing to Block Island in Rhode Island.

Consecration Mass. August 23, 2003.

After high school I directly entered the candidacy. I wanted to give God the first chance in my life and believed that he wanted me for his own. 3 years later, after much soul-searching and guidance, I began a new chapter in my life. I returned home to southern California. 7 years older. 3 inches taller. God wasn’t calling me to the consecrated life but to the married life. I just needed to find me a husband. If only I had known how “easy” that was going to be back then.

4 1/2 years later.
I finally met him. At the most inopportune time. So I thought…

{to be continued with part two}