Okay, Hi I’m Lauren. I was born to a loving mother and father, in August of 1998. I was baptized in the Catholic Church a few months later. My dad isn’t Catholic but my mom and her 2 siblings grew up Catholic. My mom has taught Catholic preschool for about 30 years now. That’s where I learned my love for kids!
I went to a Catholic school for Kindergarten through 8th grade. I made my First Communion, my First Reconciliation, and my Confirmation there. My sister is 2 years younger than me and went through the same things. We went to church pretty much every weekend and we have been involved in the parish community as well there. We loved the school, the staff were incredible and helped us out so much. Forever thankful for all of them!
The next 2 huge parts of my life, completely changed my story.
My 6th grade teacher, died my 8th grade year at the school. (October of 2011) She was on the emergency squad for our township. That Friday morning, she got a call about an accident about a mile or so from our school, and immediately went to help. She was directing traffic and someone came out of nowhere and hit her with their car. It was heart shattering news to our whole community. She was amazing and did so much for all the students. I love her and miss her everyday.
You could say this year of my life wasn’t so great because another sad story… 4 days after my 14th birthday and a few days before high school started (August of 2012), I lost my grandma on my moms side. She was beautiful, she could light up any room with her laugh and always looked out for her grandkids. We called her Busi, polish for grandma. She died of a blood infection after being in the hospital for a few weeks. This hit our family really hard and honestly nothing has been the same since. I miss her, all the time.
I then started high school, which was very hard to do without my grandma. I went to a public high school down the street a bit. At first, I wasn’t a huge fan of the school but at the end of my 4 years there, I didn’t want to leave!
To keep myself busy not to think too much about what had just happened to me and also to meet new people, I joined some clubs at school. Throughout HS, I was in SADD, Spanish Club, Student Council, FFA, Yearbook, Young Life and Fellowship of Christian Athletes. I volunteered for just about anything there. I set up for all of the dances, was president of our SADD chapter and a student leader in FCA as an upperclassmen. I remember it so clearly… my first FCA meetings. I knew I wanted to go because I went from being able to go to church and talk and learn about God all the time, to not being able to speak about Our Creator in public school very much. But at the first couple meetings, I didn’t say anything. I was so silent (which is very unlike me! lol) Eventually, I gained the courage to talk and share my experiences and I became a student leader my last two years of high school. In our sessions at lunch, I really loved getting to speak about The One who created me and loves me so much that He sent His only Son to die for our sins. To me, that’s just incredible. My Junior and Senior year when I was leading, are the times that I really built myself on from then on out. It increases my faith being able to teach others, as well.
I hated my high school, at first. I didn’t want to go at all. I would say that was like freshman year & maybe even early sophomore year. I learned to love EHS so much and didn’t want to leave when I graduated. I wasn’t involved in sports or popular very much but I just talked with pretty much everyone. I sat at the head seat of our table in the cafeteria and met a lot of people that way.
The summer before my Junior year, I started hanging out with my large group of friends, I now call The Crew. I have a million posts about them, so feel free to check them out! The Crew is the best thing that has ever happened to me and wow I’m so blessed to know and be loved by them!
Speaking about my Junior year, life hit me again pretty hard. I have another blog post up about what happened… but basically the one best friend I had since the beginning of school, had then picked a guy she didn’t even barely know… over me, her best friend. It was pretty hard for me to get over. She yelled and screamed at me, telling me that I would never get anywhere in life. I have a huge heart and always care what people think of me and really took everything to heart back then. That was pretty much HS for me. I fell back on The Crew a lot during this hard time. God was showing me that The Crew will always be there for me and believe me, they really have!! They have totally strengthened my faith and re-inspired me to keep my relationship up with God. I have never had friends like this it still blows my mind everyday that they choose to keep me around, even when I don’t deserve them at all. They show me Jesus in every way possible… everyone deserves friends like these!
My sister and I were involved in our area Young Life, when I was in high school. We went to Young Life fall weekend and it increased our love for Christ even more!
Then, Senior year came around… I graduated from high school, got my first real job, and I soon started college. I have been going to my church’s Ignite worship nights once a month, they are so much fun and great for an hour in the middle of the week with Our wonderful God! They play awesome music and have time for prayer throughout.
Currently in college, I am a Freshmen Camp Counselor and The Christian Emphasis Coordinator in The University YMCA, that runs Freshmen Camp if you didn’t know.
I’m now a Sophomore in my (almost) second semester. I have had nothing but great friends in college. I have never met one person who has been rude to me at all and I love it! The atmosphere is just so different there then in high school.
To keep up with my busy schedule, something I do is check my Bible app, on my phone, as much as I can. It’s one of the best apps I have honestly, it let’s you choose what version of The Bible you’d like, highlight and save verses and even Bible study plans with daily reminders and devotionals! I would totally suggest getting that app! It keeps my favorite verses or chapters I want to study deeper, all organized together.
I got my first ever Bible for Christmas this year! (I’ve been sharing my moms for a while now) It’s a new color in and journaling Bible. I get easily distracted by a lot of things, so I think this will help me with jotting down notes and coloring within the pages!
This is just a small part of my testimony and how God works in my life and
as always,
to be continued……
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