Respuestas! Pt. I

If more questions come in, I'll answer in additional posts, but as this one got quite lengthy already...

And thank you to the ever lovely Kayla for these questions. =)

What is your FAVORITE musical and elaborate one why. You can only pick ONE.

Hmmm...so this is a real tough one for me as usually end up loving any musical I end up seeing...I would say that Rent and Wicked are a definitive all time top two. However, since I have to pick one...I think I have to go with Rent.

Why Rent? Well firstly, Rent was my first musical obsession and is largely responsible for my love of musicals in general. It took over my car's CD player from pretty much the start of senior year till around December when Hairspray finally found its way into circulation haha. I think, at the time, it was a lot easier of a musical for me to get into than others. I mean, it was less...musical-ly, or rather, what people normally think of when they think of "musicals" with it having a more 'rock' feel to a lot of its songs.

And THE MUSIC! The songs are so different from one another, but they all come together to make something so friggin' amazing. You go from rocking out and screaming "we're not gonna pay!" with the title song, to laughing while singing along to the ever so vulgar but ridiculuosly catchy La Vie Boheme, then almost coming to tears when Jesse L. Martin performs the I'll Cover You reprise (which was one of the most emotional scenes in a musical I'd seen before seeing Next to Normal). I don't think I can pick a favorite song from it, and when I try, it changes almost every time haha. Basically, I love everything about this musical. Everything. Oh did I mention that the whole cast in the movie version is freaking amazing? I feel like I'm starting to ramble...so moving on...

Tell your faith story. You know, when did you fully buy into the whole God thing. and perhaps why you love Catholicism, for good measure.

Hmm...well I'm a "cradle Catholic", so Catholicism I've never really known too much outside of it. My mom probably had the biggest influence on my faith life growing up. She taught me most of the basic prayers and always made sure I was involved in church. Like, I was an altar server all the way from 3rd grade till I graduated high school haha. And I'd been involved with children's choirs sporadically throughout the years till finally becoming a more solidified member of the youth choir my junior and senior years of high school. I still sing with them whenever I come back on breaks and have helped out every summer I've been back. =)

When did I "fully buy in to the whole God thing"? I don't think I've ever really questioned the existence of God...I mean, not that I don't ever think "what if...", but I tend to not dwell on those thoughts I suppose. However, up until about the summer after sophomore year of high school, I didn't really have much of a personal connection with God. Like, I just didn't feel all that close to Him and really hadn't too often before then. What changed that you ask? Well, that summer I decided to go with some others from our church youth group on a retreat down in Victoria, TX.

D-Week (Discipleship Week) was a four day retreat kind of out in the middle of nowhere. We stayed in small cabin-like dorms for the four days, and that year the mosquitoes were out in especially strong forces. It was on this retreat that I had my first experiences with Adoration. I'll admit, it was kind of weird for me the first night because I'd never really been exposed to anything like that before, but the second night was just amazing. Right before we went to Adoration, we had Reconciliation which I think set up the rest of the night perfectly. Having all 80ish of us retreatants in that small room just praising and worshiping in song, some in tears, it was just...beautiful. You could feel God's presence in the room. And of course, see Him since it was Adoration after all haha. But really, I've had few experiences as powerful as that one. After LA 45, I'd say that was the best retreat I'd been on. I found my favorite Bible verse there as well (Ps 28:7) =) .

Why do I love Catholicsism? Well D-Week was definitely a springboard for me to dive deeper into my faith life. From this experience, I grew to love Adoration and praise and worship, especially when combined. =) Out of this love for Adoration, I came to have a newer and greater appreciation for and understanding of the Eucharist. And from there, I came to love the Mass. Coming to UT, I was afraid I might fall out of touch with my faith life, so I made it a point to go to daily mass every day my first semester. This helped me a lot because it gave me some time in the middle of the day where I could get away from school and whatever else was on my mind and just spend time with God. Every semester since, I've tried to fit my schedule around daily mass. And even last semester, when I had class during it, I'd sometimes (ok, more than 'sometimes'...) skip class and go to mass instead haha. I'd convince myself it was a better use of my time...which I still don't disagree with...The mass is probably one of the most beautiful things in our faith I think. And the fact that you can go to anywhere else in the world and still participate in mass is amazing. I've been to a few Filipino masses when we've visited the Philpippines, and it was pretty cool other than not being able to understand most of the homily haha. Another thing that's really quite amazing that I really need to take advantage of a lot more often is reconciliation. Forgiveness, in general, is a pretty big deal. But being forgiven for your sins?? I mean, that's kinda mind blowing. And there are so many more things I could probably add...but this post is looking long enough. xp

Do the list of 25 things that give your life meaning like I did on my blog.

That actually looks realllllly intimidating at the moment, and if I did do it, it would definitely require its own post haha. So maybe in the future.