I moved to the South (well, Florida, which really isnt the south according to Southerners, although its geographically south and they serve sweet tea) when I was 10. We didnt go to church at all once we moved here, at least not right away. I do remember asking my mom about God and if she thought he was an old man with a long beard sitting on a throne in heaven. I cant remember what she told me. At the time I was also practicing blowing bubbles with my chewing gum, which was far more entertaining than talking about something I felt was imaginary and couldnt see. I equated God to the germs on my bubble gum when I would take it out of my mouth and play with it. It would make my dad mad and he would yell about millions of invisible germs. Germs = invisible = bad. God = invisible = good? hmmmm.
In fifth grade I met my friend Kristin. She had long blond hair past her waist. It was beautiful and white blond and flowing. I immediately knew i wanted to be her friend. She also had braces, which I thought was really cool and she didnt. She was very smart and got straight A's. My grades improved a lot while we were friends. She was always talking about neat things like colonies of germs living under your finger nails and things like that. She was also a very good artist. Her family was 100% Italian. She had an Italian grandma that only knew how to say "gooda girline and badda girline" and could make a manacotti like noobodies business. Everyone in her family had dark hair and dark eyes except for her. Her dad called her "Blue Eyes". I went to the the Catholic church and the beach every Sunday with her and her family. Sunday was family day. Family day was a day you couldnt do anything but hang out with family and go to church. But her family was large and Italian and interesting. And when we went to the beach her Dad always bought KFC and let us pick how crunchy we wanted our chicken.
When I was 14, I decided I wanted to be Catholic too. My friend Kristin taught me all the prayers. She showed me pictures of her confirmation in third grade. She had a pretty white dress and looked like a bride. I wondered if I would get to wear a white dress like that. I was pretty sure I was too old. Also,I had never been baptized so I decided to first get baptized and then go through "the older kid confirmation class, expedited version". The baptism was cool. My sister decided to get baptized too. My mom bought us white dresses (though NOT like the one Kristin had in third grade) they were lacy and pretty. She bought us hats and gloves too. I felt very grown up and pretty. My mom got a new dress, she looked pretty and happy too. We stayed after church that day and my sister and I both picked Kristins parents to be our god parents (which meant she was my god sister now, which I thought was too cool) The priest, Father Schnieder, basically sprinkled water on our heads and asked us some questions. It was nice.
I think we even got a presents too. My mom got me a beautiful rosary, it was crystal and sparkled. It had holy water in a little bubble in the back of the center medalian. It had a beautiful crucifix on it. I loved it. In a few days, the holy water had leaked out and there was just an empty bubble in the back. But I loved it anyway.
Cont...
No comments:
Post a Comment