Earlier this week I was asked to speak at my Parish's Graduation Breakfast. We honor our graduating seniors now before life gets too hectic. I wasn't the first or the second person asked to speak, but the third. I hope that out of my ramblings, they got something out of it. So if you want to, you can read what I wrote. Enjoy!
Good Afternoon, Graduates, Family & Friends.
Please stand and join me in prayer:
Blessing of Graduates:
Before you were even formed, God knew you.
While in your Mother’s womb, God named you.
At your birth, God’s breath filled you with life.
Today, we celebrate what you have become at this moment in time. And so we pray: God of our beginnings, we thank you for the gift of these graduates; their excitement, their awesome wonder & curiosity, their open speech & encouraging words. Their contributions have blessed & challenged us, & we have become a richer & more diverse community because of them. (Pause)
God our Father, As they step forward into the world that awaits, comfort their fears with the full knowledge of your Divine presence.
Strengthen their resolve to walk in the footsteps of Jesus as modern-day disciples, in a world that needs their spirit.
Guide their feet as they move through life, protecting them from the pitfalls of darkness while they help to lead future generations into the warmth & promise of your light.
God our Father, we ask your blessings on them, today and everyday. Amen.
In the name of the Father & of the Son & of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Introduction:
Samantha Klish, Parishioner of St. Mary’s my whole life & a Catechist for the past 8 years.
Today I was asked to speak to you about what lies ahead as you go on and leave this chapter of your life behind. In all honesty, I do not know what lies ahead. But what I do know, is that God has a plan for your life. As a graduate, a new adult in this scary, strange world, you will be faced with many decisions, challenges, rewards, pitfalls, failures & accomplishments. There will be good times, bad times and all sorts of times in between. And I think that the unknowingness of the future is extremely exciting.
As I prepared for this speech, I reminisced about my life between my very own senior year of High School & now. What I found was this: it did not turn out the way I had planned! When I look back on my plans as a graduating high school senior, I find that there was a very definitive thing missing in that plan. And that was God’s plan. I’m not here today to preach to you, I’m just here to tell you a little about my life in hopes of you looking into your own plans and finding the missing pieces, so that you may shape a past, which you can look back on, and be satisfied with it. I’m not saying I regret my past, because I do not at all.
My plan as I began my senior year was pretty straight forward. I would graduate high school, live at home, attend Mid-State Technical College & graduate with a Nursing Degree in the Spring of 2006. At the end of my senior year, I was headed in a different direction. I can’t exactly pin point when my plan started to change, but it started with looking into the UW-Eau Claire Nursing Program at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Marshfield. I now had a new plan. I would apply to UWSP, then apply and get into the 4-year Nursing Program. After meeting with the admissions department, I was told that it was very competitive and if I didn’t maintain about a 3.8 gpa my first year of college, my chances of getting in was almost none. I was up for the challenge, high school was easy. So I applied to UWSP and received my Acceptance letter 2 weeks later.
Fast forward a year and a half and I found myself with a terrible gpa. I was not getting into the 4-year Nursing Program and I had a chance the following year to improve my gpa. Year 2 goes by and I’m in the same boat. So I started looking into other Nursing Programs to transfer into. Year three and my grades were so horrible I was sure I was going to never make it. As I look at what it was that made me not succeed was there was a lack in faith. The campus was a place that lacked God. It made me angry, I didn’t want to be there, I made my after school job my first priority and I quickly found out that that was not the school for me.
Sometime during my third year of college I decided to take a shot in the dark and apply to the Franciscan University of Steubenville Nursing Program. Believe you and me, this was not an easy feat. I was told that if I really wanted a shot at this program that I would have to start over from scratch. I would be there for 4 years. I immediately thought “That’s $80,000!” There’s no way I can afford something like that. But I still felt this pull toward Franciscan. So I talked many times to my admissions counselor trying to figure out if there was any way to get into this school. We figured out a way, my current credits would transfer and I would be a Theology Major! I would be there for 2 years and I could take classes towards a nursing degree! Well after it was figured out, I received a letter in the mail. “Dear Ms. Klish. Thank you for applying. We see that you have selected on campus housing. Unfortunately we do not have room for you and you can either hold your application for the following semester or withdraw your application. Love, Franciscan.” I was devastated. But there was still that pull toward that small town in Ohio. I called once again my counselor and asked if there was anyway that I could live off campus and attend the fall semester. Guess what? He said YES!!! A week later, a new letter, “Congratulations Ms. Klish! You are now a student at FUS!!!”
What was it that pulled me toward this University? It was God! I put my faith and trust in His plan, not my plan! I believe that any other school would have rejected me without a second look. But the love of the Father is so great, that he puts you exactly where you need to be, and for me it was Franciscan.
I remember moving in to my new house in August and watching out my living room window as my family drove off. I of course, panicked! I don’t live at home anymore! I won’t see my family for 4 months! I know NO ONE here! I’m all alone!!! The fears eventually went away. I met new people. I got a fresh start. Let me tell you, I FINALLY thrived at University! I found solace in the one who is always there for me. I attended daily Mass and allowed God to be first in my life! Eventually the grades started to ascend and I loved living 850 miles away from home! I got to do things I never imagined myself doing. Such as road tripping to Canada on a whim one night to watch the sun rise over Niagara Falls. Going to New York City on Fall Break & Spending a week in Connecticut & Boston for Spring Break. I let God provide, because I trusted Him. I knew that this is where He, not I wanted me to be. There were never financial issues or loneliness, as He provided for all my needs. Not everything was bliss, there were roadblocks, but I was able to pull through.
As my second year got well under way, I had to decide what I was going to do the following Autumn as I was set to graduate in May. I looked into three options: 1) Graduate and pursue an Accelerated Nursing Program in the fall. 2) Apply to be on NET Ministries or 3) Attend a Semester abroad at my schools Study Abroad Program in Gaming, Austria. Option 1 was out because of the financial obligations it required. I was just not feeling lead to NET so I tossed Option 2 to the side. So I guess Gaming it was!
In the fall semester of 2009, I boarded a plane with my friend Maggie and we headed to Ireland for a week before arriving in Austria. Can we say Culture Shock?!?! What a horrible way to start a semester 4,000 miles away from home. Arriving in Ireland, I lost one of my suitcases, I turned my computer on in the airport to email home saying I arrived and my computer tells me that it does not want to work, at all! And we did a horrible job planning and we had no place to stay! Exhausted from being awake for about 27 hours we finally got everything straightened out. We found a Hostel, planned out the rest of the week, My computer finally turned on, my luggage was found and eventually arrived in Austria.
Franciscan owns it’s own campus in Gaming and it is a Restored 14th Century Carthusian Monastery. Those walls contained some of the holiest men who prayed about 15 hours a day! One of the coolest things about these particular Carthusian’s was that they prayed for all who would eventually live in the walls of the Kartause. Who knew that 600 or so years before I was born, I was being prayed for!
During my semester, I learned from wonderful professors from all over Europe. One from Lichtenstein, One from Italy & one from Austria. I was able to visit 18 countries in Europe, over 30 Major Cities, 3 Marian Apparition sites, including: Knock, Ireland; Fatima, Portugal & Medugorje, Bosnia & Herzegovina, I saw Pope Benedict XVI, I got to pray in front of the tombs and sarcophagus’ of over 20 saints, including St. Peter, soon to be Blessed Pope John Paul II the Great, St. Francis, St. Clare St. Maximilian Kolbe, to pray in front of the Miraculously Incorrupt Bodies of Sts. Padre Pio & San Francesca del Roma. and walk in the same place as St. Michael the Arc Angel did in a cave in Mt. San Angelo, pray in front of the true cross of Christ, and Volunteer with Mother Teresa’s very own Missionaries of Charity. From the day I decided to go to Gaming I was going to Greece for my 10-day break, but I followed God's plan and headed off to Portugal.
It was with the Missionaries in Lisboa, Portugal that I was reminded of something that I had not used to it’s fullest potential yet: Let God Provide! This particular group of sisters ran a small Nursing Home for the Poorest of the Poor here in Lisboa. After literally 5 minutes of assisting, I remembered why it was I wanted to be a Nurse! God reminded me of what my goal was, even though it took a lot longer than I thought! The biggest lesson I learned however was when I was helping sister in the Kitchen prepare food and she asked me to help freeze some beans. There were I believe 3 black garbage bags full! I remember the look on sisters face: Pure joy! She told me, “Such beautiful food! We do not know where it came from! It was on our doorstep this morning! We work here on Divine Providence. We purchase very little. See how God provides for us!”
When I returned home, in December I immediately pursued my dream of being a Nurse and just a few weeks ago, I received my Acceptance Letter! 7 ½ years after my own “plan”. As I look back on it, there would have been so much I would’ve missed out on, if I would have taken my own path. Even though there are parts I would have loved to cut out and not relive, there is much more I would not have traded for anything of this world. Who knew I would have done so many wonderful & exciting things if I would have chosen my path.
What my message for you today is this: If you do not put God ahead in your life, I’m sorry, you are not living up to the potential He has set up for you! When you graduate and move away from this place, first and foremost, find yourself a Catholic Church and become a member! Many of you will attend a school that has a Newman Center. Join that! If you are remaining at home, remember, you are most welcome here. This is your home as much as all of ours. Attend Mass on Sundays. Frequent Confession. Let God become a focal point in your life. Does this mean that you have to go to College? Study Abroad? Go on a Mission Trip? Wait 8 years to finally reach your dream? NO! Not at all. God has a plan for each of you. I will suggest you do these things, especially travel! I agree with St. Augustine when he said, “The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.” How ever I agree more with St. Catherine of Sienna who said, “When you are what you were meant to be, you will set the whole world ablaze!” That will only come with the loving hand of God’s guidance. In the trials of life, in all emotions and situations, I ask you, beg you, to join those with Christ. Go to a church, and sit in the silence that awaits in front of the tabernacle, be with Christ as He is always with you.
Let me end this afternoon, with this analogy:
I am giving to each of you right now a rose. I want you to hold it and look at it right now.
I’m going to read to you 2 Timothy 1:8b-10
Beloved:
Bear your share of hardship for the gospel
with the strength that comes from God.
He saved us and called us to a holy life,
not according to our works
but according to his own design
and the grace bestowed on us in Christ Jesus before time began,
but now made manifest
through the appearance of our savior Christ Jesus,
who destroyed death and brought life and immortality
to light through the gospel.
I explained that the rose can show the path of our lives. It started out small and as it grew it grew thorns. That is like the parts of our lives that were challenging. Eventually we got through them and came to the leaves. These are our resting places. Our periods of joy. After many leaves and thorns we get to the bud. Sometimes we are like that bud. We are closed and not entirely at our fullest potential. Eventually we open up and we are rewarded with the sweet smell of success, just like the sweet smell of the rose. The rose was red, to remind us that we have succeed with the deep red blood that was shed by Christ on the Cross.
I elaborated a little more but I didn't include it all here.
In conclusion I would like to read a few quotes to you:
“I command you: Be firm & Steadfast! Do not fear or be dismayed, for the LORD, your God, is with you wherever you go!” -Joshua 1:9
“What lies behind us & what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
“High School is like toilet paper, you only miss it when it’s gone!” Unknown
“To those of you who received honors, awards, & distinctions, I say well done. And to the ‘C’ Students, I say you too may one day be president of the United States.” George W. Bush
I thank you for your time! Please stand once again for a final prayer.
“Heavenly Father….All Glory Be to the Father…”
In conclusion, I will end with a quote from G.K. Chesterton which was read at my own Commencement Exercises last Spring: “Let the speeches be short, and let the Graduates be on their way.” Thank you.
Tada! My ramblings!
