Five in the morning. Arms full of luggage, waiting to get on the bus. We boarded the bus back to school. As soon as we get on they tell us there isn’t enough room and send us on the Sioux City bus. This is the beginning of opening up to new experiences.

Although I didn’t want to go on the Sioux City bus to Steubenville, I’m glad I did now. It was Ashley, Kara, Maggie, and I on the Sioux City bus, we all sat together, and across from us were the two twins, the sleeping girl, Annie, and Nick. Annie was hilarious. What was even funnier was that she was like in love with Nick who wanted to be a priest so it wasn’t really working out in her favor. We talked and laughed and finally got through the 11 hour bus ride (including endless rest stops and Percy’s cigarette break).

Once we finally got to Steubenville, I got a little more excited considering I did not want to go. We got up to our dorm and got ready for dinner. While at dinner the food was awful and we only got one choice so I just didn’t eat. Instead I sat and talked with some friends I made at the lock in the night before. So far it wasn’t going great.

This is the part I dreaded, I didn’t want to go to the talks, I didn’t want to go to adoration, and I definitely didn’t want to sing. Once it started I remember thinking everyone in here is too happy. The music started and it actually wasn’t to bad. I even sang; I was having fun. I started to come out of my shell and sing and dance, which was a lot more fun than hating being there.

The talks were amazing and I’m glad I actually listened. They talked about how God truly loves us and you truly felt it in that arena with almost 4,000 other kids. Another talk was about forgiveness and about how no matter what you do God will always be there. The girls’ talk was about respecting yourself and how its okay to be “broken” I am happy I paid attention and opened up to what they had to say even though I didn’t want to hear it at the time.

Finally it was time to leave. I can honestly say I didn’t want to. I had made some really good friends, some of which I still keep in contact with today. I didn’t want to leave the wonderful memories with them I had just made. I had an amazing time with the friends I came with too, we grew close together for sure. I really didn’t want to wait another year to go back, but that’s how it is. Some thing I do wish I could change is I wish I would have came into this experience with a different attitude. I think you can really start to over think how bad something is and blow it completely out of portion; that is what I did with Steubenville.