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Throughout my Grade 1-12 education, I learned that our faith was to be carried out by going to church, praying to God, asking for forgiveness, following the commandments, etc. Frankly, it was boring and I believed that I did those things because I thought I had to as a 'good' Catholic. How did my faith connect with my sports? Family and friends? Personal growth? My relationship with God and my faith was being challenged.

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After leaving the Catholic education system in grade 12, I came to think that I did not need my faith to grow and develop as a young adult. This skewed my relationship with God as I did not see how my faith and relationship with Him connected with the outside world. There seemed to be no reason to continue my faith, especially being surrounded my friends and peers who were not Catholic. As I began my undergrad, I struggled mentally to balance academic and social life, while also caring for my own well-being. I became anxious, feared failure, and struggled to treat those in my life with care and respect. I was not sure where I fit in. This continued for the next 4 years.

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I decided to become a teacher. I was exposed to an entirely new group of people. These people were more like me. We all appreciated learning and encouraged and inspired each other. I started to find groups of people that aligned more with who I was and wanted to be. But again, I still did not have a relationship with God or my faith. The absence of faith was again due to the lack of support and presence of Catholic role models in my given time of my life.

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In a Social Foundations debate in my BEd about our thoughts of the Catholic education system, I quickly came to realize that I had a much different stance on Catholicism than that of my peers. However, I realized that this was because they have never experienced a relationship with God and lacked a connection to faith. Unusual to the normal me, I shared my own opinion on this topic, which was that I believe that it is important to share our faith with our students and educate them of the Catholic faith so that our students have the appropriate information to guide and discover their own faith journey.
Intellectual Conversion
I began to take responsibility for my own view of reality. I chose to become responsible for my own faith, and did not put the blame on those around me, or the circumstances I was in. I examined my  view of reality and adjusted it as new information came to be.
Religious Conversion
This was the moment that I realized that I still had a relationship with God, but I had chosen not to prioritize it. I decided that I needed to take responsibility for my own understanding of God and what this implicates for me as a future educator and role model.

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Personal
I decided to prioritize my relationship with God. I decided to attend mass again. I chose to attend mass with my Grandmother so that I had some accountability in attendance. I met with my priest multiple times to get advice on how I can reconnect with my faith and ways that I can get involved with my Church.
Professional
As a Catholic educator, after this moment of conversion, I realized how important it will be to share with my students how our faith comes in all different shapes and sizes. All of our faith journey's will look different. It is my job to educate my students and give them the tools and resources to make informed decisions of their faith, and how they will choose to lead their faith journey and stay connected with God after they leave our education system.