Week Of Prayer '18

It was Friday, April 20, 2018. The last day of Spring Week of Prayer at my school. For those who don't know what Spring Week of Prayer is, it's a tradition my school does where the high schoolers and eighth graders go to each of the younger classes, have worship and then go to the gym to hear a message from the student speaker that day. That day I just so happened to be the speaker.

That day I remember being nervous and afraid to admit it. So I went through the morning like any other. But then it came time. It was time for me to go up in front of a hundred or so students and speak about love. An emotion in itself. I talked about God's love and different times where I had seen it in others. As I was drawing the sermon to a close I remember starting to read my closing remarks and starting to feel the tears rush to my eyes. It was after the tears came I felt a surge of emotion and I just couldn't stop crying. It's like laughing and not being able to stop laughing. 

Yeah, like that but with tears, and a lot of it.

 I was crying so much I had to ask my pastor to come up and read the rest of it until I stopped crying. As I ended the talk I looked into the audience to see faces similar like mine, eyes swollen and cheeks red, burying there faces into there friends shoulders, at that moment I felt a new emotion, joy. Joy that others were able to understand and take to heart I message I spent weeks preparing. It meant a lot.

Even to this day whenever I hear anything about last year's week of prayer, particularly the last day, I feel a little bit of each emotion.

-Katherine Arroyo the emotional.

Side note:

For as long as I can remember I've been an overall emotional person, whether it be showing it or just feeling it in general. Going along with that, I've kind of just always been self-conscious about crying and showing my emotions. Now looking back, I realize there's nothing wrong with that, especially in public for that matter. I like to think it's a way of life per se. I've learned that sometimes expressing yourself is the best way of letting things out and that whether it comes out as dramatic or emotional or even 'extra', it shouldn't matter because it's you, it's your mental health, no matter who judges.