I often second guess most [if not all] of the decisions i've made, but I can confidently say that I have never ever regretted choosing the Academy of Mt St. Ursula [Bronx, NY] to spend the most awkwardly amazing years of my life.
Can you believe that its been 6 years since I graduated high school? because i can't. It still blows my mind. 6 years since graduation means 10 years since I started there, which means its been about 9 years since NSYNC broke up & that is just insane!
But, in the words of my HS Italian teacher, "I digress."
I went back to high school today, ya'll.
I attended the AMSU Young Alumnae Retreat & it was everything I expected & more...
As my best friend of apparently ummm 9&1/2 years now & I walked to the top of the hill on which our high school sits we could almost smell the four years we spent there. It was as if nothing had changed, like we had stepped right back into the past & how I wish that was a real possibility.
We spent the next 5+ hours reconnecting with some of our classmates, our favorite teacher, and a lot of the girls who had been lil ursuline babies when we graduated & who are now all grown up.
Yes, we were all reunited but it was also a retreat so of course we eventually had to get down to the business of praying.
It has been a really long time since I've had to "prepare myself to be in the presence of God", but I think I did a pretty good job.
The theme of the retreat was "New Year, New Attitude, New Life" & it couldn't have been more perfect. We talked about coping with stress, dealing with where we are or aren't in our lives, using this new year to focus on ourselves...all things I needed desperately.
I could not be more appreciative.
I remember getting to school early in the mornings, leaving late in the evenings & loving every minute of it.
So why haven't I been back as much as I always swore I would?
Well of course life has gotten in the way: going off the college, working, etc...
but I am so grateful to AMSU for always being there, for welcoming us all back with open arms.
As we were meditating in chapel this afternoon I couldn't help but tear up a little as I thought about how fortunate I was to attend AMSU when I did, to make the friends that I did, to make the connections I did with teachers turned advisers and friends.
My mother passed away at the end of my senior year there & I don't think that I could have survived my last month of school anywhere else. I know for a fact that it was an experience unique to Mt. St. Ursula.
Where else could I have made friends who would show up unexpectedly to my mother's funeral the day after prom?
No where.
and yes, again life has gotten in the way a few of those "friends" are no longer my "friends" but for that I will always be grateful.
& can I just say: like how lucky am I to still be best friends with the girls I was best friends with when I was 14???
If you know anything about AMSU you know its the oldest catholic all girls school in New York.
You know that its a pretty prestigious high school
but aside from the fact that we got a pretty awesome education and a pretty awesome network of professional women
we also got about 400+ sisters [whether we wanted them or not]!
We entered AMSU as a group of very different girls and left as a group of very different young women.
Despite all of our differences, because we went to AMSU, we'll always have so much more in common with each other than we will with maybe even our own daughters (unless we force them, as me & sasha b. plan to do, to go to AMSU! oh & disregarding that entire like blood relation thing).
I'd always kind of regretted never really considering joining a sorority of some sorts in college
but I finally realized today that DUH! I am already a part of an amazing sisterhood!...& I didn't even have to go through any of that pledging mess.
Since 2006 my life has been all over the place. I don't live in the same house I grew up in - I don't even live in the same borough. I can't really account for any of my childhood things: the contents of my room, my nsync dolls, my books...
but the one thing I do have and will always have is AMSU
WOW
nostalgia overrrrrrload
I'm done now.
I guess all I'm really saying is that I had a really great day. I guess all I'm really saying is that it was really great to go home...
Rudine '06
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