Celtic Newsletter Spring 2020

RCS senior wins national essay contest

I come from Shawsville, Virginia, a small, rural town about twenty miles outside of Roanoke. Technically, we are not even large enough to be a town, but an “ unincorporated district. ” We are a one stoplight, mostly trailer parks and farmland community lining US 460. Out of 2,400 residents, my family of five makes up half of the Catholics living here. The public school system tries to help kids out of the cycle in which the majority are stuck, but nothing seems to change. Many of my peers can ’ t drive because they can ’ t afford driving lessons or the permit test, much less a car. Friends from broken homes often turn to drugs and alcohol. One of my childhood friends became pregnant at 16 and this, sadly, is not unusual. Most of this year ’ s graduating class will not attend college, but instead will enter the workforce for minimum wage with a lucky few going to the local community college. As for their faith life it seemed as bleak as their futures. This would have been my world, but I was given a better opportunity. I attended the local public elementary school until third grade. My parents were fortunate enough to have the means to transfer me and my two sisters to Roanoke Catholic School. If it weren ’ t for my parents ’ sacrificing money and a one - hour round trip every day for us to be able to go to Roanoke Catholic, I would be stuck in the same system. Of course I ’ d like to think that I school in the U.S. could submit one essay). In February judges selected 37 national finalists out of 300 submissions and on April 24 announced five national $1,000 scholarship winners. Roanoke Catholic senior Emily Hemphill won a $1,000 national Fireside Catholic Publishing 2020 Essay Scholarship. Her essay on "How is your religious education influencing your life?" was chosen in December as RCS' entry to the contest (each Catholic high

would have emerged physically unscathed and still succeeded academically, but in reality I know I can ’ t say the same for my spiritual life. I can ’ t imagine going through the typical trials of high school, but especially in a culture like Shawsville ’ s, without being able to pray at school or have moral debates with classmates or bother my apologetics teacher after class with theological questions that I can never hope to understand. If I had never switched to a Catholic institution, I wouldn ’ t have had a friend group with whom I could feel comfortable discussing my faith or turn to when I was going through a hard time. My religious education hasn ’ t just influenced my life, but it has changed the road that was initially in front of me. Being Catholic is an essential part of who I am and I ’ m able to learn more and more about what it truly means to call myself Catholic because of my school. I don ’ t think of my religious education as just being in class studying St. Thomas Aquinas ’ Five Proofs or the Ecumenical Councils, although they certainly have been ingrained into my memory. Rather, I ’ ve learned how Jesus taught us to live our lives. With classroom debates, I ’ ve learned how to have a conversation with someone who has different opinions, but still treat them with dignity and respect. Through school service projects, such as canned

food drives for Feeding America or collecting baby supplies for the Blue Ridge Women ’ s Center, I ’ ve seen how we are called to serve those who are less fortunate. Since I ’ ve gone on school trips to the March for Life, I have learned to speak up for those who never got the chance to speak at all. My religious education has not been limited to learning Church history, but to understanding my faith, how to defend it, and most importantly how to live it, especially when it is hard. Living my faith during tough times has always been a challenge. Over the past several years, I have had major hip surgery and lost loved ones. I have questioned my faith and asked God countless times why there is such suffering in this world. I never did find the answer to that one, but what I did find is that God puts us in the right place and sends us the right people when we need them most. I still have demons to fight, but I believe if I hadn ’ t been at Roanoke Catholic I would not have managed to find my way. There I had people to talk to about my struggling faith or remind me that God never abandons His children. I believe if I had stayed in Shawsville, I may not have been able to escape my demons. My former school may have still prepared my mind — and maybe even my heart — for my future path, but it was Roanoke Catholic that prepared my soul.