A Message from the President of the CCM Student Council

Michelle Hobein was just elected President of the CCM Student Council for this 2008-2009 school year.  
Congratulations to Michelle!  
The Vice President is Lauren Kohler.    (Congratulations, Lauren!)  
The Secretary is Carol Nowatzke.   (Congratulations, Carol!)
   

Michelle’s Meanderings

The Journey to CCM  

Father Tom has asked that I contribute a message to the bulletin on occasion. I hope that this finds all of you well and that you can come to know me on a more personal level.

I was born into a Catholic home and never really questioned my faith. But I wasn’t active in my faith either. I went to church on Sundays, Sunday school, and later to Youth Group, but that was about it. Where I am from you do not receive the sacrament of confirmation until your junior or senior year of high school. In my case it was my senior year.

I had gone to Youth Group since my freshmen year but had not enjoyed it, nor did I feel as if I was growing in my faith. These feelings continued into my confirmation preparation. I didn’t really think about not being confirmed; I had just always assumed it would be something I would do and was expected of me. It was an interesting group of juniors and seniors in my class. Some were there to truly learn more about their faith and recognized the importance of this sacrament. The rest were there because their parents expected it of them. I admit I wanted to learn more about my faith, but like many around me I did not realize what a big step this was to take in my faith.

  
Because many of my peers were not interested in coming away with more knowledge of the Church, there was a lot of goofing off and joking during our preparation courses. I did want to learn more about my faith but felt that this never happened. So much time was focused on joking and then trying to get the clowns to be quiet so that we could move on, we traveled at a snail’s pace. We covered all the required material to be confirmed, but at this point I do not remember any of it. We never got deep or grew with one another. Some would try and bring us back to the spiritual side of things, but it never lasted long. There were many Wednesday evenings that I returned home after confirmation class, almost in tears because I was yearning to learn more and that hunger was being ignored. At one point I told my parents that I was not going to be confirmed because I was so frustrated with my peers. Needless to say, they told me that I’d made it this far and that I needed to finish.

Looking back they were right, I would have regretted not being confirmed. So that’s what I did, I was confirmed with no knowledge of what it really meant and no deeper knowledge of the Catholic faith.

The next fall I left for college. I honestly didn’t know where I stood on my faith at that point. I kind of figured that I would maybe attend church, maybe not, but I definitely never had any plans to become involved; this was not the lifestyle I was planning on leading in college.

Luckily for me God had other plans. During my summer SOAR session I had met and become friends with another girl who was Catholic. Our first weekend on campus we made plans to meet and go to church together on Sunday morning; we went to CCM. At that Back-to-School mass we heard all the announcements about the activities that were happening that week. So we made plans to attend. On Monday night I attended my first BBQ at CCM. I met a ton of people that evening and forgot just as many names. But what I didn’t forget was how nice everyone was.

I went back to CCM a few more times that week. My friend and I planned on going to church together that next weekend. For a reason I don’t remember she was unable to go with me. But luckily by that point I had met some girls in my dorm and heard that there was a group of Catholics that was going to walk to CCM together for 10:15 mass. As fate would have it these four girls would become some of my best friends over the next two years.

As the year went on I continued to go to CCM. I attended Plug-In and liked it so well that I joined the newly formed Christian Life Community (CLC). When November rolled around I excitedly signed up for Awakening Retreat. It was one of the best weekends ever, as have every Awakening weekend since. I meet so many wonderful Catholics that I could relate to that weekend. My small group continued to stay in touch for the rest of the year and a few are still some of my best friends.

I was nervous to go over to CCM by myself many times. But every time I was at there, I felt so at home and loved that I always wanted to go back. After the disappointing youth group experience in high school this was exactly what I needed. I grew more in my faith in that first year of college than I think I did in all four years of high school. The friends that I have made are deeper and stronger than any I’d had before. I know that it is hard to do, but I truly believe that if you’re willing to put yourself out there and take a chance amazing things will happen. In two short years I have come a long way.