Spirit Rally was amazing! Now this may be biased, but I this was my favorite Spirit Rally ever (any opinion is biased =P). I had so much fun MCing, hanging out with some of the greatest people I will ever know, and just praising God for all that He has given me.
My favorite things in the program had to be both Mark and Nez giving great talks as well as the all-around-amazing music (I like to call it Triple A Music). Mark's and Nez's talks were refreshing and helped me focus on humility and community. After Nez's talk, I was supposed to come up and introduce the "Why" skit. For some reason I felt compelled to introduce it a different way than I ever have before. I got up there and I just started praying. I spoke from the heart and just thanked God for such a wonderful opportunity. I reflected on why He would die on the cross for us. What made me that special? His love. "Not because of who I am, but because of what You've done. Not because of what I've done, but because of who You are." It was such an amazing feeling, and then I was given the opportunity to portray St. John the Apostle in the skit (which is also my family name in Liwanag) in a reenactment of Christ's passion (portrayed by Ace, who did a wonderful job). Also, a mad shout out to Anna, who's passion and love helped carry me and motivate me through this Spirit Rally. She played Mother Mary and gave God everything she had in this skit. Her humility and strength inspire me, and she's one of those people that I want to be like.
This also reminds me of how many people are going to be graduating this year. I don't think last year was very tough for me because a lot of the graduating class I didn't have CLOSE relationships with, or I didn't know them very well. This year there are so many people graduating that I can not imagine Liwanag without. I felt the same way about a certain amount of people last year, but this year it's all of them. It's going to be interesting next year to be part of a family and not have Bellamay being my family leader (two years strong) or joking around with Julian, or listening to Kathy sing so wonderfully, or see Abby's captivating smile, or hear Anna's wonderful compliments, or see my co-MC Myk, or hang and hear the wisdom of the chillest Mark, or rock it with the amazing Ram. There are so many that I couldn't possibly do all of them justice tonight. I'll enjoy these last few months, and definitely make the most of the time I have left with them.
Another wonderful memory from Spirit Rally was closing prayer. Not only did Jared give a great heart-felt prayer, but I got to spend it sandwich between two of the alumni that I look up to most: Erwin and Adrian. I have so much respect for the both of them, and Erwin and I have come such a long way from last year when I thought he hated my guts =X It was so great to see the alumni come back and spend time with us during Spirit Rally and after.
I'm grateful for all the friends I've made and people I've talked to during Spirit Rally who I haven't had the opportunity to talk to before. People like Britney, Lauren, Diane, Markee, Kristina, and a lot of the other first years that I haven't gotten to talk to too much this year.
Music. God blessed me with a voice after the skit, and I brought it back to him. My favorite time ever singing Mighty to Save/The Stand, and Who Am I EVER!
Cleaning up and watching Pacquiao knock out Patton couldn't have been better.
Btw, can I mention that my first time at Norms was awkwardly fun. It had some weird moments, but it was fun laughing and chilling. Khrystyn and I shared our food, which ended up being a weird combination of breakfast-lunch-dinner-desert. We had eggs, hashbrowns, avocado-less burger, french fries, steak, and a chocolate shake. I'm surprised I lived to type this.
A lot of people told me that their favorite Spirit Rally was usually their first one. I was looking through Victor's old photos on his photo account, and I saw my first Spirit Rally. I really didn't remember much of it until I looked at those old photos, and WOW was it memorable. I didn't even know we had such a large Guiding Light presence back then. Don, Quinn, Daniel, Omar, we had so much. I do have to admit it was definitely euphoric looking back, and I thank Victor King for taking those pictures so that those memories can last beyond my own mind.
http://victork.smugmug.com/gallery/2796521_JwZzZ#149387571_HDv67
