Grace's Narrative

Grace's Narrative Essay

If you’re ever thinking about getting your first communion, I have two words for you: do it. Growing up as a little girl, I never really felt close with God. I said my prayers like my parents told me to but never knew why I was praying or how to pray. That was until I got my first communion… 

As I was walking into the basement of our CCD classrooms, I was shaking with anger and fear. I was angry because my dad was forcing me to go to our communion rehearsal and it was taking 3 hours out of my day. Now, as a sixth grader, that's nothing. But as a little squirmy, impatient, immature second grader, that felt like my whole day was being wasted on some dumb little “practice for our first communion” thing.  

“Come on! I am not wearing this ugly dress.” I yelled at my mom.  

“Oh yes you are. Your communion is in less than a week and we don’t have another dress for you to wear.” My mom said back.
The dress looked like a big white cloud. It was the ugliest dress I’ve ever seen. Not to mention the shoes. They looked like clown shoes, the ones Ronald McDonald wears. Just in white. I looked like a bride with my poofy white dress and clown shoes. 

              5 days later

“Rise and shine! It’s the big day you’ve been waiting for!” Mom said to me in a very high pitched voice.

  “Come in the kitchen, we have a surprise for you!” Mom said excitedly.

 As I walked into the kitchen, I saw a small box with blue wrapping paper. I rushed over to see what it was. I shook it a few times, trying to find out what it was. It sounded like something hard was being shook around in a hard plastic container. 

“Open it up, Grace.” Dad said. 

I started to open it. It was a box with the words “Pandora” on it. I knew Pandora was a jewelry company and I loved jewelry. 

“Yay!” I yelled excitedly.
I opened the box and in that little box was a silver bracelet with three charms on it. One was a Sun, one was a heart, and one was a cross. I smiled when I saw the cross. 

“It’s a charm bracelet so whenever you go somewhere important, you can get a charm and put it with the rest of them” Mom said.

“Thank you!” I said happily.

“No, thank you for being such a sweet girl.” Mom congratulated me. “Now, Let's get your dress on.” 

I rolled my eyes.

At The Church

“Look at you!” exclaimed Ms. Kauff.

“Thank you.” I said smiling.

I was shaking with fear as I sat down in the Church. I turned around and saw my friends and family. Grandma gave me a huge wave as I smiled at her. I sat and waited patiently. First person, next person, third person, fourth person, and finally it got to me. I walked down the aisle with my left hand over my right. The walk took what felt like forever with all eyes on me. I got to where Father Coco was standing and bowed. 

“The body of Christ,” Father Coco said

“Amen.” I replied

Father handed me the small wafer with a cross imprinted on it. I took my right hand from under my left hand and put the wafer in my mouth. EW! It tasted like plastic. 

As I was walking back, there was this feeling. A feeling as if I had just rode the craziest roller coaster out of the whole amusement park. Some might say powerful. For me, it was thrilling. Right there, as I was walking back to my pew, I knew God was going to be a part of my life. A BIG part of my life.

As I lay in my bed that night, I spoke to God. I asked for forgiveness, strength, and love. Normally, I would just pray the Our Father prayer or The Hail Mary. But then, I felt a connection with him. It was almost as if they were right in front of you and if you reached out your arm, you could touch him. What most people don’t realize is there is much more than saying “I love God” or “I believe in God”. There’s actually so much more to that. As I like to think about it, Loving God is knowing God. What I realized that day was I knew I was a sinner, I knew I wanted God to be a part of my life, I knew God forgave me no matter what, I know God loves me and everybody in the world. It may not seem like that, but God is around you in every single way possible. He’s in the trees, he’s in the grass, he’s in the ocean, but most importantly, he’s in you and I too. You may not believe everything I say, but believe me when I say I went from not even knowing how to do the sign of the cross, to having a relationship with God and knowing who he really is. I’d like to end this with my favorite quote from the bible: “The LORD will keep you from all harm - he will watch over your life; The LORD will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore. PSALM 121: 7-8 

God makes me feel safe in every way possible. I trust him with my life and that’s why I love that quote.

Thank you for taking the time to read my essay! - Grace Ippolito