Courtney Cocciemiglio, Junior   

I was excited to leave campus for the weekend leadership conference, but skeptical at the same time.  It was my first time traveling on the road for longer than 30 minutes and the projected two hour van ride scheduled on a cold Friday in February didn’t exactly ease my skepticism.  Even after arriving in Normal, Illinois, it was difficult to see how anything extraordinary could come out of this weekend.  Due to the fact that UIC was the first campus before Washington University from St. Louis and Ball State from Indiana to arrive at the conference, some of the students helped the missionaries set up a banquet room at the hotel which would be the place in which most of the weekend’s events would take place.  Little did I know that helping to transform the room was the first step in the transformation of my heart.

Two hours after setting up that room, nearly 50 students and missionaries were gathered in Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, listening to quiet worship music, and awaiting the sacrament of reconciliation.  To see 50 young people on their knees adoring Jesus, present in the Eucharist, was truly a moving experience, and the best way to start off the weekend.  The remainder of the conference was filled with things like Mass, time for prayer, talks, discussion, fellowship, and fun.  I was surrounded by others, like myself, trying to live out God’s will while growing in faith.  The weekend was incredibly rewarding.  I got to share in faith and fellowship while discerning my call to evangelize.  Not only did I gain a lot from the retreat program itself, but it is hard for me to explain how encouraging it was to grow, learn, and share with other young people of God within the Church.  While we ate dinner as a group the first night after we arrived, I never expected that I would get so much out of a simple weekend at a hotel in Normal, Illinois.  I am pleased to say, though, that the weekend “recharged my spiritual batteries” and really opened my eyes to everyone’s call to evangelize. 

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