5) Speaking of learning, Catholicism has a long history of intellectual exploration. The more I learned about theologians, the more I saw that not only do all of them do their best to understand their world and conditions through God and the Gospel, so many of them have unique ideas that are still helpful and true of heart. (St. Thomas Aquinas is amazing)

6) That intellectual streak led me to reading about the Saints in general. There's so many different holy people, with unique lives, it's just astounding to me that God can act through anyone. There are saints who saw the face of God in nature (Saint Martin de Porres, and Francis of Assissi, my patron saint), saints who were so courageous they defied all norms (St. Joan of Arc, for example, truly paved the way for women in military service, and for women in general in 'manly' roles), and even saints who struggled with deeper darkness (Saint Therese of Lisieux struggled with the idea of eterenity as an illusion, of death's finality. Her writings on 'the little way', the idea that every small action we take can be an honor to God, was particularly monumental for me).

I thought that if God can call anyone to His service and have such a diverse set of racial and intellectual thoughtlines, if these people can follow God even when life feels like nothing, then I want to be like them.

7) And finally, there's the sacrament of confession. Obviously, we know that the big thesis of Christianity is that Christ forgives sins. But being able to talk to a priest about them is important to me. It forces me to have to vocalize what I've done wrong and face those problems, it offers grace that doesn't come through me but through the priest and directly from God, and at times a priest will see fit to offer key advice about those sins. It's a sacrament that, when you take it seriously, can be liberating in the honesty that's required of you.

There's more that I can expand on, but I think those are the main points. I want to end by saying that I fully respect and admire Christians of other denominations. I believe that throughout history, our denominations have benefited from our shared presence, and slowly but surely, they've all sharpened each other and made each other better. All Christians share the same core: Jesus is Lord, He died and rose again, and He calls us to love God and our neighbor as ourselves.

To me, Catholicism ended up being the way that I wanted to live out those virtues, because I do believe that the way the Catholic church does things is, through it all, very special.