For those of you that read every week, you have seen by now the awkward questions and conversations that occur regularly regarding my career choice. For those of you that are finding my work for the first time, I invite you to take a break here, check out my profile here on The Odyssey Online and take a look at the post entitled "You want to be a what?" so that you know what I'm referring to.

If whoever I am speaking with about my future career and I are so lucky to have made it past the awkward questions and comments regarding my sex life followed by immediate silence, there is suddenly a moment of instant curiosity that goes way beyond physicality.

It goes something like this, "What made you want to be a minister?"

I must be honest, I absolutely love this question. There isn't a question on earth that I love being asked more because of the fact that it allows me to really dive in and talk about my personal faith experiences. I get to relay everything I have ever experienced in my faith journey up until that particular point in time. I find myself explaining what I want to do more than anything, but when somebody comes along that genuinely wants to know why, nothing makes me happier.

In the last few weeks I have been asked constantly about why I want to become a minister, so I decided to knock all of those requests out right here on this platform.

I have to say that I absolutely love my call narrative more than anything. It's who I am and it means everything to me. Words don't express how excited I am that I have the opportunity here to share it with my readers on this platform.

Here goes nothing.

Growing up I never really knew what I wanted to be. I did however go through all the phases of course. I wanted to be a cop, a firefighter, an engineer, a baseball player, a teacher, a doctor, etc. All great things, but none them would ever stick.

When I got into middle school, eighth grade in particular, I fell in love with words. I'm not sure if she reads or has ever read any of my content but I completely credit my eighth grade honors english teacher at Highland Middle School, Mrs. Chabot for this. I had never considered writing as a career before then. It was always just an assignment or just a chore. I can remember writing that year and absolutely falling in love with the effect that the written word had on an individual. The way a word written on a page can make an immediate and intimate connection between the reader with the author was nothing short of beautiful and incredible to me. I was absolutely fascinated by the written word and still am as I write these words tonight.

At this point at the end of middle school and entering high school I really began to only consider careers that would allow me to both write for my work, and for leisure. The only thing I can remember considering was becoming a published author (which is still a dream and goal of mine).

When I was scheduling classes for my first year of high school I can remember trying to figure out which electives I was interested in and actually wanted to take. I must have read that list a few hundred times and my eyes continuously were drawn to journalism. God has an incredible way of making sure that the plan created for us goes accordingly. No matter how many times I overlooked that class and that word, my eyes were drawn back to it. It was like it was calling out to me.

I took journalism with Mrs. Molly Arroyo from Highland High School my freshman year in high school and this was yet another class that changed my life forever. I know Mrs. Arroyo reads my content from time to time so I'm hoping that she sees this piece so I can give credit where credit is due. This class strengthened my love for the written word even more so than my english class the previous year because of the fact that my work was finally being read by eyes that weren't the instructor. My content was being read by my classmates, by other teachers, by students in other classes, and there was some kind of an immediate thrill that I received from having that kind of experience. My words mattered to a few people for the first time ever and I absolutely ate it up. I couldn't get enough of that feeling and at this point I had decided that I was going to become a journalist.

I stuck with the journalism plan for the next two and a half years. Somewhere along the way I found digital media and fell in love with that and decided that I would be a digital content creator for my career. I hit that phase where one thinks that the written word no longer has any kind of an effect but of course as I matured i found myself to be dead wrong. However digital media kind of took over my writings for a while. After some time I found that I could use digital media as a way to enhance my writing to reach a wider demographic instead of only creating digital content without the written word. I fell back in love with the core journalistic values that were drilled into my brain by Mrs. Arroyo. I once again was set on being a journalist.

My faith was almost non-existent for the first half of high school. I had grown up Catholic. However, I have a single mother who's divorce has not been annulled by the Vatican so I am not exactly the poster child for the Catholic Church. I found no hope there. I couldn't be myself or openly believe in what I felt was right. I also watched the LGBTQ community be constantly kicked around by the Catholic Church. For those of you that read regularly you know how much I love my Uncle Mike and Uncle Adam (who have been together for over twenty years) so you can imagine my absolute disgust for that kind of discrimination. I had decided that all churches would act in a similar manner, and that I was done with church forever.

My family fell into some rough times late in my high school career and my mom was forced to look for a second job. One family friend and another one of my mom's brothers both called her to let her know that there was a church in Highland called the Immanuel United Church of Christ that was looking for a part time office and pastoral assistant. This position would allow her to work a second job and keep the same hours at the position she already held as the director of an after school child care program.

She got the job and started a few weeks following. About a week into her time there, Immanuel decided to throw a little get together following service one Sunday as a welcome for my mom and our family. She came home and excitedly told us about it and my response was "I will never step foot in a church again".

For those of you that don't know, God has a sense of humor. Especially when you say the word 'never'.

A few weeks later after I skipped out on the welcome festivities my mom came home and explained that the church council president, who at the time was none other than the incredible Barb Haizlip was in desperate need of volunteers to help out at Immanuel's vacation bible school program. I reluctantly agreed and to make a long story short have never left.

As my comfort level began to increase at Immanuel I began buying into the whole church thing. I volunteered at events, came to worship on Sundays, became close with other members, etc. I began to do Jesus' work and not the Church's work for those of you that kind of know what that means.

I was confirmed in that church after making the decision on my own and at my own pace, and shortly after, the pastor that had been there from my beginning and on, had resigned.

A few months later we got an interim minister from Beecher. I said three words to her and our conversation ended as quickly as it began. She walked into my mom's office the next day, sat down and said "He's going to be a minister."

That's when the questions started. I was constantly being approached by congregants asking me if I had ever considered a career in the ministry, I consistently and confidently said no to every one of them. I wanted nothing to do with ministry. I was going to be a journalist. Journalism and writing had my heart and I wanted nothing else.

Then people I didn't know and had never met began approaching me and suggesting that I consider a career in ministry. I shot those requests down as well. That's when things started to get weird and God started to have some fun with me.

Everywhere I want I heard the call. I just kept shutting it off. I was immature and terrified. I would read something and see it, I would watch something and hear it, I would be asked constantly by everyone that I met and knew very well, I was asked to fill in for my pastor on some Sundays when she couldn't make it and ended up reaching people on a whole new level. I also began to write about my faith as well. The "calls" and messages wouldn't stop, I just kept refusing to answer. I was going to be a journalist.

Eventually I sat down with my pastor, who is now my pastor/mentor/teacher/second mother and we had a talk about what life as a minister and what seminary may look like for me. I still constantly denied it. Once again, I was going to be a journalist.

Eventually I was asked to represent our church at a UCC General Synod in Cleveland Ohio where I was blessed enough to meet hundreds of fantastic ministers and teachers and people of faith from all careers and all walks of life. I began to tell people that I wanted to become a minister, but didn't truly believe it myself. At this point it just seemed like the right thing to say.

At closing worship of the conference later in the week I was absolutely slapped in the face by the divine with a song. As I sat there and heard the lyrics to "The Summons" by John Bell I broke down into tears. I finally answered and accepted. There was no denying it then, I heard it, I saw it, I felt it, I decided at that moment that everything that had lead me to that place and that time was my call. I decided at that point that I would dedicate my life, my entire being to Christ and to the church.

God uses us children as pawns in one giant game. Every word, every question and answer, every conversation, every let down and joy, all lead me to that moment. I was so set on being a journalist, and actually still am today. But now I have the opportunity to be a whole different kind of journalist. I can be a journalist that reports the good news, that spreads my experiences, that helps and guides others into having those experienced themselves.

I can't thank each and every person that has played a part in this enough. Every role, every moment, every person, every success and every failure, every awkward conversation and (way too) personal question have all led me to this moment. To a career where I can spread the good news of the gospel to everyone I encounter and do what I love with my writing.

I have been so blessed to be brought to this point and to finish off my call narrative I always like to end with my favorite scripture verse from the book of Isaiah,

"....and then I heard the voice of the Lord saying 'whom shall I send and who will go for us?' I responded saying 'Here am I lord, send me.' "