My husband and I got married in December of 2011, and moved to the United States for his philosophy PhD. The first few months, I was getting accustomed to my new situation; I started understanding the language, I obtained a work permit, an American driver’s license, and so on. We live in a small town, which fills up with students at the beginning of the semester. Everything revolves around the college. At the beginning, I had a tough time; I wondered if I would be able to have the kind of friendships I had in Milan, and I felt I was living something less. Nonetheless, my desire to be loved did not remain unanswered. First of all, the wife of Francesco’s professor started asking me to meet every week, and helped me get more familiar with the language and the environment. Francesco and I met a few people from the philosophy department, and began joining them for dinner. The campus priest, a very agreeable man of Irish descent, became very fond of us. Then, attending Mass, we met Christopher. In January, Francesco and I started a School of Community group at the university, and soon Marco, another CL guy from Italy, joined us. We had Christopher over for dinner to invite him to School of Community, but before we could do this, he asked us if we belonged to the Movement. Three years before, he had been invited by a Notre Dame professor to attend School of Community. He had been deeply struck by it, but being a Protestant at the time, he had decided not to continue attending the meetings. As soon as he realized that we belonged to the Movement, he asked if he could join our group. On top of that, he invited all of his friends. Now there are more or less 14 people in attendance. We showed the video about Father Giussani (Extraordinary Lives) and they bombarded us with questions. At the beginning, I was thrilled because of the overwhelming response we had, and because everything had been so simple up to that point. Then things started to get more difficult. Having School of Community with my new friends wasn’t always easy; we would either get tangled up in theoretical discussions, or we would end up conceiving of School of Community as a social occasion–like so many others that were offered by the college Catholic ministry. I asked myself again the reason why I did School of Community, and who those people were for me. I realized that circumstances are essential to my vocation. In fact, I initially thought that vocation was all about a given form. I was called by God through marriage, and having said “yes” I felt my life was set. Again, I thought having 15 people to do School of Community with meant I was okay. Yet, the past months proved this was not the case. The many things that happened revealed the fundamental step that I need to take now–that is, it is one thing is to say “yes” to your vocation, and another thing to love it.

Sara, State College, PA (USA)