To Better the World of Men Around Us

This weekend, I got to go to Atlanta, GA for a conference for my fraternity. I won't go into details, but here is the lesson that I took from the weekend:

My duty as a Catholic is not to be exclusive. What good would I be if I secluded myself to a group of people who held all of the same beliefs and values as I did? I'm not saying that I'm right about everything. In fact, that is one of the benefits of stepping outside of my own comfort zone to be around people that hold different views than I. I am fortunate to learn from them; similarly, I believe them to be fortunate to receive that same benefit. I believe that we all become more well-rounded people when we listen to and are exposed to different world views. They challenge the views that we hold; and if we value those ideals, we will hold strong to them; if someone presents a new view, we can then make a well-informed decision.

So there's my lesson from the weekend. Outside of that, it was so much fun to be able to have a weekend with my fraternity brothers from around the country. Also, I got to share 26 hours in the car with my friend and brother, Tim Dulle. We don't exactly get a ton of time to just hang out together, so it was a really great opportunity for us to talk about a bunch of stuff together (not to mention listening to Eli "Paperboy" Reed and the Tru Lovs multiple times). When we arrived in Atlanta, one of the guys from Catholic University of America had just won $500 dollars on a Georgia scratch lotto ticket...which led to a free pizza dinner. That was kind of random, and I don't really have much else to say on the matter. That was good pizza.