My vocation continues to unfold, prodded along by God's whispers and nudges. I have always been a practicing Catholic, but I never thought about priesthood as an option until late in college. To that point I had been happy with the way my life was going: dating, traveling, and thinking about marriage and career options—yet my heart was restless, and I had the feeling I was made for something else. While I was no perfect model of holiness, I was pulled closer to Christ and the Church throughout my college years. I can recognize a number of intertwined threads by which God was, and continues to be, reeling me in.

One is through study and pursuit of the truth. By reading and studying about the Catholic faith and looking to my own experience of life, I have been affirmed in my belief that what the Church proposes is true, that Jesus Christ is who he says he is.

Another of these threads is the desire in my heart for fullness of life. Even after falling in love and seeking adventure in exotic locales, I realized that even the best things in this life are but signposts to something greater. I was made for God, and he has reminded me many times that nothing else will satisfy.

Finally, it has become increasingly clear to me that God works in my life through the people he places around me. By paying attention to the faithful witness of priests, friends and family, I can see the beauty of Christian life well lived.

This life is a gift, and the God who is the answer to the wonderings of my curious mind and the wanderings of my restless heart is not just a divinity to be admired from afar. Rather, he became a man like me, gave his life for me, and now calls me to follow him. And so I do follow, unsure of where he will lead, but confident that it is in fact He who leads me through the Cross to the fullness of life for which I was made.