White Smoke

     Last night, I was lucky enough to witness one of the most religiously significant events in history. After having received a text from my godmother, reading "White Smoke! Are you there?", I grabbed my coat, told my friends and started running. Our school is up on a hill, about three miles away from the Vatican. We knew that public transpiration was out of the question, and traffic was so bad that we would not make it if we took a cab either. So, we ran. Fifteen of us in a group. All headed to see the newly elected pope.
     When we arrived inside of the walls of the Vatican, we could not move. People we packed shoulder to shoulder, pushing and screaming and sweating. My friends and I could not see anything, and we were worried we were going to miss it. All of the sudden, the crowd broke and people started sprinting. Naturally, we followed. In a matter of two minutes, I went from being pushed and elbowed by people to standing about 500 feet away from the balcony of Saint Peter's Basilica. At this point, we had all been separated, and the only people left with me were my brother and my friend Lauren. We looked at each other in amazement, all thinking the same thing, "How did we get so lucky?"
     Five minutes later, the crowd roared as the Pope stepped out on the balcony. Pope Francesco gave his speech, blessed the audience, and lead everyone in prayer. We could not believe that we were experiencing such an event. Just as Pope Francesco wrapped up, I looked into the crowd of people behind me and saw hundreds of flags waving in the air. Flags of every different country, coming together to celebrate such a wonderful day.
     We decided to let the people clear out and stay in Saint Peter's square to take pictures. Through all of the crowds of people, we found the rest of our group. After taking some pictures and meeting a group of high school Danish students, we walked to a restaurant. We drank wine, ate pizza and made a memory of one of the best experiences of our lives.

Baci,

Nikki