Most people don’t know I didn’t receive sacramental reconciliation for 16 years. If it’s been a long time for you, I am telling you I get it—but I encourage you to go. Every reason you have for not going to confession is wrong. I want to share my own story.

When I was 16, a good friend and I got in a huge argument—or really, I got into an argument with her. She was trying to reach out to me after I had a very bad week, and I wasn’t having it. I screamed some vicious things at her in an empty high school hallway (“stay away from me, I don’t want your help!, just leave me alone!”). She was clearly hurt and I left. It was the end of the school day, and I went home.

But then she didn’t come to school the next day or the next