Jacinta, USA: "I never felt like people expected me to be a certain way"

Hi, my name is Jacinta. Everyone that knows me, though, calls me JC. I'm originally from Trinidad and Tobago, which is in the Caribbean, and I moved to the States when I was 18 years old to go to college.

I was always fascinated by the beauty and the passion that people put into their work of creating this thing that disappears in a second, basically. That's kind of what my work is like: there's a lot of thought and a lot of work that goes into taking care of the home, making a delicious meal, creating something that looks beautiful, like making a flower arrangement or decorating a cake… There's so much labor and love that goes into such a small thing that brings people a lot of joy. And to learn that skill and to even have that skill is so impressive to me, because I could cut into a croissant and look inside and be like, “Wow, like this was done with love,” or, “This was done with passion and artistry and creativity.” And that really is what has attracted me mostly to my work.

When I was growing up, even though my parents are both supernumeraries, I never actually knew that they were supernumeraries, and I also didn't really know what Opus Dei was. And after just growing up in a family with two supernumeraries, and my sister was a numerary by the time I reached high school, when it was my turn to go away to go to college at Boston University, the first thing I did was apply to live at Bayridge Residence, which was a center of the Work for college students. That was the first time I decided to go to daily Mass.

I never felt at all like people expected me to be a certain way. Because of that, it has left me no doubt in why I chose the life that I chose, and the fact that I can love it with my whole self.

I have always been interested in hospitality. Really, I've been most attracted to culinary. I wanted to go to culinary school, become a chef, and open my own restaurant. As part of my bachelor's degree, I had to get two 400-hour internships, as experience. So that's what I did: that summer I went and I got a job at one of the most known restaurants in Boston. It's called Eastern Standard Kitchen and Drink; it's in Fenway Park. I went and I worked there for 5 months full-time, in addition to taking summer classes. That summer was really hard. But that experience really helped me open my eyes, to make me think about what God was really asking of me. Some shifts I worked, I was standing on my feet for more than 10 hours sometimes, eating or taking a few breaks here and there. I learned a lot professionally and I was in awe of these people. But I looked around at one point in time at the people I was working with, who I looked up to, and I said, “I don't think I want their life.” Because they worked so hard, but they were missing something.

I was also going to study abroad in Spain after I left. I'd been wanting to do this since I started college: travel the world, meet people… I went to Spain and I traveled every weekend. I had such a terrible sleeping pattern. I would stay up until 2 a.m and wake up at 10 a.m. and I would go to class and hardly do my homework… Most people in study abroad programs, when they go to Spain, all they do is party. So that's what I did. I partied and I traveled and I met friends. I went to Paris, I went to Romania to visit my sister, I went to Belgium, I went all over Spain. Throughout this entire four months that I was in Spain, despite the fact that I was seeing some of the most beautiful cathedrals and beautiful cities in the world, and I was on my own and doing my own thing, I always had the feeling that I was still missing something. No matter how beautiful this place was that I was at, it wasn't home.

Throughout my whole process of trying to grow closer to God and really search openly for what he wanted, what he made me for, I am so grateful that, throughout that whole process of that very much up-and-down roller coaster ride of emotions, that once I made that decision, I stuck to it. Because it was my own decision, because I was the one asking, and I was the one searching, and I was the one that decided to do this. I never felt at all like people expected me to be a certain way. Because of that, it has left me no doubt in why I chose the life that I chose, and the fact that I can love it with my whole self.

In the service industry and hospitality, you do very basic things. You clean, you cook, you make beds, you make eggs for breakfast, you make coffee; that kind of thing. In the administration, our work is very normal, it's very ordinary, there’s nothing exciting about it, but the attitude and the passion with which you do your work is what makes it worthwhile and what fills your heart. I think that's the thing that's most special about what I do in my vocation, is that my work is not for myself, and it pushes me to ask for that “coefficient of expansion” that Saint Josemaria always talks about: the heart is so capable of growing, if we only let it.