My Life-Changing Trip to the Vatican Started With an Unexpected Sign

I was standing on the security line to enter the Vatican when a bird pooped on me. After my initial annoyance, I realized that it was a sign that I was in the right place.

One of my biggest personal goals has always been to take my first big "on my own dime" trip to Rome. I'd bought into the idea of visiting the Vatican the way some kids yearn for Disney World; I wanted to go there because I felt that once I did, I would have a life-changing experience that I would remember forever.

For some, that life-changing experience may be a sort of religious awakening, but mine had little to do with religion and everything to do with my Latina mom and abuela.

Growing up, for my immigrant mom and abuela, visiting the Vatican was a kind of goal that would indicate we'd made it. For me, it became an extension of the nightly prayers I remember my mom and I would say. She died when I was 10 years old and of all the things that I had to grasp on to after her passing — of all the prayers we'd practiced nightly — her desire to see the Vatican is what stuck.

As I got older, it became one of my biggest personal goals; I wanted to be able to go to for her.

Then my grandma died in 2014. My plan was put on hold, but looking back, I'm grateful that it was. Because when I did actually visit the Vatican this past January, I was able to do it for both of the women who made it possible for me to get there in the first place; the ones that immigrated to the US so I could have a better future.

There are many things I don't agree with the Church on — ideologically we're on different planes — but when it comes to faith and the importance of family, I learned from the best, my matriarchs.

This wish, and faith in the way that I define it, is what got me through my abuela's death. I had something to strive for during a time when a lot of my life was an unknown.

My grandma had an affinity for pigeons; she would constantly feed them and tell me that a white pigeon and one pooping on you were both signs of good luck. Whether you believe in signs or not, that was one for me.

That pigeon made it clear that I was where I needed to be and I know my mom and grandma would have been proud. I made it.