When teens and young adults come together for a cause, no matter what it may be, the result is pretty powerful. When there are thousands of them, it’s an even more awing experience.

From November 21-23, Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana held the National Catholic Youth Conference, better known to many as NCYC. I was one of the privileged teens allowed to attend. 88 youth, including Siena Thrasher ’15, helped to “run the show,” while myself and 23,000 other teens and young adults sat back and worshiped the Lord. NCYC is run by the National Foundation for Catholic Youth Ministry, and only occurs every two years. Another convention for college students, NCCC, is run at the same time, and those participants experience many of the same things.

Jesse Manibusan, a Catholic speaker and performer, kicked off the show on November 21. I was personally extremely tired from the 10 hour bus ride through the night, but I was excited to see what was in store. The first night didn’t fail to impress me. Between the hundreds of booths filled with Catholic content, a performance by Matt Maher, and a special prayer service to kick off the day, I was amazed by the amount of love and respect that everyone seemed to have for each other, even though no one knew each other very well.

By the end of the third day, I didn’t want to go home. However, the best was yet to come- ending Mass. The sight of hundreds of bishops, priests, and seminarians was inspiring, especially since many of them were young. Even better was the sound of thousands dropping to their knees on the cold, hard stadium floor in front of the Body and Blood of Christ. As a Catholic teen who is very involved in her faith, it was inspiring to see so many other teens in reverence in front of Christ.

I could go on for hours about this experience. Whether it was a laughing seminarian proclaiming that the confession booths were “wonderlands of sin forgiveness,” giving strangers hugs, “tagging” each other with loving messages written on the sides of clothespins, or exchanging Instagram usernames and Twitter handles with my new friends from across the country, many experiences stick out in my mind. I could tell you about the bishop jokingly proclaiming that doughnuts and coffee wouldn’t be available after Mass, the massive card for Pope Francis that almost half of the NCYC participants signed, or the XLT session that almost brought me to tears. However, I honestly don’t believe that this experience could be fully explained. NCYC was, without a doubt, one of the best weekends of my life. I can’t wait to go back in two years.