Meet Trailblazer Sarah White

Today we’d like to introduce you to Sarah White.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Sarah. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
It all started with a cup of coffee and two IT techs in 2013. I was a freshman in college, studying with my then-boyfriend, now-husband with my brand new Mac computer and mountains of notes when the cup of coffee spilled all over my keyboard. The two of us scrambled to dry off all our scattered papers, I quickly moved the laptop to my seat, and we did our best to use the sub-par napkins to their capacity. When all was seemingly dry, I picked up my laptop and coffee spilled out of the ports on the side. Filled with dread and panic, we took my laptop to the small Apple store on campus, and I remember the lady who took our ticket joking about how my laptop smelled like coffee. That week was a very long week. I had no hope, I thought my computer must be fried. And in the midst of not knowing what to do, my boyfriend said, “I mean, I’m pretty sure prayer is all that’s left at this point.” Now, I hadn’t prayed… ever? But we had hit rock bottom. And this was more enticing than calling my dad to tell him what had happened. So, I prayed that night. Something along the lines of, “Hi… I’m… Sarah. Haven’t talked in a while. I don’t really know how to talk to you? But I need something to work out, with this whole computer thing. I know it’s all my fault, but I really need this to be okay. Please, do this one thing for me. Amen? Amen. Oh, and if you do, I’ll say hi more often. Okay. Thanks. Bye.”

That Friday, I got a call from one of the techs; they had my computer ready, but they wanted to talk to me first. I went in that afternoon and they pulled me to the side and asked if I had dropped my computer in a bathtub. Confused, I answered no, and he said his colleague and he had never seen so much water on a computer. I corrected them and said, “it was coffee, I spilled coffee, not water.” He dropped his pen and his jaw and quickly walked off to get the other IT guy. They came back and asked me lots of questions about the coffee, if there was creamer, etc. I couldn’t understand why they were so surprised… my computer is fried, right? I should just call my parents and tell them? Cut to the news I’m here for! And they said no. They said that my computer performed perfectly as it had never been touched by liquid. They said it passed all their tests with flying colors. They said they were shocked, and now that I had said it was coffee, they were without explanation. “But your computer works perfect, here you go,” they said as they handed it back to me wide-eyed. My boyfriend and I walked away as if we won the lottery.

That weekend, we decided to “thank” God for helping us out by going to a church on campus called the Newman Center. I had close to zero understanding of all that went on but I discovered an inner peace in that hour I hadn’t known I was previously lacking in a very serious way. We went back again the next Sunday, and the Sunday after that, and so on. You know, to keep thanking God for his favor. Nothing more, nothing less. But you give the Lord an inch, and He takes a mile. In the fall of 2014, I met Jesus in the Eucharist during Adoration on a retreat through the Newman Center that changed my life forever, and in the spring of 2015, I was confirmed into the Catholic Church.

Fast forward a few years, and a group of women and I started a blog of letters that we had written to God in prayer. They were of ways we were saying yes to His plan for us through the different things we were going through, all the while with the hope that if we were saying yes, anyone reading could say yes in their situation too. And that is kind of what happened! We had women all over the country relate to the different perspectives we wrote about, and it gave them the courage to keep on going because they weren’t alone in doing so. It was really inspiring. After about a year, the group sort of entered into phases of life that didn’t allow for so much dedicated time anymore – big moves, engagements, further schooling, etc. I couldn’t let the community we had started to go, so I kept on with the Instagram account and slowly adjusted it to be more personal to me. And today we have around 4.3k followers, very humbling for not having the account up and running for very long!

I post as frequently as I can what I would call an overflow of my prayer life, completely dependent on spending personal time with God. I speak of saying yes to His plan for me through the daily challenge of claiming a faith in today’s culture, of goodness in different teachings of the Church, of the strength that lies in the surrender, and of the fact that even if we are saying “yes” to different circumstances, we can still say yes together. I once heard the phrase “saints arrive at Heaven in pairs,” and I’ve kept that close for inspiration for the community.

The journey is radically better when you aren’t alone. I’ve experienced that and I’ve seen proof of it. And I consider myself really lucky to have a platform to create a community online, and now being able to begin a community in person in my town.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
I think one of the hardest challenges has been to keep up a consistent faith life for my own sake, not for sharing-with-others sake. It’s one of those strange things about social media, but people can tell when you’re not being authentic. I used to feel pressure to post just to keep up, instead of posting as an “overflow” of what I’ve been going through in my faith life, and people can tell! Those kinds of posts don’t get the likes or comments that my normal posts do. So, I stopped doing that. And sometimes that means I go a few days without posting here and there, but I want to be real. I don’t want to force posts because I’m worried about online stats… that’s going in the opposite direction for me. Super corny, but you can’t pour from an empty cup! And I have to pursue a relationship with Jesus because I believe what He says and because I love Him. Not because I wanna take and turn around and give it away immediately. An overflow, the ability to share where I am and encourage other women to shoot for sainthood with me, is a grace and privilege I get from a wholehearted commitment to the Father. And it’s something I have to work for every day.

My advice would be to begin today! There is no time like the present, you can perpetually put things off to next week. People want community. And if you start with just two other people, that is worth it, and it’ll grow. I have also found that if you take the time to be authentic, people notice. And so, it is always worth it to take the time you need to fill yourself up before you go giving to others.

Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Millennial Fiat – what should we know?
Millennial Fiat is a Catholic community online of people who want to grow in relationship with Jesus and with one another. (Millennial referring to the general age of my audience, and fiat referring to the act of Mary accepting becoming the mother of Jesus.) I share about the search for my own daily fiat in the hopes of letting people know they are not alone in their pursuit of holiness. And I have had women from all over the country share with me what they are going through, and how my own sharing has inspired them to keep putting one foot in front of the other. That’s not to say I’ve had this terribly tragic life, but that we all have our cross, and we all have to carry it every day. And that could range from a hard day at work, to a lack of patience with our family, to the death of a loved one. Our yes’s, our fiats, don’t have to be the same for us to say them together.

I strongly believe in the statement “this, too, shall be redeemed,” and I am really proud of that. It came from my own frustration with the phrase, “this too shall pass.” I disagreed with that statement… I think some things don’t pass, I think they simply become a part of you. And I was discussing this with a priest, as he and I enjoy going back and forth with wordplay and overarching ideas like this. When he came up with the phrase “this, too, shall be redeemed,” it stuck with me. And so I try to speak on that idea to others: that sure, this may not pass, but it’s not going to stay “bad.” We don’t always know how, which can actually be a really big relief, but we do know that a God who has so much love for the world that He sends His Son to redeem it, has plenty of love to give for you and me. And that this difficulty you are going through will be redeemed, in some way. It’s not necessarily up to us to always know how, but it is up to us to believe that it will. Through my sharing, I have received testimony after testimony of how this is true in other peoples’ lives, and it’s quite inspiring. I would encourage people to join the community and see! Perhaps, even getting to share their own testimony.

The most recent development for me is the beginning of an in-person community here in Phoenix! I am teaming up with some friends who all happen to be in a group called The Band Ezekiel, and we are hosting nights of community, called Adore. Our first ever Adore Night is at St. Daniel the Prophet parish in south Scottsdale on May 4th at 6 pm. This particular night is different because it includes adoration, time with the Eucharist displayed on the altar. We have plans that include just music and social time at different places around Phoenix too for future dates. I’ve found that there are little pockets of people searching for the community all over Phoenix, and online through our online spaces, and we are trying to bring that together. I strongly believe our hearts were made for community, and this is our invitation to those we know and those we don’t know to begin that. I’m really excited about this first night coming up!

Finding a mentor and building a network are often cited in studies as a major factor impacting one’s success. Do you have any advice or lessons to share regarding finding a mentor or networking in general?
I think it’s a little different because I’m not running a business, there isn’t any money involved, so things are very social based. But I would say a huge part of everything is reaching out! I have some fantastic friendships that all started with me sending them a private message one day. You never know what it could lead to! It’s been my experience that people read their messages, and are willing to start conversations with you on how they have gotten where they are and what has/has not worked for them.

For networking, I think it’s important to make connections with people who have their own communities. For me, that includes youth ministers with their teens and Newman Centers with their own communities of college students. It also includes keeping in touch with the Newman Center I went to in college and all the friends that still live in that town.

Pricing:

• Our event on May 4th is free!
• Shoot for Sainthood Stickers ~ $3.00 ea

Contact Info:

• Website: https://themillennialfiat.wordpress.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/millennialfiat/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/themillennialfiat/

Image Credit:
My husband’s name is Noah White, Band members from left to right are Dominic Smith, Bernadette Smith, Christian Nguyen, MaryAnne Muglia

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