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C2 - The Oakville Beaver, W ednesday July 31, 2002 World Youth Day `an electric feeling' (Continued from page C1) "I want to get people involved in helping the community," he said. "It will make you experience a lot of things, meet a lot of people." Gamez attended World Youth Day's pilgrimage and vigil on Saturday night, as well as mass Sunday morning, with 65 other Oakville pilgrims from the St. M ichael's youth group, including Theresa Smith, 19, who just graduated from Loyola. Similarly to Gamez, the most incred ible part of World Youth Day for her wasn't something tangible. "It's the feeling more than the events that's most memorable," she said. "All those people together for the same rea son, waving their flags. It was just an electric feeling." But that feeling came after months of preparation, as Gamez said Loyola's student council began planning for World Youth Day last October, when they decided to host students from abroad. Much time was also spent throughout the year making arrange ments for their own participation. The hard work and sacrifice, however, was more than worth it. "The only thing we lost was sleep," he said, referring to Saturday's overnight vigil, which was filled with dancing, singing and chanting until dawn. And it seems differences in language were more than overcome - with smiles, laughter, and other universal symbols. Referring to the Polish pilgrims stay ing at Loyola earlier last week, Gamez said, "It was a little hard, but I knew, with just a smile and the way we shook hands that I had made a friend. We just knew." It appears these sentiments reflect the way most World Youth Day partici pants felt. From the beginning of the week until the last GO Train pulled out from Union Station Sunday, young peo ple of all different cultures, languages and races cheered for each other's coun tries, waved each other's flags, danced to each other's music, sang each other's songs, and much, much more. "Going into the weekend, people were saying, `Oh the numbers are lower than expected,' and stuff like that. But it was so much greater than I expected. That night (of the vigil) I didn't even sleep. There were just so many people I wanted to meet. How could you just lie there when you knew there were all these people?" said Gamez. As for the cheers, the Oakville teen said it didn't matter what language it was in, everyone joined. "One person would start, and then it would turn into a thousand, and then a million, it was this incredible wave," he said. He also spoke of one moment at the vigil when he spotted a lively group waving the national flag of the Philippines - his native country. "I saw them and I thought, `Hey, I'll go meet some of my blood relatives," ' he said. Gamez caught up to the group Jamie Smith · Oakville Beaver O lga K ouptchinski, left, Joe Taylor, Eric Sillius, and K atherine Sm ith o f the St. M ich ael's Youth G roup m ake their way to D ow nsview Park. and greeted them in their mother tongue, soon after joining them in song and dance. "It was funny because of all the groups, the Filipinos would always go and dance to try to make people laugh," he said. "Other countries would come over and laugh with us. It was great, it was cold (at that point) and we were lifting people's spirits." Gamez said that at one point, he pulled a German youth into the circle that had formed. "I just pulled him in and we just started dancing. He was laughing and laughing, it was so funny," he said. "And then the Italians joined us, and we each had our own drums and were play ing together. It was so much fun." Smith, too, spoke about the instant friendships that formed between the youth of other nations. She and a few others had people sign their notebook to say which country they were from. In the end, they had more than 300 signa tures of young people from places such as Madagascar, Nunavut, Lebanon and Arabia. "It was so amazing to know you had something in common with all of those people," she said. "It was such an amaz ing experience." As for Sunday's mass that followed the overnight celebration, Gamez said it was an incredible feeling to know that when Pope John Paul II was speaking, it was a moment that hundreds of thou sands shared together. "Everyone reacted the same way. It was just a wave of silence when he was speaking," he said. "There was one feel ing and (almost) one million people were also feeling it. "It made the world smaller," he con tinued. "We were all trying to find the spirit together." Smith said the Pope's message was particularly inspiring. "He's up there telling us, `You're the hope of the world.' I mean, you aren't told that everyday. We're used to mes sages like, `Don't get in trouble', or `Use a condom.' But he had these high expectations of us and he believed we could do it. It felt good," she said. "Here's the leader of the Catholic Church saying, `The future is in your hands. You can make the world a better place.'" Overall, both Gamez and Smith said they emerged from WYD renewed in their faith and inspired to fulfill the challenge posed by the man they believe is highest to God. "He instilled in us a sense of respon sibility that the world is depending on us," said Smith. "He basically said, `This is your time.'" Only days after the festivities came to an end and both Gamez and Smith said plans are already under way to fundraise for the next World Youth Day, which will be hosted in Germany. O nTheS pot! 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