About the Author: Raised Outside Religion

I have always had pride in my unique religious upbringing. When I was young, my parents did not tell my sisters and I what religion they practiced, if any. We knew they had both grown up in the Catholic Church and did not go anymore. The only exception was that my Dad occasionally went to Christmas Mass (though I would later learn it was just because "church acoustics are sick" and it reminded him of his grandmother). Generally speaking, our parents encouraged us to explore freely and carefully form our own opinions. They suggested trying out church with our friends after Saturday night sleepovers, reading about world religions, trying meditation, and above all else remaining curious. 

My religious Journey went something like this...

• 0-4 years old: Not capable of having thoughts/believed in reincarnation without knowledge of Buddhism; really freaked out my mom when I asked who I'd get to be after I died
• 4-7 years old: staunch atheist; got in trouble in kindergarten for telling Sam Cook God wasn't real
• 7-9 years old: tried out church; went enough times with my friend Sophia that they gave me a kid sized bible
• 9-13 years old: a less confident atheist
• 13-17 years old: very confident Agnostic 
• 17-19.75 years old: dabbling with spirituality; started regularly meditating and using journaling, tarot, and grounding techniques 
• 19.75-21 years old: ????

Over the last 21 years I have vacillated between being atheist, agnostic, and spiritual. I have watched friends and family members commit themselves to faiths of which they’ve had little understanding of or connection to. I've heard faithless people judge the religious for following blindly, and then immediately demonstrate their own passivity and apathy for all that surrounds them. There is no one right thing to believe in or one right way to do it; however, every belief system holds value and contains practices and teachings from which we could all benefit. 

My parents gave me complete freedom to explore and chose which belief systems to follow. They didn't want to impose any of their own beliefs, knowing that if any one thing is true, it's that people are often wrong. I am thankful that I was given the opportunity to think deeply and critically about what works best for me and look forward to finding new ways to be confused about all of it.