I have been around religion all my life, but only recently has it become important to me. I find this ironic, because I recently transferred to a ‘public’ DODDS school from a small, private Catholic school. Only after I was removed from the Catholic school environment did I begin to see what religion really is. I came to the Catholic school system in Leavenworth, Kansas in the fifth grade. Before that time, I was nave; I barely knew any swear words and all I knew about sex was that I was interested in cute boys. Ironically, it was this time, all through and every year after fifth grade that I was subjected to and learned vulgarity. By the time I was a sophomore, I was so familiar with all of the four-letter words that I swore casually with my friends when we would discuss sex or gossip about other students. I picked up every slang word for every body part and knew every sexual innuendo there was to know, all during the six years I attended Catholic school. Even though we were not very good examples of church-going youngsters, my friends and I regularly went to Youth Group meetings. I never really listened to what the speaker was saying or to what I was singing, I just went to socialize with my friends. When we moved to Okinawa, I immediately wanted to make friends with the popular crowd, but my mother forced me to go to Youth Group. I only knew one person there, but I met another girl, who introduced me to her group of friends, the exact crowd I wanted to meet. We went out a couple of times, but after a few weeks at school, they decided I was not ‘cool enough’ and dropped me from their group. I was crushed. However, since I was new, I had met other new people, who I brought to the Youth Group so I would not be alone. Soon I met other people at the Youth Group and began to get more involved with that crowd. They did not reject me because of my appearance or because I sometimes said stupid thi...
