Last Fall, I was in an extra-curricular school called GRACE Homeschool Association because I was homeschooled (of course) and needed some language courses and other stuff. Anyway, GRACE happened to be very religious, almost to the point of being fanatical. For the first semester, I had chosen to do oil painting. I love the arts and I like to try anything new.

The teacher was really into Native Americans so I thought, "Hey . . . a great teacher who will let me do my own thing." I was completely wrong about her. We had gotten into a theological discussion about Creation and Evolution two weeks before Samhain. Somewhere in the middle of all that, I had said, "I'm not a Christian." Everyone stared at me and I knew I should have bitten my tongue.

"You're gonna go to Hell," the teacher says to me. My jaw dropped and I couldn't say a word. I had never had anyone tell me I'll be going to Hell. She said it about 5 times to me and I wasn't angry at the time. I was shocked. I was shocked and hurt that an adult could tell me that so seriously. I just happened to be sitting next to a preacher's son too. He looked at me with his eyes wide and timidly asked, "You're not an Evolutionist, are you?" That made me feel relieved because if I was, then I probably would've been kicked out of the school.

For the next few months after the incident (I didn't leave GRACE until January 30th, when I started regular school), everyone avoided me. I was sent a letter that basically said, "We don't want you here anymore. If you drop out sometime in the next two weeks, we'll return your tuition in full." I am not a quitter when the times get like a rollercoaster. I bared my teeth and walked into GRACE every Friday.

From this experience, I learned just how closedminded SOME people can be. My journalism/biology teacher was the only person nice to me after the whole thing. And she's still my friend today. This has taught me that there are more bad people than good, but the good are worth knowing and holding onto. I just hope I never have to go through something like that again in this lifetime. You can go Back or read the letter.