Hello! I grew up with a very Catholic mother, and went to Catholic school through high school. From a very early age, I knew that something didn't sit quite right with me about being Catholic. It just didn't FEEL right. I remember teachers during religion class using the word "we" whenever they talked about beliefs--"We believe this" and "we believe that." I always found myself wondering why they had to use the word "we." How did they know what I believed, or what the other kids around me believed? They were including us without ever giving us the opportunity to choose or think about it for ourselves. We "believed" not because we chose to, but because our parents had chosen to send us to a school that taught us to. Over the years, I got a little bit spiteful about that. I would make a point to contribute to discussions in religion classes "from a non-Catholic perspective." During high school, I came out as bisexual and began to date another girl at my all-girls Catholic school. This did not go over well, and from then on I was treated very poorly by the faculty there. The odd extra rules and detentions I got (for completely unrelated and random things) only increased my bitterness toward Catholicism and that school. During late middle school and early high school I had discovered paganism. Something about it drew me in. I found myself at the public library all the time, reading all kinds of different books on Wicca and witchcraft. I found it enjoyable, and it made me happy to think about it, but in the end it still wasn't quite right for me. It wasn't until my senior year of high school that I stumbled upon Druidism. By that time I was single, lonely, and had nothing better to do then sit around thinking about how much I wanted to leave that Catholic school and never return. I was very bitter, and still often treated very differently by the staff because of my previous gay relationship. I was miserable. Druidism gave me tiny, brief moments of happiness throughout my days. As much as I hated that high school, I have to admit the 20-some acre campus was beautiful. When walking to class, I would pause for a moment to think about the trees and run my hand over the bark, or feel the wind tumbling by me. Those were my moments of peace, my moments of happiness. I graduated from that place and moved on to a large, public university where I have been much happier. It's been almost two years, and I think I can finally say that I'm no longer clinging to the grudging bitterness I used to hold on to. The staff at that school were wrong to treat me the way they did, but nothing I can do would ever make them feel differently. I don't despise Catholicism anymore either. Just because a few nutty people treated me badly cannot allow me to define the members of an entire religion. I respect it from a distance, as I hope most other people would do for my own spirituality. I've learned to let go of the past so that I can enjoy the present, and look forward to the future. I am happy. I have considered myself to be a follower of Druidism for around three years now, but I still consider myself to be somewhat new to it. I've never met another Druid in person, though I'd really love to. There is much I have to learn, and I am excited to finally have the freedom and independence to do so. If possible, I'd even like to join a Grove one day. It's been a bit of a long haul, but I think I've finally found what is right for me!