Personal Narrative: Robin Talley's Journey

My eighth grade year, was like Toniʼs journey of self discovery from What We Left Behind by Robin Talley. I was quiet. I had a shell, and was used to being the person who you didnʼt know was in your class until third quarter. Like Toni I had one close friend (Grace was mine and Gretchen was Tʼs) and a few girls I was able to make conversation with if necessary. I had started to transition into a more open person at the end of seventh grade, courtesy of The Voice, but it was far from over. That summer, I decided that I was going to extend my branches further than they ever had been before. T and I both started the school year with some kind of boundary between us and our best friend, and were left to fend for ourselves. Mine was the fact that

I knew that I was Catholic, but I wanted to know what kind of Catholic I was, I’m not a conservatist and a lot of my feelings contradict the typical Catholic views. I feel like everyone should be able to choose what and how they believe, and I don’t feel like your religion should control every single aspect of your life. I also think that women should be equal to men, especially in the Church’s eyes and that same sex couples should be able to marry within the Church, because even though the church technically accepts them, they don’t recognize the fact that they’re married because they can’t produce children. However, that’s a double standard. Heterosexual couples who are unable to produce kids for various reasons are still married within the Church. I guess I feel like the Church is not trying hard enough to incorporate the prejudiced parts of society and while I believe the lessons Jesus taught us, I do not see eye to eye with some of the laws the Church instated. During preparation for Confirmation I started to go to Youth Group meetings and the environment was very different than what I have become accustomed to. I am no longer used to having both genders in the room when I am learning and it was definitely not what I recalled. It was not different at all, the Catholic environment made it more