The Breaking Point
There does come a time in everyone's life when they have had enough of something. Maybe it's finally the time they have had enough of a relationship. Maybe they are tired of a certain place and they want to move somewhere else. Maybe they want to explore some new thought and strip away the old.
I have finally been tired of the system I was raised in. I was raised in a highly conservative church, one whose values permeate every aspect of one's life. Being raised in the Seventh-day Adventist Church can make one subject to a lifestyle that restricts them from being much of a part of the outside world. It does depend on the individual however. Yet there are some SDAs who have spent much of their lives being in the Adventist circles; going to school with Adventists, working for Adventists, volunteering with Adventists, and having Adventist friends.
The conservative SDAs don't drink alcohol or smoke (ever) and dress conservatively. Jewelry is prohibited in most circles. Many are vegetarians, and generally the food at any gathering is vegetarian. The SDAs don't dance or gamble. There are some who won't attend movie theaters or listen to secular music. Things are changing now and many people are not as strict about those things as they used to be. Yet that was the world I was raised in. I was afraid to break any of those rules because I then thought I wouldn't go to Heaven.
In grade school, I went to three different SDA church schools. They were all terrible. The first school had two teachers in two rooms who taught just over 20 students. The second school had one room and 16 students. The last one was similar to the first.
The first church was in the inner city. The kids who came from the projects were rough. There were some boys who used to pick on me a lot. I came home with bruises and nothing was done about it. The boys had family that had high positions in the church and they could do as they liked. My teacher wasn't the principal, the other one was. She cared less about what people did.
After a year of homeschooling (not much happened, and my sister and I were allowed to go to the next level) we went to SDA school #2. The principal from the first school had become a teacher there. She was the same. She sometimes came into school late. She let the students walk around the school. Some would even hang out under her desk, reading a book at her feet. Some students wished to place boxes on their desks, which they used to hide away from everyone else. A state inspector made them be tossed into the garbage.
The teacher decided to look busy when the parents arrived to pick their children up. She would suddenly start teaching us something like conversational French, history, or art. She would make nice paintings and give them away. She had beautiful church programs for the parents, where we learned to sing in a choir and even use handbells.
After that I went to school #3. My sister and I were in separate classrooms for the first time. The teacher I had was from India. She had lived in the USA since the age of ten. She still didn't know that Delaware was a state. She thought she could take the class on a field trip to see Biosphere II in Arizona. It would take a two day drive to get there from Massachusetts and she didn't realize that. She was kindly told that by a student.
I was baptized at the age of 12. I was so HAPPY to do that. I was so proud of myself. My mother blubbered and cried in the front pew. I felt that I was doing what Jesus wanted. When I came up from the water my friends David and Denise started singing "What a Friend We Have in Jesus" with a guitar. My adopted grandmother Betty was waiting just outside the tank with a towel. Many old ladies were kissing me later.
While in high school I was so afraid of everyone else that I hardly spoke to anyone. I attended a state school. I didn't know what to say. My family didn't watch television, so I couldn't talk about that. I didn't know how to explain to anyone about my ideas on jewelry, meat-eating (I was raised a vegetarian), strict Sabbath-keeping, and the fact I didn't dance. So I just stayed away from everyone. I know now that even though I was an honor-student, I failed. I failed in being a kind and loving person to everyone. I could have been there for people who needed me. I could have brightened people's day. I could have more good memories of high school now.
I have finally been tired of the system I was raised in. I was raised in a highly conservative church, one whose values permeate every aspect of one's life. Being raised in the Seventh-day Adventist Church can make one subject to a lifestyle that restricts them from being much of a part of the outside world. It does depend on the individual however. Yet there are some SDAs who have spent much of their lives being in the Adventist circles; going to school with Adventists, working for Adventists, volunteering with Adventists, and having Adventist friends.
The conservative SDAs don't drink alcohol or smoke (ever) and dress conservatively. Jewelry is prohibited in most circles. Many are vegetarians, and generally the food at any gathering is vegetarian. The SDAs don't dance or gamble. There are some who won't attend movie theaters or listen to secular music. Things are changing now and many people are not as strict about those things as they used to be. Yet that was the world I was raised in. I was afraid to break any of those rules because I then thought I wouldn't go to Heaven.
In grade school, I went to three different SDA church schools. They were all terrible. The first school had two teachers in two rooms who taught just over 20 students. The second school had one room and 16 students. The last one was similar to the first.
The first church was in the inner city. The kids who came from the projects were rough. There were some boys who used to pick on me a lot. I came home with bruises and nothing was done about it. The boys had family that had high positions in the church and they could do as they liked. My teacher wasn't the principal, the other one was. She cared less about what people did.
After a year of homeschooling (not much happened, and my sister and I were allowed to go to the next level) we went to SDA school #2. The principal from the first school had become a teacher there. She was the same. She sometimes came into school late. She let the students walk around the school. Some would even hang out under her desk, reading a book at her feet. Some students wished to place boxes on their desks, which they used to hide away from everyone else. A state inspector made them be tossed into the garbage.
The teacher decided to look busy when the parents arrived to pick their children up. She would suddenly start teaching us something like conversational French, history, or art. She would make nice paintings and give them away. She had beautiful church programs for the parents, where we learned to sing in a choir and even use handbells.
After that I went to school #3. My sister and I were in separate classrooms for the first time. The teacher I had was from India. She had lived in the USA since the age of ten. She still didn't know that Delaware was a state. She thought she could take the class on a field trip to see Biosphere II in Arizona. It would take a two day drive to get there from Massachusetts and she didn't realize that. She was kindly told that by a student.
I was baptized at the age of 12. I was so HAPPY to do that. I was so proud of myself. My mother blubbered and cried in the front pew. I felt that I was doing what Jesus wanted. When I came up from the water my friends David and Denise started singing "What a Friend We Have in Jesus" with a guitar. My adopted grandmother Betty was waiting just outside the tank with a towel. Many old ladies were kissing me later.
While in high school I was so afraid of everyone else that I hardly spoke to anyone. I attended a state school. I didn't know what to say. My family didn't watch television, so I couldn't talk about that. I didn't know how to explain to anyone about my ideas on jewelry, meat-eating (I was raised a vegetarian), strict Sabbath-keeping, and the fact I didn't dance. So I just stayed away from everyone. I know now that even though I was an honor-student, I failed. I failed in being a kind and loving person to everyone. I could have been there for people who needed me. I could have brightened people's day. I could have more good memories of high school now.
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