I Wish More Were Like This

My high school was called Collier. It was founded by a convent of nuns known as the Sisters of the Good Shepherd. It was originally founded as a home and school for wayward girls, but eventually stopped being a home and opened up the school for both genders. I wrote the following on a post on one of my school’s Facebook groups and thought I would share it here, since a lot of people get the feeling that I am against all religion.

When I went to Collier, there was a lot of gay and bisexual students. There were students who got kicked out of school for fighting and drugs. I went to Catholic school for a number of years and they would basically just say if you do this your going to suffer eternal damnation. Looking on the news you see people saying that the end of the world is this date or that one, the Westboro Baptist Church pickets anything they can with signs that say “God Hates Fags”, Catholicism is looked down on in recent years due to the abuse scandels. Even individuals who believe they are good Christians and Catholics say that if you do these things you are going to Hell.

I don’t know what the above would say about Collier, I know that before I went to Collier I had shrugged off religion as a hateful practice, then a few weeks into being there September 11th happened and the news kept reiterating that it was done by religious extremists it made my distaste for religion even more.

Over the next few years at Collier, hearing, researching, and understanding how Collier came to be and seeing the religious statues on the campus, plus the fact that these nuns, administrators, and everyone who worked there really wanted you to be yourself. Even if that meant being gay, bi, straight, whatever, no one ever passed judgement onto you for being who you were, and while Collier isn’t technically a religious school, as I said you have the statues and the convent right there, plus a nun is praying for you during your time at Collier, it does have the potential to go the way that most other religions and religious people go, but it doesn’t. It accepts you and it helps you find yourself and be a better person, without judgement, or anything.

While most probably look at Collier and not think anything religion being associated with it, the fact is that it was founded by nuns so when I think about religion and how I see it as a huge problem and tearing this country and world apart, I also think about Collier and how if it wasn’t for religion how many of us wouldn’t be where we are, wouldn’t have graduated.

I wish more of the religious people of the world would stop judging others for their actions and put their energies to good use, like the Sisters of the Good Shepherd did with Collier.