Welcome, dear reader, to yet another Origin story.

You've seen it, we all have; Apes, Hobbits, pretty much every Marvel character - Origin stories are everywhere. So why not be a cliche and make one's own Origin story? Well, that's what today's post is all about.

Today is a tell-all for the spiritual side of my life prior to where I am now. After all, the plethora of information left before really just leaves room for questions, it doesn't really answer anything.

Starting at age 6, I went to a private Catholic School. While daunting and corrupt, it did hold its religion highly. As expected of a child with no experience in this topic, I just found the onslaught of prayers, masses and Religious Education to be quite boring.

I watched the ancient Mrs. Cox find new life describing St. Bernadette and her encounters with Mary the Immaculate mother.
I chanted the countless "Our Father" prayers every morning before classes started - and I most definitely had the endless replies one had to speak during Mass ceremonies drilled into my head - no matter how little attention one paid to Father Barnard, one always blurted out the words right on-cue. This went so far as to become a problem when watching the Star Wars films of the time - Obi-wan would be there saying to Anakin "May The Force be with you." and immediately, without hesitating, my mouth would run "And also with you." in that ceremonial hum as if I'd just heard the famous mass words, "May The Lord be with you all".

That's not to say it was a negative experience in any way - I learned a hell of a lot from my time there. It's all invaluable information and while it was boring at the time, I find a lot of the Catholic history to be almost artistic in its creation these days.

Next, at age 12, I added the Lutheran church to my religious regime. Whilst at an aftercare and holiday care center hosted by the local Lutheran Church, I got invited to a kids' club holiday week. It was here that I truly started to "find God", so to speak. I found it to be fun jumping around for worship songs, I found their teachings to be modern and insightful, it was a rush like never before!

I started going to that church every Sunday all on my own - No other family with me since they're not quite into this sort of stuff - and it really put Christianity into perspective for me. I accepted God into my heart and tried my best to be a good Christian. That didn't work well, of course. Private schools are hosts to the more sadistic bullies - which meant I lost my temper and acted in a nasty way often as a retort to being bullied. It was a sort of a double life.

Just before I turned 15, New Years morning 2010, I was on a church camp trip with the fellow Lutherans and decided I wasn't doing it right, I wasn't really being the Christian I could be - so, I decided I was going to go all out. I was going to push my boundaries. I stopped swearing, stopped judging, I no longer lied even if it meant getting in serious trouble, and I devoted myself to this religious world I'd spent 3 years in.
This meant I was at church on Sundays, helping out on Tuesdays, Helping on Fridays at the Kids' Club and going to Youth on Fridays after the Kids' Club. I recall my mom calling that church 'the brainwashing facility' and wondering why.

About 6 months into this 'reborn' state, things went wrong. Around me, people at the church were acting off.. more so than usual. Hypocrisy was a bit scary at the youth, there was a scandal amidst the main Sunday congregation involving the Pastor and someone's wife, my general life was starting to head downhill. I prayed for help, and things got worse. Friends were betraying me, family members were dying (4 in a week) and someone started a rumour about me being a Satanist.

I heard people speaking behind my back about how my depressed state "reminded" them of Satan. I recall a girl refusing to speak to me for being a demon whisperer. I remember the kids pastor telling me I couldn't be involved in the kids' club coworker help anymore without giving a reason. The youth pastor was praying for me and telling me "not to worry" about the rumors. At this stage, I still didn't know what was happening somehow.
And then the following Sunday, Pastor J. pulled me up. He stood me in front of 500 people and declared in all might and glory "this child has been taken by Satan! He is a Satanist! Let's pray for him to recover!". I looked around in horror and left, getting chased by a friend who saw this happen. An elder lady, in her 30's, stopped me and asked to confirm, "You did that Facebook quiz about which demon you were, didn't you?".

I was being seen as a Satanist by an entire church for doing a Facebook quiz while I was bored to find out which DIablo II video game character I was. I was done being a Christian.

Fast forward to years later, and I'm in this godless world where I don't know up from down and I found the Wicca side of stuff. Don't get me wrong, I'm not against Christianity, I'm not here to bring one religion down. It was a shock though, and it was traumatising. It's also a key part of my life and I'm thankful it happened. It didn't teach me as much about history as it did teach me about people. I did visit about 9 other churches in the area, to be clear. I'd been where I needed to be and life was ushering me on.

I guess the point is everyone has their own belief, their own calling. They all act differently but not everyone acts appropriately, No one's perfect but no one should be pushing themselves away from being closer to perfection, no matter whether or not it's achievable to be perfect.

After everything that I've told you, I'd like to add that I don't hold contempt. I don't feel anger toward them, I don't see them as horrible. They were just severely misinformed and got a bit excited.

So that's me up until now. And we're done with the past, onto the future!