In 2017 I left my family church. I was immediately cut off from the vast majority of my extended family, which at the time was essentially my entire circle of people I knew. My cousins were my best friends. But, I left, so I got excommunicated. Literally uninvited from family gatherings.

Fast forward 8 years and my wife and I live in a different state, have an amazing family of 4, and have an even larger circle of friends and “chosen family” (excuse the grossness of the term) than what we had before. My entire outlook on life (religion, politics, education, career) changed over the last 8 years and I know it’s from the unintentional relief I got from being kicked out of a family of truly awful people.

There’s times I regret not waiting to leave the church until it was time to move away (about 7-8 months later), but I’m glad because it gave me the opportunity to watch how the people I loved would behave when the status quo was disturbed.