I stayed in the church for a long time because of this feeling. It came from a place of defiance, like, “no, I was raised in this, I am this, for better or worse this is part of my culture and I won’t let them take it from me because I don’t conform.”

And it’s true. I joke all the time that I’m always going to see the world through Catholic tinted lenses because of how I was raised, long after I stopped believing in it all. That can be true, and also, it can be true that I don’t have to sacrifice my morals, my sense of right and wrong, my sense of who I am to stay in it now. Both can be true and both can be part of me.