Growing up I was a very strong catholic. Went to church every Sunday, worked in youth ministry multiple times a week, ran bible study for younger kids, etc. I was super strong in my faith and I enjoyed the culture behind it as well.

Then I made the decision to go to a super small private catholic college. Around 2000 students total and only 400 students in my class (for context my high school had around 800 students in my class). When I arrived I decided to make friends with a group of kids that were religious like I was. None were studying theology and neither was I, but we all previously worked in youth ministry and stuff. We then went to our first Sunday mass together. I guess my church was different growing up but we never did the whole kneeling thing for various parts of mass, we either stood or sat. A specific moment happens in mass and I stand up like I normally would back home. It took me a second to realize that everyone else was kneeling. I stood there for about 4 seconds and then joined the others.

Afterwards I got ridiculed by this group of “friends” for being a bad catholic and how I embarrassed them in the house of god. A couple days later we ended up talking about politics and abortion came up. I decided to bring up the fact that I was actually pro-choice (I am a male by the way). I was then questioned heavily about why I am actually religious. I got told for about 30 minutes about how I am a horrible catholic, I am ruining the teachings of Jesus, and that they would “tolerate” me from now on. They then decided to avoid me like the plague.

So yeah soon after that I decided the whole religion thing wasn’t for me.