Hello, comrades. I am among the ranks of young teen writers who are better at writing than I am at the glorious 412teens.org. It seems the grand majority of the writers had a "story" that they shared with the general populace, so being the bandwagon-happy type of guy I am, I had to share a few thoughts.
I was raised in a Catholic family, but kind of went through the empty motions, declining every day until 7th grade, when I decidedly became an atheist one day. Literally, on that same day, I felt that something had left my body, some very important part of me.
Gradually, I regained my faith and began thinking about the metaphysical stuff. The more I thought, the more I realized I disagreed with many of the teachings of the magisterium, and the more I agreed with the teachings of the Bible.
As sad as it was that I lost my faith at such a young age, it was something that needed to happen so that it could come back stronger than ever. And it did. Throughout my unending struggle with OCD, hearing damage, and the whole crew of Tumblr misandrists, I have always felt God near.
Although I am sometimes ashamed to admit it, there have been times when I wanted to be an atheist, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it (Romans 1:20). There is a Man Above. I have never been good at keeping promises—many an ex will confirm that—but I can truly promise you that God is real.
What I've learned is that faith is both the journey and the destination: the longer it survives, the stronger it will prove to be, and the sweeter the destination will be. I think we both know what the destination is.
—Cactus, age 16
"If my entire life passes and all it has done is lead one more to believe, then that will have been enough." —Quote by me, but there was really no way to put such a quote in that paragraph without killing the vibe.
