From 3 days old until I was about 10 years old, I was brought to the kingdom hall twice a week and read bible stories almost every single day. Growing up a Jehovah’s Witness was far from a pleasant experience. In fact, it was quite an isolating time in my life. As a Jehovah’s Witness, you are not allowed to participate in holidays such as Christmas or birthdays. So when you are 7 years old in public school, and everyone else is making fun crafts and listening to Christmas music, you have to go sit in the hall alone. Beyond that, even when there was another Jehovah’s Witness kid in my class who I desperately wanted to be friends with, my grandmother told me to, “be wary of Jehovah’s Witnesses who are not as devout as they should be.” Slowly, you grow tired of being excluded from activities and not being allowed to have friends like most children. Then, at age 10, when my parents decided to leave the religion, the half of my family who were still in it completely cut us off. From then on, I was able to have friends and participate in holidays, but my grandparents, aunts, and uncles no longer spoke to me. Whether you stay in the religion or leave it, you are isolated from some part of your world that others are not. This experience with religion has caused me to distance myself from all forms of religion and caused me to be wary of those who are extremely religious, even to this day. I suppose that is yet another way I have been isolated from parts of life by this experience.