I was raised in a mainstream Christian religion and went to church and Sunday School with my family every week. But when I was in high school, I began questioning what I understood about God and my relationship to Him. I yearned to know if God really existed. 

I wondered, Did God create man, or did man create the concept of God in order to explain long-held beliefs and traditions? If God exists and loves me, as I’d been taught in Sunday School, why do bad things happen? Does God punish me when I’m “bad” and reward me when I’m “good”? In search of answers to these questions, I took every opportunity to visit other church denominations with friends, and I also began reading books on spirituality. 

By the time I got to my sophomore year of college, I felt lost. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. I did know that I wanted to transfer to a different college. But either the schools I applied to didn’t accept me or I felt they were a wrong choice for one reason or another.