Post #6

A time that my values conflicted with the values of an organization to which I belonged was my time in high school. I was raised Catholic by my family and decided to go to a Catholic high school, St. Xavier, when I was in 8^th grade. The decision wasn’t motivated by religion on my part, but it may have been from my parent’s end. Around my junior year of high school I discovered that organized religion, in particular Catholicism, wasn’t for me. However, the religious nature of my high school had not changed. I found myself at odds with the way many things were taught simply because they didn’t appeal to me. After some time, however, I realized that this wasn’t the way to continue my education. Therefore, instead of attempting to battle religious education, I embraced the aspects that could still apply to my life. For example, one of the most important parts of Jesuit philosophy is finding God within all things. I realized that this did not have to just apply to God, but could also signify finding value in any number of things. Finding value in religious classes that I may not have agreed with the basic tenets of was very valuable for me in terms of getting the most out of my education. My senior year I took a religion elective called “Question of God”, which turned out to be one of the best classes I took all throughout high school. The class was taught by two staunchly Catholic men, but was very discussion based and encouraged dissenting viewpoints. By the end of the class, I had thought more about my spirituality in that one semester than I had in the previous three years. For me, finding worth in the differences between myself and my high school allowed me to resolve the conflict between our own values.