The Middle Years

I was in middle school when the subject of Confirmation began to come up. A friend of mine who still belonged to the Methodist Church was taking Confirmation classes there, and she convinced me to go with her to class. I tried to learn about Martin Luther and the beginning of the early church, but it still didn't tell me what I wanted to know about God, and how all the pieces fit together. I remember answering a question with "We'll it's Christ isn't it?" Everyone looked at me strangely, and I was very embarassed, I was sure I had said something wrong. My friend later told me that I hade sworn in church and that I was for sure going to go to Hell. That was the end of me in the confirmation class, and I was once again back to seeking him on my own.

About this time, my Mother sent me off to spend the summer with our relatives in Green River, Utah. Her sister and her husband owned a big ranching operation there, and Mom thought it would be good for me to see how they lived in the country.

I vaguely remembered meeting my counsins only once before when I was very small. All I remembered was that there were so many of them. Six kids, one Aunt, one Uncle, several ranch hands, and a multitude of Grandparents had made me feel very uncomfortable and out of place. I couldn't even tell you what their names were, or who were actually relatives, and who weren't.

That summer, the summer of my 13th year, Mom put me on a plane by myself to go and spend the summer with them. When I arrived, I might as well have been in a foreign country.

One of my cousins came to pick me up at the airport. Not only did I not know her name, I couldn't understand a word she said (She had never been out of the state of Utah before and had a very thick accent.).