I believe in being open to and accepting of other religions. Religion is so often judged by individuals, groups, the media It has almost become part of our society to judge others religions. So many people just aren't open to learning about new religions, making judgments, which can make people not want to express their religion to others.

I grew up being told about God and believing in God. We went to church every Wednesday night and Sunday morning and whenever I told my mom about one of my friends having a hard time, she would tell me to pray for them. I grew up praying to god, trying as hard as I could, hoping it would do something. I remember I would often look up at the clouds, thinking that heaven is on top of clouds, and wondering what it was like and being excited to go one day. But even though I grew up Christian, I never truly felt like that belief was forced on me. And while everyone at church was always very nice to me and I prayed often, I think I always knew I didn't believe in God.

When I was about eight my family left the church and a few years later we moved a few hours away to live closer to the rest of my family. My mother still believed in god and I would still occasionally pray to god, but I didn't feel like I was as religious as before. I remember one day when I was in 5th grade, I was telling my mom about one of my friends having a hard time, and she told me I should pray for her. And I did. I prayed as hard as could, but something still didn't feel right. I started to doubt was anyone even listening? I realized it didn't feel real like I was actually talking to someone, or like anything was happening, it had just been something that I had always been told to do. I was thinking about it and I realized that the idea of a god just didn't make sense to me. I felt so, relieved. It almost felt like a weight off my shoulders. I realized I had been trying so desperately for so long to believe in god, even when I knew I didn’t.

Even though I was an Atheist for a long time after that, I always had an interest in witchcraft. I loved nature and animals and the idea of being able to take control of things in my life that I previously thought I couldn't do anything about. My friends and I had been watching American Horror Story: Coven, which was about witches. As we were talking about it, I started to look up some stuff about witchcraft. I was reading about Wicca (a nature-based religion that practices witchcraft) and the more I read about it, the more I felt like I could relate to it. There was no holy book to live by, no long set of rules that you had to follow Just one single rule, harm none. I had always thought of religion as some big thing where you had to believe in a very specific set of things and follow all of these rules, but with Wicca, as long as you weren't hurting something, you could do whatever you wanted.

If I hadn’t been open to the idea of other religions, I might still be trying so hard to believe in something I don't believe in, and I might never have been open to Wicca. Society and other people often make you think that there is only one true religion, when really there are lots of different religions and people should be open to exploring new ones. They might even find the one they didn't know they believed in. That is why I believe we should be open and accepting of other religions.