Towards the end of 9th grade, I was attending a decently-sized, all-girls school in the heart of downtown when my mom decided to move us across town to Littleton, Colorado.

I was elated to move, because I hated the city life, and I hated living in Green Valley Ranch. By moving to the western side of Littleton, Colorado from northeast Denver, I felt like I was ditching everything that made my life a living hell. 

I needed a fresh start; a clean slate. Or, so I thought. 

In reality, Cystic Fibrosis was what made my life a living hell, especially towards the end of 9th grade when it became apparent my health was declining at an alarming rate. I got sick way too often, I was significantly smaller and weaker than most of my peers at Girls Athletic Leadership School, which made me quite self-conscious, and overall, I just felt like shit. 

Running out of options to keep me healthy, my parents decided to look for smaller, private and/or charter schools in the Littleton area in hopes of protecting me from catching so many germs. Through this search, they discovered Truth Christian Academy; a very small private school taught at the Columbine Hills church of the Nazarene.

Truth Christian Academy advertised itself as a non-denominational school, and it felt as such when I shadowed a student there for a couple hours. The fact that the entire high school comprised of nine students was alluring to me: it meant I wouldn’t get so sick so often. 

However, like all things that are too good to be true, there was a catch: Truth Christian Academy was anything but nondenominational. In fact, they were very conservative and fundamentalist.