Journey in Salvation Pt. 3

In the middle of my 7th grade year, I transferred into Perry public school. Within the first week, a girl who was somewhat popular and pretty asked me to be her boyfriend. I said 'sure,' almost like I would if someone asked me if I wanted some more dessert. We were walking hand in hand to class while I gallantly carried her books. When we prepared to part, she made the move in to kiss me. "Sweet," I remember thinking, this is what couples do here, when in Rome... Well to my suprise, this girl lunged her tongue in my mouth! I pulled back and tried to keep cool. I had heard of French kissing somewhere before this must be it. My horny little junior high body was tingling and I was all for this and began serious make-out sessions with this girl, any chance we could get. I only remember one teacher ever saying anything.

That year was spent playing sports, cheating in school, and kissing anything that was interested. I went to my first real party like you watch on the Wonder Years. My mom humiliated us by going in when we got there to make sure there was adult supervision. The parents of the party assured her and then I went downstairs, got my girlfriend who was a grade ahead of me, (not the same one I had kissed) and we went up and made out on the couch all night. Why is it that when the kids from the Christian school hit the secular field that they are worse than the kids who grew up in it?

Sometime around then, I received the last spanking I ever got from my dad. I wrote a dirty letter to a girl pretending that it was from a nerdy kid. She was quite distraught. I lied to the Principal saying that it was not from me, but clueless me, I had told a good chunk of the kids in the school about it. I did a lot of stupid stuff then, primarily to make others laugh. I fed on laughter, it was like a drug for me. Anything I could do to make people laugh I would do at the expense of whoever. I had no concept of what it meant to love my neighbor as myself even though I could quote it and tell you where it could be found in the Bible. Interestingly enough, Steve, the boy who prayed the prayer with me in the hallway in first grade went to this school too. He had a mohawk and hung with the smoking crowd. We rarely spoke if ever.

I believe for the most part, our family had stopped attending church. If we did go then, I had nothing but disdain for the leaders and messages given. The people in charge didn't like my class clowning and probably the bad influence I had on the kids still in the Christian school. I saw them as hypocrites, calling themselves Christians yet being so mean to me. It was around this time that we stopped attending church altogether and took up a new religion...sports.