it is never fun to be made fun of. i thought that bullying and being picked on ended in high school... boy was i wrong.
being a member of the church can be really hard sometimes. to be blunt, when you are baptized you are giving yourself a label. to those people who don't know anything about the church, that label can be a very negative one.
the other day i went to a small gathering (5 people total) with teachers from the school that i am interning at. the host was very excited to be serving margaritas... and eager to pass them out.
at this point, i don't think any of the other teachers knew that i was mormon, just that i didn't drink coffee...not drinking alcohol at this party would be a definite give away...(who on earth doesn't drink coffee or alcohol besides a mormon?! come on people, i mean seriously?!)
i obviously said "no thank you" to the margarita, as did one other woman...but OF COURSE i was the one that was singled out for it...
it was clear at this point that one teacher knew exactly "what i was" and she was not a fan.
little jabs about not drinking and being immature started to come out.
at one point she even went into the kitchen to get a re-fill, i glanced into the kitchen to see what was going on and she said "oh, kristen is watching, better be careful!"
i was hurt, mad, embarrassed, and did not want to be at the party any longer.
i never ever said anything about drinking being bad... i never said they shouldn't drink. i wasn't the only one not drinking, so why do she find the need to make fun of me?!
so here's the confession...sometimes being a member of the LDS church is hard, especially being in a crowd of non-members. you might get set apart by others for negative reasons, put down, made fun of, and sometimes laughed at...
i found it hard to handle, and i left in tears.
the husband tells me it will get better. he says that growing up in the church you hear that stuff all the time and grow a thick skin.
my skin is getting thicker each day. i am proud to be who i am. i am proud to be a member of the LDS church. i am proud of each and every decision i make.
it just sucks that at 24 years old i still have to deal with stupid bullies.
ugh.