When I was five,

my mother dressed me in my Sunday dress and the shoes that hurt my feet,

She took me to church because that is what everyone did.

We ate fish on Fridays and went to Bible School on Tuesdays.

I believed in all they said, I believed in God.



When I was ten,

My mother occasionally took me to church, because she went back to college.

I outgrew those Sunday dresses and shoes.

We stopped having fish on Fridays and were too busy for Bible School on Sundays.

I started to question all they said, but I believed in God.



Now I am sixteen,

I never go to church and my mother works on Sundays.

I wouldn't be caught dead in those flowered dresses and those little-girl shoes.

I am a vegetarian and I take Russian on Tuesdays.

I do not believe in God, I believe in me.