When I was a new student I remember someone saying that they were married to a preacher, "just like" one of the instructors. Somewhere in there I attached that description to the wrong instructor, and proceeded to open up more to the other one.
This is so interesting to me because I really have to confront my prejudice or even fearful reaction to people who claim to religious. I know that it comes from my harmful upbringing as a Jehovah's witness. I guess you could call "post traumatic 'spend every minute preparing for Armageddon' stress syndrome". I grew up thinking that if I could just hold out and make it through Armageddon, I could not only avoid death, but would be cured of all the things I was told were ailing me. Not the right message for a slightly obsessive teenager with ADD who was also grappling with gender identity issues.
So, the freaky part of the whole thing was that I had mixed up the names and labels, opening up more to the one who I thought wasn't married to a preacher, while being reserved and withdrawn around the other one. On Tuesday I found out that not only was she not married to a preacher, her husband had been a truck driver and a sailor before that.
In the few days since, l've been opening up very quickly, and have learned a valuable lesson. Don't use labels to determine how you react to, or treat other people.
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Life seems to present a continuous stream of good learning opportunity. I do feel for your struggle growing up with Armageddon hanging over your head.
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