Autobiography

So I have to write an autobiographical essay for my english class. It only has to be 5-6 pages and it should focus on an event (or small series of events) or a person that changed my life, my perspective.

I've been thinking a lot about this. There have been a lot of events and people that have changed my perspective, but I'm not sure how to go about writing them. I was talking to my friend Deana on the way home last night and I think I know what I'm going to do.

Early 2007, there was a man named Joe who had a big impact on me. I was living in a treatment facility at the time and he was the head chef there. In December, I had started working with him in the kitchen and he started to teach me cooking skills. We jokingly called it an internship. Anyway, he was a recovered alcoholic who had been saved and was born again Christian. He never, ever talked about his spirituality with me. Our relationship was solely based on him teaching me to cook and we were very professional. But on January 10, we got to talking as I cleaned the kitchen. I started telling him about my past and some of the stuff from my childhood that I don't talk much about. At one point, he stops me to say that its no wonder I found solace in drugs and alcohol and that I was spiritually sick. He asked me if he could pray for me. Now... this wasn't the first time that some crazy born again asked me if they could pray for me. I hated it when they would do that; it felt invasive.

But... for some reason, this time I said yes. He took me out back and began to pray for me. At first, I was embarrassed and I worried what anybody who saw us would think. Then, after a few minutes, things started to change. I closed my eyes and all I could hear was Joe's voice. And he prayed different than I had ever heard anybody pray before. He swore and spit while praying (New York Italian, you know... spitting and cursing is his is blood). Its really hard for me to explain what was happening in my soul during these few minutes. There was just his voice and the warmth of the sun with the chill of the morning breeze. Nothing else mattered, no other sounds, no people, nothing. When I opened my eyes, things looked different. I had no idea, at the time, what was happening. Even now, years later, when I look back I'm not sure what happened.

I think I was so desperate for something to change, something to be right. I was tired and full of anger and pain. I hated the world and felt like everything was against me. Without realizing it, somewhere in that desperation, I longed for hope. I needed to feel like things were ok. So... I grabbed on to God. I became a Christian that day; I still refer to it as the day I got saved.

Its strange for me to look back now and say that. I don't follow that same path anymore and I won't refer to myself as Christian. Since that day, I've had multiple spiritual experiences and awakenings. My spirituality is dynamic, constantly changing. I'm all about peace and love and acceptance of all people. I don't want to talk down on religion in any way at all, but when I was involved in a church up here, I lost that.

I'll have to brainstorm it more and really figure out what I want to write about the experience. Sometimes I find it a bit difficult to put my deepest feelings into words, but I'll give it a shot. I'll post it once its written.