Read Online Spirited by Gede Parma - Free Book Online

at school can often make it harder to define our individuality. Our spiritual path will often conflict with teachers and students. The conscious decision to publicly affirm your spirituality can lead to friction. To make the best of your own school experience, read on.
    Peering Pupils:
Communication
    School is not so much about what we learn but about who we learn with. Our peers are those who sit beside us during class. They are not necessarily our friends but may simply represent the majority of the student body we are unfamiliar with. These are the people whose opinions “really matter” when it comes to fashion, popularity, and the social ladder. These are the vicious bureaucrats who pass judgement on individual worth. These are the individuals who spread gossip like wildfire through campus and can make or break our appeal and identity. Amongst our peers are also our friends, those whom we have come to love and bicker with.
    School is a blur of faces and personalities … a mural of diversity, laughter, depression, and tears. English and history soon disappear into the vague realms of irrelevance when we come to the crossroads in our relationships with others.
    Communication is a vital bridge between two or more entities. However, the concept of communication does not suggest positive feedback and can often result in huge, meaningless debates over trivial details. This seems to be the norm, especially in the schoolgrounds, where we are forced to endure lame comments from idiotic students for who we are. Personalities often come under fire because of a social fear of the way someone is acting or how they identify themselves—for instance, guys who tend to make friends with girls and who are more academically inclined than sporty are often accused of being “fags.”
    As Pagans, we are open to all sorts of insults and jokes from our peers, as Paganism is not wholly understood by the majority of society. It is not unheard of that when a Pagan or Witch comes out to their friends at school, there is a window of approximately forty-eight hours until the rest of the grade knows. I was fairly open about my interest in the occult when I first began high school and would often read Witchcraft books during classes or even bring charms to school. Soon my entire class knew, and then it spread on to the rest of my grade. There was no immediate backlash, and I merely received jokes and curiosity until my best friend at the time learnt that I was a Witch. This did not go down well, as he was a pious Christian, but he at least listened to me explain myself and my newfound spirituality.
    It is not always a good idea, no matter how proud you feel, to publicly announce you are Pagan to others. Our relationships suffer and friction happily abounds. People soon realise they can use you as a scapegoat or even as the school joke. Unless you are seeking to experience how this can all feel at such a vulnerable time of adolescence, then I suggest you keep your beliefs private. I’m not saying deny your faith and simply lie about being Pagan but to be mature with the situation and to learn to know when there is a risk factor about being open. Remember to be yourself and to not fall to society’s own stereotypes about what a Witch or Pagan is. I’m not saying don’t come out of your shell but that you should do it gradually and get used to the idea of being assertive with your peers.
    Often it’s not just ill-mannered humour we are subjected to but also religious evangelism. Most Australian schools, public and private, have prayer services catering to Christian students. Unfortunately, a majority of these groups are founded on the pretences that non-Christian members of the student body need salvation, and active conversion comes into play.
    Some time ago, several Christian students discovered that I was a Witch and so began their long-winded attempts at converting me. Whenever I had class with them, they