5th place (tie) — 2024 high school essay contest: Olivia English-Saunders

FFRF awarded Olivia $1,500.

By Olivia English-Saunders

I always tried to be religious. In Texas, I grew up watching my friends pull out their pink bibles inscribed with a glittery cross, flipping through its thin pages for nighttime prayer, and sometimes showing me some of their favorite lessons and stories from it. This was a routine for every single sleepover — I so desperately wanted to be a part of it. And, not only to own one of those girly holy books, but to be a part of something that seemed to make everyone else so happy. I wanted to understand what it was like.

My parents are devout atheists. My father, in particular, was all too familiar with organized religion’s predatory techniques. He grew up in a conservative Catholic family in rural New Mexico, where the church expected tithes of at least 10 percent from an incredibly impoverished community while planting seeds of guilt and shame through sermons. After he left the Army, he tried to rekindle his faith with Baptist Christianity — only to find the same pattern of manipulation. He quickly threw away the idea of following an organized religion.

So, with that, I was raised without the idea of a god or a fiery hell waiting for me if I dare make a mistake. It has protected me from many dangerous ideals and has allowed me to form into my own person, even if I never got a sparkly bible.

Many other people of my generation can relate to my story and, despite it sometimes making some of us feel left out of something much bigger, I think it will change America for the better. We don’t feel a need to follow a system that demands complete control of our lives, while it finds ways to extort its followers even more. We can be more accepting of others, we can make decisions with our personal values, we can be more empathetic. These are all aspects we have needed to see in our people, especially these past few years.

The political landscape has turned to something reminiscent of the Crusades: a desire for a religion to completely take over our country, and that total domination must happen no matter the cost. It is a truly frightening thing to watch unfold, to watch as we shuffle away from a secular government and turn our backs on our founding ideals.

My generation is here to defy that, however. We were able to learn from our parents’ experiences with religion and improve our beliefs, becoming critical of anything that requires blind trust and unwavering faith. We are driven enough to help this country steer toward a future where everyone can exist and believe in what resonates with us, without forcing our neighbors to have the same beliefs.

Olivia, 18, is from Leesburg, Va., and attends Michigan State University with plans to major in game design. “I love to travel and experience new perspectives, and I love to incorporate those views into my art,” Olivia writes. “My goal is to help others learn about people much different from them, and how to understand them.”