When high school student Jenn Odell first began to experience anxiety attacks, she noticed she wasn't the only one—other students in her public school had similiar symptoms. She knew she had to somehow deal with the hopelessness she felt. And she did.
FOR MOST OF MY LIFE, I felt that being a Christian Scientist was an embarrassment. Christian Science seemed so different from the mainstream because it encourages total reliance on God for healing. I felt that a lot of my friends just didn't understand me, and that made me feel pretty alone, especially at school.
I attended many different schools, not just public, but also home-school connection groups from the most conservative to the most liberal. These different educational environments broadened my background vastly. During my sophomore year, I attended a nontraditional school consisting entirely of conservative Christian kids who met weekly at local Christian churches. These schools were known as "home-school co-ops" or "home-school connection groups." The kids at this school were nice, friendly people, but I knew if I ever told anyone that my sister and I were Christian Scientists, the entire school would feel that it was their duty to convert my family in order to save us from eternal damnation. They thought that in order to be "saved" you had to believe that Jesus is God. Otherwise, you are not suited for a pleasant afterlife. I was taught that there is no place called hell—that hell is a state of consciousness, and that Jesus isn't God. It wasn't easy to go to a school where the other children believed differently.
