New Orleans, LA

AIDEN : “ I remember when my mom asked me if I was excited for my first communion, and I was like, “YES! I am going to drink the blood of Christ!!” I just wanted the wine, that’s all I wanted.

I went to an all girl catholic high school. My guidance counselor was a nun. They weren’t super mean..they were stern, and the only problem was that everyone around me was really, really, catholic! I had so many problems. I was pagan, goth, and queer. I would get called to the office because people claimed I was casting spells on them and I would be like, “ I.. uh, that didn’t happen!”

I was that kid in catholic school that got kicked out of religion class once every semester. Everyone would just turn around in their seats, and look back at me whenever hot topics came up, and just stare. One time I had a teacher tell me racism didn’t exist and I yelled at her and was kicked out of class.

Since Katrina, there have been lots of charter schools that have made the other high schools perform better. There’s still a lot of failing schools, but now many of them are C schools. My senior year was the same year as Katrina and there weren’t many options, so I will say I am thankful for the education I got at a Catholic High School, but I had to deal with some bullshit.”

Transilient: I’m not trying to minimize the damage, but did catholic school make you stronger in your identity?

Aiden: ” I really think it did. You can go two ways on that, though. I’ve seen some folks who were kind of liberal in high school but when they graduate they get to college, get married, have kids really young, and become conservative. I came out when I was in eighth grade, I was outed, but I didn’t care and just was myself. I am not afraid to be who I am and I was not ashamed of who I was as a kid. ”