A Witness Growing Up in the Hall

Saturday morning, I'd rather be watching cartoons. We hold hands in a circle and begin to pray for the day ahead. We have a serious task at hand. We have to save the world. Today we'll start at your door. Ringgg.Ringggg. I begin to pray to myself. God, please don't let anybody from my school live here or the hood open this door. I'll never here the end of it. No answer, goood. Relief. Next house, ringggg, ringgg, ringgg. Good another no answer. For me a sigh of relief. For the ladies I'm with, determination written all over their face. Let me clue you in. You wonder who are these ladies. Avon, No. Mary Kaye, No. We are the Jehovah's Witnesses. We have come to save your very soul. If only you'd open the door. Buy this brochure only 2.99 and you'll be on your way to paradise, we guarantee. Sometimes we actually got someone will to listen. 10 years before my mother was just that said person. She found that she liked what she was hearing and decided to include of course the kids. I loved to read and this at first seemed fun. The kids get a pretty orange book, full of bible stories. We had meetings, you call it church, 3 times a week. Sunday, Wednesday and don't forget Friday. When we started I was just 6 years old. I still loved Santa, and believed in the tooth fairy. Halloween was my favorite. As a witness. Those celebrations were considered a sin. Don't talk to strangers. Impossible for me. I talk to everybody. Don't celebrate your birthday. Lunacy I always thought. I lived another year, Hooray! No holidays ever. This did not work out for me.

As far back as I could remember I loved to sing and dance. I knew I wanted to be a star. To me, singing was like breathing, dancing like floating on air. So to be told that these things were considered a sin to me seemed crazy, but I had to respect my mother, so I kept my star life a secret. Hola classroom, Ms. Ramirez greets us this way everyday. Spanish class was my favorite. Ms. Ramirez was a wonderful teacher full of passion and caring. She showed everyone the same attention. Not to many teachers could claim that recognition in our school. Most of the other teachers were like robots, do this, do that, hand it up when you're done, class is dismiss. Spanish class was fun, we learned alot about Puerto Rico and even got to on a trip to Puerto Rico. Ms. Ramirez would dance around the classroom sometimes. We all loved it and wanted to learn how to move like Ms. Ramirez. One day she handed out permission slips to what we thought was a field trip. She explained to us that she would like to teach a handful of students how to dance and we would get to travel to other schools and perform. My eyes lit up. I had to be a part of this group. I had to. I was meant to be a star. A secret star if I had to. When I was in the 3rd grade I played Annie and loved it. Every since then I was hooked on performing in front of people. It felt natural to me. I never told my mother. A witness child is not to showboat, she would say. I'd be thinking, mommy I am the show. Permission slips. Not a problem. I'd been practicing my mothers signature since I was 7 years old. Presto, I'm part of the group, yaaaaaaaa. We practiced for weeks. I loved it.

Finally, its our first performance at school in front of over 2 hundreds kids. At first I'm a little nervous, Ms. Ramirez gave a beautiful speech and all the butterflies went away. The boys had on a white shirt with puffy sleeves. Black wide legged pants with a big red cummerbund. We the girls had on black and white shirt that came around our shoulders, a white skirt that flared out with a red sash around our waste. We performed perfectly and even got a standing ovation. I was on cloud nine. Nothing could spoil this for me or so I thought.

The world is a small place. You really never no who's watching you. Brother Turner, saw me, I did not see him. He just happen to be a maintenance man at this very school over 20 miles from our town. He couldn't wait to tell. He told everybody about how much sinning I was doing dancing and enjoying myself with worldly children. What are we going to do? He called out to other concern witnesses. She has to be punished for disobeying the laws and rules of our congregation. My mother was very angry at me when she heard about what happened. Absolutely livid. We can't have your daughter embarrassing us. These worldly acts are sin. Singing and performing with worldly children (everybody who was not a witness) is incomprehensible and she is be punished immediately. Sistah you have failed as a mother and we feel we should punished the child with banishment from the congregation. Give me the paddle, come here child. That's when my mother stood up and gave the witnessed a piece of her mind. Nobody and I mean nobody hits my child and another thing, banish a child,are you all crazy? I thought we were coming here to learn about the lord, instead you stand here and act as if you are judge and jury. You call this god like behavior. Yes, sistah we do, said Brother Turner. Well, I'll tell you what Brother Turner, you or any brother here put a hand on my child for being herself, won't be recognizable by family and friends alike. Jehovah loves my daughter regardless of what you or anybody thinks. He is and will always be the most important judge of us all. These gifts my child possess are not sins. I've never been more proud of her. So, I guess this means goodbye brothers and sistahs. Witness our exit. Come on sweetheart, mom says. Lets go make you a star. Mommy, I already am and you're my biggest fan.