This shit is intense

I don't really even know where to begin on what is truly important in my life. There are many things that have happened in my life that have made me the way that I am and for what I think a better person. I'll start with religion, the direction you probably see this going is that it played a major role in my life, well it didn't. I'm not athiest by any means but, I don't practice religion. It isn't something i'm opposed to but it's also something I haven't really opened my heart to. I was raised a catholic for all of my years up to high school, it was a half assed job by my parents, both of which were raised strictly as catholics. My father abandoned the church after his first marriage ended and wasn't annulled. My mother just doesn't care sometimes. The first years of high school I questioned religion as any young angsty teenager would. I started to research other religions, I read the bible, I went to multiple churches and different denominations of christianity. I didn't find any answers, I didn't find it in my heart or soul, nothing. No one can give you a right answer they just can give you their opinion on what they believe is right according to a book. Searching for religious beliefs for me was a truly enriching experience, I learned a lot about myself and what I believe in. I'm agnostic, it's not that I don't believe in any higher power or entity or that I don't care, I just can't devote myself fully to religions that treat people badly or can bend the rules to compensate themselves. I've never been someone to blindly follow rules and while practicing religions I just found myself question most rules. The first religion that did it for me was catholics, during lent when you aren't supposed to eat meat on fridays. During lent one year St. Patrick's day landed on a friday and the arch bishop said that it was alright to eat corned beef today just because it's St. Patrick's day. I'm not going to bend the rules for my religion because of another religious aspect that happened after the initial one. So religion has played a role in my life in showing me what I really feel. I believe in being a good person, plain and simple. The way that I've been raised regardless of religion is to be a good person no matter what and to stand for you convictions. I feel that the longer I write about this the more that i feel I hold important to myself. I feel that there are a few things that have really been a part of my life and are the standards by which I live my life by. Including being a good person and trying to help people as much as possible. I also hold my family incredibly close. There isn't anything I wouldn't do for them even if I know for a fact that they wouldn't do it for me. I believe in what I say and what I stand for, I feel that my family has been a big part of that and has supported every decision I've made so thats why I hold them so close. I'm big on being family orientated anyway, if it weren't for my family I wouldn't be where I was today or anything at all.