During my undergraduate career, I found myself at a backslidden state in my faith walk.   It was my first time out on my own without the supervision of my mother and I allowed the freedom to get the best of me.   I allowed myself to get caught up in the lies of guys and fall into sexual sin.   Though I had morals and respect for myself by not sleeping with a lot of different guys, I still fell into the trap of the enemy.   After my first year of college, I got involved with a guy that I was dating off and on for about two years.   We engaged in sexual sin and I ended up pregnant.   When I first learned that I was pregnant, I was about 6 weeks along and there was no doubt in my mind that I would be getting an abortion.   In my opinion, neither of us could afford to bear a child.   Furthermore, as sad as it may sound, I had no sense of feeling or emotion about the abortion at the time; all I knew was that I was not going through with having a child ...

From the age of five to the age of fourteen, I lived in what society considers the "projects."  My experience of living and growing up in the projects was not physically bad, but on the inside I was being tormented with shame.  I often wished that my family and I lived in a better part of town.  My desire to live in a better neighborhood stemmed from me attending schools and having friends that lived in what I considered to be lavish homes when compared to where I lived.  As I got older, it seemed as if the shame grew stronger and bigger.  There was a time when one of my friends invited me to spend the night at her home, and though I was very excited and thrilled for the invite, a large part of me felt a sense of shame.  All I could think was, if I accepted her invitation, she would find out where I lived, and she would no longer want to be my friend because of my neighborhood.  I guess my real issue was that I felt that I...