Although I went to Punjabi School at the Gurdwara for many years when I was younger and I was taught that our family followed the Sikh religion, I never really consciously decided that I loved Sikhi until I was in high school. It was then that circumstances forced me to make an effort to be closer to God and learn about the religion that, up until that point, was one that I was somewhat forced to accept.

For High School, my parents decided they did not want me to attend the public schools of the area because of the immoral atmosphere of most of them. They wanted me to be around "good" people that were raised with the same values as I was so they enrolled me in a private Christian school.

Although I anticipated a very strict administration, I had no idea about the pressures I would feel regarding my religious beliefs. The public schools I had attended until high school had been so diverse - we were living in the Bay Area of California - that religious diversity was also expected and accepted among the students. Tolerance was taught and pride in one's culture and religion were encouraged. Furthermore, sometimes the issue of religion did not even cross my mind as it was not something promoted in public schools.

Little did I know that, during the very vulnerable years of high school, on top of the normal things teenagers go through I would be growing and learning about my religious identity and beliefs as well.

When I came to Liberty Baptist High School, I was one of the maybe five or six people in the whole high school who was not a devout Christian. Most of my classmates' families belonged to the Church of the school and, therefore, were a very close-knit group whose religious belief in Jesus Christ shaped every aspect of their lives whether it be what they studied in school or what activities they participated in after school.

The school stressed and incorporated Christianity to its most extreme level into everything. We had to take Bible class every year, attend Chapel on Wednesdays, pray before every class, and attend a retreat for three days of preaching.

My initial reaction was shock and a feeling of total exclusion. I had never been aware of how intense a religion could be. At home my Dad was telling me it was good to learn about a different religion and that Sikhism preaches tolerance of all beliefs. But in contrast, at school I was being told by my teachers that if I did not devote my life to Jesus Christ that I was going to hell.

Instead of letting the pressure get to me, I learned to use this experience to my advantage. Whereas at a public school religion never was an issue discussed and I never even thought about my own religion, let alone someone else's, this school forced me to understand my own beliefs better. When everyone was reciting prayers to Jesus Christ or singing Christian hymns, I used the time to recite prayers from Guru Granth Sahib. I modified the time allotted for prayer by the school to my beliefs. I think it was these prayers that gave me confidence to get through the days at that school in which I sort of faced a mild form of religious persecution. I was not able to be on student council, in homecoming court, or gain the respect of many teachers and students because my beliefs were not the same. Contrary to the tolerance I had been taught, the people around me at school showed ignorance.

Another way in which I grew as a Sikh was not only doing my own research on the religion, but also actively starting to go to the Gurdwara. Whether it was the guilt of being surrounded by Christian ideals all day at school or inspiration to be religious - based on how strong these Christians were - I began to be more involved in my own.

Although the prayers I recited to myself and the research on Sikhi was small in comparison to how much I can potentially grow as a Sikh, I truly believe that I matured in my thinking regarding religion during the four years of high school. I probably would have never had the respect for my religion that I have today had I not gone through the trials at Liberty Baptist High School. The pressures the school put on me, rather than converting me to their religion, gave me motivation to be stronger in my own. It made me realize you should not take your religion for granted.

The Sikhi decal has also done the same for me. In the intense college atmosphere where you rarely get to explore so deeply such intimate things as one's religious beliefs and love for God, this series of lectures was a breath of fresh air for me.

Sikhi is in my soul and heart and being able to discuss it during the hectic years of college is important to me. I often find myself forgetting my priorities and considering a Biology midterm or English paper more important than anything else. A class like this allows me to put things back into a proper perspective and reminds me to never forget the single most important thing in my life - God.

The history, the Gurbani interpretations and the discussion of sacrifices of Sikhs humble me and leave me in awe of God and my beautiful faith. I learned so much from this class and rarely leave a classroom feeling warm and strong like I do after discussions such as the ones we had every week.