Author's Note: I'm such a hypocrite, I hate angsty people, and if this isn't angst, then I don't know what is. Don't read it if you're sensitive about religion or sentence fragments.

I'm my own heretic, but not in a stereotypical sense. Isn't that what the teenage years are about? We're all supposed to hate and mutilate ourselves and listen to angsty, depressing music and be anti- conformists.

For me, it's not about rebellion, or jet fueled hormones at all. My Catholic parents try to force their 'right' religion on me, as if they were cramming food down a baby's throat. But I don't stand and accept it. Writing 'fuck Jesus' on a church bulletin is 'unacceptable' but how else do I get the point across? Agnosticism isn't atheism, Mom and Dad. Neither is free will or assertiveness. So accept it. I'm not a Wiccan, Pagan, Druid, or even a Scientologist (although it is appealing).

It's not your choice anyway.

You can't punish me for lying. Or yelling. Or hating. You can't dictate my thoughts. It's not your right. I'm my own goddamn person, Mom. They're my CDs, Mom. It's my journal, Mom. It's my life, Mom. It's my individuality you're infringing on, Mom. Stop failing me, Mom. What did Marilyn Manson ever do to you? What have my private thoughts ever inflicted upon you?

Suck it up. Times have changed.

I'm not on drugs, Dad. I've never had sex, Dad. Don't look at me like that, Dad. I can't stand you, Dad.

My originality is compromised, and my creativity censored, all because they don't approve. I don't care; it's my reputation, not theirs.

I'm a heretic, not you. I hate the President, not you. I drink coffee, not you.

Times have changed.