The Pastor's Daughter Lauren DeRoco

I nervously sat down to the computer and started typing. Creating an Evite wouldn’t seem like a big deal to most people, but it was to me. Always having been too shy to reach out to my teammates from soccer, I had never been included in their friend group. They all went to school together and I was the only one who didn’t, making me the ostracized homeschool alien on the team.

Despite my qualms, the day of the sleepover came and everything went perfectly. We stayed up all night talking; I had never felt closer to a group of girls who were already so close to each other. Around six in the morning, we fell asleep.

Knock. Knock. Knock!

The sound suddenly woke us all up around eight. Everyone sat up confused, wondering who it could be. I opened the door and there he was: my dad holding a Bible, his special Bible that was as big as a geography book. I knew what this meant and all I wanted to do was hide.

Growing up with my dad being a pastor, I spent a decent amount of time being uncomfortable. Whether he was praying in public, trying to convert my friends or speaking in tongues, I couldn’t help but squirm when imagining what thought when they heard him. That’s why it took me so long to tell my friends at Trinity about my dad....