Thompson 1

Noelle Thompson
Professor Bowers
English 1101-115
01 March 2016
Ironic Impositions
Over the course of my life, I have met plenty of people who I can say truly inspire me. In
fact, the people that are in my life right now would not be if they did not inspire me. What truly
inspires me are people whose life stories have challenged me, and allowed me to see my life
from other perspectives. An inspiring person helps me step into their shoes, so I can use what
lessons they have learned in order to apply it to and improve my own life. In my life, I have met
one person who has stuck out to me the most since I met him. Just about five years ago, I met a
boy in my freshman orientation group. I had no idea who he was, but I had recognized him; he
was the boy who was always hanging out with my brother, which was how I first knew that he
spent a majority of time getting into trouble with drugs, high school parties, popularity, etc. On
the other hand, I also recognized him as someone who belonged to a part of the strict Mormon
community in Aurora, which made me wonder who he really was.
Jeremy Solis was a boy who grasped my attention as soon as he had first walked into the
same room as me. If it was not for him being six foot five, I was always able to remember the
first impression I took of him, which to me, says a lot about who he was. His long-flowing, dark
chocolate, straight brown hair was the first physical attribute that caught my eye. Behind his
long, wisp eyelashes were a set of sparkling brown eyes that hypnotized me. By looking into his
eyes I felt like I could see through to his soul. With the way he smiled and charmed people
effortlessly, it was always prevalent to me that he was a compassionate, sweet and mysterious
human being that I was immediately drawn to. Jeremy and I started to become friends a few

Thompson 2
years later after my brother had moved away, and we have remained best friends ever since. I
learned many things about him that interested me, such as his high school experience that
consisted of parties, goofing off in school and with the law, hanging out with druggies, getting
high and drunk as much as he could, dating multiple girls, the list goes on. It brought an interest
to me, because I was always the quiet, nerdy, shy artist in school who not many bothered to
engage. He was the person back then that I wish to be more like. It even felt slightly astounding
to me that someone like him would ever talk to someone like me, which in fact reminds me of a
time in high school when I was alone. I was sitting alone at lunch, while across the lunchroom he
was waving at me, but was with a big group of friends. He kept waving at me to come there but I
was too shy. What he did that really made me feel special about myself was when he came to me
and sat with me for the rest of the lunch period, and left all of his friends to do so. Reasons like
this were how I could tell that he was a compassionate, kind, understanding and intelligent
human. At the same time I could tell that he held a dark side to him which I could not unravel. I
usually read people easily, but Jeremy was another story. Jeremy grew up in a bad part of
Downers Grove, as he calls it, and has lived in Aurora for most of his life. His father was born
and raised in Mexico, while his mother was raised in a strict Mormon community section of
Chicago. His mother carried this religion with her as she still does today, and has made heavy
efforts to influence her family with it. For Jeremy, this included church more than twice a week
and before school, including attending all the required church sermons. It also included studying
the religion, as well as the book of Mormon, representing the religion into his life, and discipline.
The Mormon religion is fairly uncommon due to the fact that following the rules of the religion
are considered breaking the norms of society, and to Mormons, many societal norms are
considered sins. For example, the requirements included no dating until you are sixteen, no

Thompson 3
swearing, no coffee or caffeine, no drugs or alcohol, abstinence, being anti-abortion, and you
cannot be homosexual.
What really interests me about Jeremy is also how someone like him; very religious,
kind, smart, ambitious, and intelligent, was someone who was considered a scum and a dropout;
someone who teachers hated and parents did not favor. How can someone so involved in the
Mormon Church and all of the requirements that come with it, and be so scum at the same
time? I wondered. I have always noticed Jeremy to be a very care-free guy, always living an
independent way of life, with a curious mind. He explained to me that he was always that way,
and began to realize in middle school that he was not meant to live the life his Mom wanted him
to. Of course, he always wanted nothing more than to please her and make her happy, as well as
everyone else. At the same time, he felt pressured because he knew that being Mormon was not
what he wanted. Over time, he started to give up, and give in. The ways in which he gave up
were the worst kind of things he could do to separate himself from the religion. These actions
included addiction, drugs, alcohol, partying all the time, skipping out of school, etc. Pretty much
any way possible to defy being a Mormon, he did so. As he got into all of this, things only got
worse for him over time. He was going out all of the time, poisoning his body, not getting his
homework done, avoiding his family, hanging out with people who really did not care about him,
and trying to get high as much as he could. It interests me profoundly why and how a person
could go from being so strictly moralized in society, to having an extreme uncaring callous for
any morals at all. I asked Jeremy several deep questions that allowed me to expand deep into his
psyche, unveiling the driving force behind his choices. I pondered questions such as, Why did
you choose this life and what made you choose it? How did you make the shift towards being
anti-religious? And most importantly, Why and what were you thinking that could have caused

Thompson 4
you to rebel so heavily? What astounded also me was how in the process of losing religion from
his life, It was never small rebellious acts with Jeremy. If he was rebelling, he would commit
several acts that were considered sins in less than a year. As Jeremy explained to me, After I
first started to sin against my religion, for some reason I always felt a driving force and desire to
rebel harshly against the church. I really dont know why, maybe it was liberating for me at the
time, or maybe I just wanted to escape from the fact that I wasnt who I thought I was anymore. I
was only trying to find myself.
The Mormon religion is very different from simpler religions such as Christianity. Not all
slip-ups were forgiven. In fact, several slip-ups resulted in going to hell after death. How could a
person hold these religious beliefs their entire lives, then learn to accept that they were going to
hell? I cannot imagine the amount of pressure Jeremy has felt because of these reasons. For these
reasons, I have been able to place myself In Jeremys shoes. I have concluded that by him
thinking he was not good enough to be a part of his Moms religion, he did not feel good enough
for anyone. He did not feel like one of Gods children anymore, and accepted the thought of
himself being no good. As he watched his church friends grow into their devotion towards
their religion, he felt lost, sheltered and shameful. He could not decide whether he should be
more like them, or more of who he wanted to be, and in this very process he lost himself. He had
lost his own identity by questioning whether he ever had any true identity to begin with. Going
from judging the people he did not want to be, to becoming those people, how could he have any
sense of identity now? In realizing throughout growing older that he was not the person he
thought he was, he felt no choice other than to be someone completely different. In losing his
identity, he created a new one for himself; an identity that represented who he always tried to
avoid. It strikes me so harshly to think of how all of this felt for Jeremy. Jeremy is not only a

Thompson 5
representation of someones singular issue, but a general issue that affects many. With Jeremy as
my subject, I can represent how harmful it can be in some cases for parents to impose certain
religions so harshly on their children as they grow up, and how it can overwhelm them to the
point where they become the person that their parents never wanted them to be.
By becoming so unsure of himself and his life, he now had a reason as to why he was so
tempted to abuse drugs. With the pressures he had experienced from his childhood into his
present, he had finally found an escape from the reality of it all. He had found something to
numb the pain temporarily. Eventually, Jeremy and I contacted each other less frequently,
because I knew that he was way too caught up with this sickening lifestyle which was hurting not
only himself but me as well. He was not doing well in college, he did not have a good
relationship with his family, was not spending his money wisely, and was very unhealthy. Until
he finally got caught up with the law was when he received his reality check from life. He spent
two months in Will County jail, with nothing but a blank, dark room with one bed, one phone
call once a day to his parents or his lawyer. It was just him and his mind. Throughout this
experience in hell was when he finally took the time to realize just how horrible his lifestyle was,
and how unhappy he truly was. He spent much time to think about his spiritual views, and
allowed himself to come to a conclusion. He explained to me, I have always held a close
relationship to God, which is something that will never change for me, and I dont want it to. I
think over the years I could feel myself slipping away from it, but I never knew how. I knew that
kind of lifestyle was not the one I wanted for myself, and I cant imagine ever finding happiness
for myself if I had continued to force myself into something that did not truly represent who I
really was. What I have inferred from Jeremy is that although a lot of the time he wishes he was
not raised into the Mormon religion, he is still thankful for how much he has learned from the

Thompson 6
experience. He explained how important it was for him to take a step back from it all in order to
form his own opinions and concepts on life before they were decided for him. Until then is when
he realized that he had no other choice than to come out to his parents about all of the harmful
things he has done; all of the choices he has made that have brought him to such a low point in
his life. This experience in turn created a better relationship between him and his family. His
communication with his mother helped him a great deal, as he was finally honest about why he
chose to leave the Mormon Church. He explained to her how much pressure he felt daily because
he did not want to let her down or disappoint her, and how he turned to drugs in order to ignore
the fact that he no longer knew what he wanted in his life. This communication between them
strengthens every day, and as Jeremy explains, is the most helpful part of his recovery. Jeremy
and I keep in touch very frequently, as I am always there for him whenever he needs someone to
talk to, and he is there for me whenever I am in need of advice. These are the kinds of reasons I
remember to hold people like him close to me.
Aside from getting caught up with the law, Jeremy Solis was always someone to admire.
He was always someone that made everyone feel good about themselves, even if he did not feel
the same about himself on the inside. As he has created a new outlook and lifestyle for himself,
he inspires me to take advantage of all of the good things I hold close to, and all of the
opportunities I have in my life. When I am feeling down and thinking of all of the hard times I
have gone through, Jeremy allows me to think of my life from several different perspectives, and
he allows me to put myself in his shoes. He is a real life example of how important your
struggles are, because they will always teach you something that you did not know before. The
most important thing I stress to people is what it really means to lose yourself. In the process of
losing ourselves, we test ourselves. We step outside our safety circles, challenge ourselves, and

Thompson 7
we question everything. We would not know who we are today if we had not lost ourselves in the
process.