Hey there! I'm Shelby.
I am passionate about health and wellness, love writing, and hope to see the world one day. I was a mormon.
About me
Born and raised mormon in California, and later Utah. I completed the Young Women's personal progress, graduated seminary, and got married young to a mormon boy. Now, we've both been happily out for five years, and finding our footing again. I'm a writer, with an interest in holistic health, and dreams of teaching workshops and coaching individuals towards better health. I eat pescatarian, have one shih-tzu named Gizmo, and like to make homemade gifts. I'm going back to school to learn to be a health coach and have started a blog aimed at people, especially mormons, who have left religion, and need a place to grow and be human, called lifeoutsidethebook.com.
# Why I left More stories of 'Why I left' the Mormon church
Thankfully, growing up in Utah encouraged my leaving of the LDS church, rather than encouraged my testimony. I was always the one outside the group, making friends with the non-mormons, the non-white kids, even dating the non-religious boys. These people were kind, interesting, non-judgmental, and simply normal. I never agreed with women's purpose being at home, or how men get multiple wives in heaven, or not being allowed to drink tea, or all the flip-flopping the church had done. On top of all these irritations, I felt compelled to sacrifice what I wanted in a career for the sake of would-be children. So it wasn't difficult for me to consider the church not being true. I'd always said "If I wasn't born into it, I wouldn't believe it." I wish I'd listened to myself then, but you don't know you're in a cult until you know you're in a cult. The CES letter however, which my husband stumbled upon on Reddit, was the straw that broke the camel's back. I couldn't unread what I had. Once Joseph Smith was revealed as truly a treasure-hunting conman with a history, once I learned where he got his Book of Mormon stories from, once I learned more about his many, many young (often married) wives that he acquired sometimes under threat of death, I didn't need any more. We have pulled out and haven't looked back since.