I have been a number all my life. It started with the hospital. Before my mother had a chance to name me, the hospital gave me an identity: patient #1483276330. For about three days, that was my total identity. Then came the day when the government discovered my existence. To everyone who knew me, I was Ciera, but to the government, I was a nine digit Social Security number.

After that, I started school, public school. Big public schools. To the administrators, teachers, and students, I was Ciera Jennings, but to the school system as a whole, I was 0030016009, my student ID number. This number encompassed my entire educational identity. I was not a person, but a mere file among many other files of my type. I was identified as just another folder that was to be uniformly filled with the same documents as the next one behind me. This was Ciera Jennings for 13 years of my life. That is, until I escaped.

When I got the chance, I ran as fast as I could from my institution of mind poisoning, to the small, yet loving arms of a school that was blessed by my God. I was finally part of the majority, instead of the minority as I had been before. I am loved. I am cared for, and most of all, I am free.

Free to ask questions, free to seek extra help if I need it. Free to sleep at night. Free to eat lunch at school instead of going hungry because I love my God. And most importantly, free to be on fire for Him who saved me.

Yes, Peterson-Warren Academy (PWA) is a small school, but has anyone ever bothered to ask why? Is it kept as a small school as a provision of God's providence? I think so! If PWA were big, do you think the teachers would have time to put love and care into all they do for us? Do you honestly think that the Christian atmosphere would be at the level it is now? No, it would not.

It hurts me to see people, that have been blessed by providence to be born into Christian homes, scoff, murmur, and complain at the gifts Christ has blessed them with. I am appalled at their ungratefulness, when a student like me has to leave this place of "Christian oasis" and be the object of ridicule and scorn.

Yes, PWA is a smaller school. But take my advice, it is better to be in a small, safe school, than in a big, cold, uncaring, and sin-ruled school.

Yes, smaller is better.

Ciera Jennings is a senior at Peterson-Warren Academy in Inkster, Michigan.