Originally Published December 6, 2018 under the Just Us Women podcast title.Stephanie (Anonymous) was raised in Brazil as the child of Assemblies of God missionaries. She lived the typical itinerant missionary kid lifestyle. In the foreign country 3-4 years, in the US for 1 year. She attended many schools growing up, from Brazilian schools to private Christian schools using the Accelerated Christian Education (ACE) system. Her parents held to strict Bible inerrancy and literalism. In the end though, they were children of the 60s. In one breath they would teach unquestioning faith in god while in the other advocating anyone was allowed to question anything and get the right answer.At the age of 16 she moved to NW Florida where she graduated from high school and attended community college and completed nursing school. She lived in the area for about 10 years.In her mid-twenties Stephanie moved to Texas to pursue a relationship with her future husband who she had met through mutual friends. She married into a ready-made family with two kids aged 11 & 7. This June they will celebrate 20 years of marriage. Her stepdaughter has given them 2 beautiful grandchildren who are the joy of their lives!Scholastically, Stephanie did well but was subjected to the vagaries of the ACE education which was focused on route memorization and regurgitation. ACE is fundamentalist in its Christian beliefs advocating for young earth creationism among other fallacies. The system left her poorly prepared for college, but she was able to avoid too much math or creative writing during that stage. 20 years later, she chose to pursue a bachelor’s degree in nursing which involved studying philosophy, ethics, statistics, critical scientific thinking. This was the final stake in the heart of her theistic beliefs, which had been weakening over the years. After completing the bachelor’s degree, Stephanie was still fascinated by research and found that it would be possible for her to pursue a career as a Nurse Scientist by getting a PhD. That pursuit started in 2014. It has been a long and difficult path but as of January 2018, she is ABD, All but Dissertation. She is hoping to complete her research by Spring or Summer 2019 and defend her dissertation. Her goals are to use research and evidence to improve the lives of patients, especially neonates, which is her field of specialization.Original Music Composition by Esther NicholsonDisclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the podcast guests do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the podcast host, Wendy Nicholson