ello, my name is Gary Richie, and here is a little bit about myself:

     Depending upon who I am talking to, I am either a software engineer, computer programmer, an application designer, etc. (for example, if the person isn't in the software business, typically they more easily recognized computer programmer). Basically I design and code computer programs on various platforms. Most recently Digital Equipment VAX and PC Windows 95/NT systems.

     I started my professional career as an electronic technician. Barely getting out of college without being on Scholastic Probation (I never did complete and get a degree). I kind of fell into a job where computers were involved and got interested in trying to program them. Well, during this time I was young and involved with marijuana and speed. So, I wasn't making much headway with the programming of computers or much of anything else for that matter.

     An apparent divergence...

     Now religion and I never really seemed to do much unless there was a female involved. First there was my maternal Grandmother. She belonged to the Church of Christ and attended regularly and when I visited with her, I went to church (this was when I was three to five years old). After my Grandmother died I quit going.

     Next, I was about 13 and there was a girl I went to school with that I found myself very interested in. She went to the local Baptist church so, I started going with her. I even got baptized there. Well, we stopped "going together" and I stopped going to church.

     Around the age 15 my Mother started going to church (also Church of Christ) and well, I started going, no make that being taken, with her. When my Mother died I stopped going again.

     In my early twenties, I met my then future wife. She went to the First United Methodist Church in town on a regular basis and well, I started to. I even joined her church. Well, we eventually got married (in that same church). Unfortunately our marriage did not last and we got divorced and ... you know what's coming next don't you? Yes, I stopped going to church.

     Notice the pattern developing here? Like I said, all my experiences with religion were influenced by women.

     By now I was ready to call religion quits. I mean here we were attending church regularly and trying to do right and well, God didn't keep us together and happy. I was about ready to become an atheist. But, there were too many things in existence to throw God away completely so I became an agnostic. Just another way of saying there could be a God but I wasn't really interested.

     Enter Scientology...

     Scientology was no different in who it took a woman to get me there. I was dating a woman that was a Scientologist. She took me to a Scientology Mission where I took a course on communication. By today's standards that was a pretty pitiful course (don't get me wrong, even back then it was a tremendous course and I got a lot of useful things out of it that I could use in the everyday world outside of Scientology). Well, after I completed that course I took another and another and somewhere along the line I quit going with the woman that brought me into Scientology. We remained friends until she moved out of the area and if I ever see her again we will be friends again. But, what it boils down to is that after 25 years I have not stopped being a Scientologist even though the woman that brought me into Scientology is no longer in my life.

     Now returning from the divergence...

     As I said earlier, I was having trouble with the computer programming stuff. Well, Scientology got me to stop smoking marijuana and taking speed. Then I took a course called the Student Hat. You know what is meant by 'Hat'. You know you can tell a person's job by their hat: cowboy, fireman, sailor etc. Well, the Student Hat course taught me how to be a student! I learned how to study! I could now study the manuals at work and I was able to learn how to program the computer. I started out with small routines and now I am writing programs with thousands of lines of code. I have been able to learn several different computer programming languages.

     Without Scientology, I don't know where I would be today. Possibly not even able to read something like this on a computer.