John, you have my sympathies. You have a tough road there, for sure. I think, if you go to college, you'll find a lot more support for your decision than criticism. (Unless you go to a Christian college, of course. That might be a mistake.)

For my part, I was in my mid to late 40's when I finally realized that I did not believe, and why. My family has never made an issue of it, and neither have I. They don't threaten me with eternal punishment and I don't try to deconvert them. My mother remains a believer, but her mind is going (Alzheimer's) and she isn't able to understand my position even if I were insensitive enough to bring it up. A recent conversation with my father, not about religion, leads me to believe that he has all but given up on religion, at least. The problems besetting the Catholic Church have driven him away and he's not interested in finding anything to take its place. I don't know if he's lost his faith, but he's certainly lost his religion. None of my brothers are religious, being either agnostic or leaning towards atheism. My sister, however, remains a believer, despite being excommunicated from the RCC for the audacity of divorcing her husband, who was NOT a Catholic to begin with. Her daughter, my niece, also remains a believer, but this past winter she asked me some questions about my lack of belief. denuseri won't believe it but I was polite and explained my position rationally, without assaulting her beliefs. I don't think it did any good, but it hasn't affected our familial relationships.

I haven't had any social repercussions from admitting my atheism, since I'm not a very social person. I did have one or two people I worked with walk away from me when I talked about atheism, fearing that they might get caught in their God's retaliation against me. And, to be fair, their God does have a reputation for overdoing it. Surprisingly, though, I've had no real trouble from the community. Which is surprising in this area.

My only advice, John, would be to try to avoid religion and politics when dealing with family. And when those religious kids at school try to "save" you, ask them to reconcile the discrepancies between the four Gospels. Chances are they aren't even aware of them.