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hey welcome back to the ex-
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homeschoolers club uh I'm your host
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Jacob Gooden and today I'm so excited
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for my friend Emily to be joining me
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Emily we have known each other for quite
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a long time um I've been trying to think
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about as I'm having people on like when
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we met or like a really like early
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memory I have of them and one of the
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things that I know you and I bonded over
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really quickly was our love for One
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Direction
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um back in like Junior High and High
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School
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um so yeah I think we were in like a
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guitar class together right yeah
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actually that's that's the first time I
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remember like interacting with you I
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think so I remember Madison from before
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cuz we were closer in age but but yeah
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the guitar class was the first one and I
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remember you wore like red pants in a
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stripy shirt and then all my friends
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were like oh my gosh it's like One
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Direction and then we all started
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dressing like One Direction too it's
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funny cuz like
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I I was thinking about like I've been as
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I've been reminiscing about like home
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school
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it's so funny because like I I didn't
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listen to a lot of pop music like I
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listen to Just a lot more like Christian
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music um and so the fact that I even
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like knew who won Direction was was kind
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of amazing I feel like the fact that any
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of the homeschoolers knew who won
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Direction was was kind of amazing did
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your did your parents let you listen to
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a bunch of pop music or not not really
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yeah I'd say so like I think I'm pretty
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sure the first CD I ever bought was like
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Justin Bieber like I think it was like
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My World 2.0 or something like that but
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that was like my first kind of exposure
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to like boy bands and or not not that
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he's a boy band but but yeah just that
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whole side of things and they didn't
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really I don't think they were too
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concerned about me listening to it or
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anything you see you had cool parents
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you know they were like overall I think
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they we were like kind of more anti like
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like the Pokemon Harry Potter side of
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things but then as far as like music
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went not not too much my parents didn't
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let me watch Harry Potter either um or I
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didn't I didn't play with Pokemon cards
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um so it wasn't yeah and then I got to
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college and everyone was into poke like
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into not Pokemon but into Harry Potter
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and they're like what house are you and
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like all that stuff and so I was like
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okay now I got to watch the movies um
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and figure out what house I'm a part of
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and you know all that kind of stuff but
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um have you since gone back and watched
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Harry Potter oh yeah yeah I think as
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soon as I turned 18 I like read all the
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books and watched all the movies and
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then like my sister was already into it
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she was older but um yeah we got really
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into Harry Potter after that
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and your sister was like it was like
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Emily you gota you got to you'll enjoy
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this cuz I I know you you also like love
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like the fantasy stuff like I did too of
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like Chronicles of nnia and oh yeah oh
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my goodness Lord of the Rings and all
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that kind of stuff okay so tell me a
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little bit about your homeschool Journey
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like were you homeschooled all the way
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through yes yeah so my mom started kind
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of Midway through with my brother and
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sister but they were so much older than
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me that she was already doing that by
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the time I was born and then
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yeah like K through 12 I was home which
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was really cool and what did like a
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typical like day of homeschool look like
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it was a lot of well my mom read out
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loud to me for a lot of things so for
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like history or like a lot of different
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subjects she would just read to me and
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then we'd like answer questions and kind
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of work through those um and then with
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like English and math it was mainly just
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workbooks so i' just go through you know
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get whatever however many pages I had to
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get done finished for the day and and
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then that was usually it and like i'
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kind of think like a lot of homeschool
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kids I'd be done pretty early and then
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we just have time to like like I go to
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the store with my mom it was like we go
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to Kohl's and walk around and just
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things like that like yeah there was a
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lot of freedom in the second half of the
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day usually yeah no I remember my mom
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reading us like story books and stuff
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when I was a kid of just like but like
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really cool like we did a whole year
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where we we studied like the
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Revolutionary War and like early America
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and stuff so she would read us these
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like I they were like
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historical you know fiction novel type
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stuff so it's like an adventure you know
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set with real people obviously maybe not
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100% historically accurate but um but
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yeah I remember like and we would do it
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at night so it would be like fun like my
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dad would be home and we would all just
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like we didn't watch TV we just would
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read a book which sounds really lame
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looking back at it but it was actually
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really fun it's so and like we have so
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much fun m memories of that um one of
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the things in talking to so many people
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now is like I've realized like by the
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time we got to high school I feel like a
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lot of us were a lot more
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self-sufficient with like our homework
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where our parents just kind of like
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handed us stuff and we're like okay go
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do it and then just come like report
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back were your parents that way too yeah
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definitely like I don't feel like with
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my mom I feel like she didn't
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necessarily like teach me things in the
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sense of like a regular classroom you
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know but she would just give me the
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material and like I think you said it on
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your first episode but yeah I just work
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through it and she'd look at it and you
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know she kept really good records and
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graded everything and that was kind of
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all I really needed it it's interesting
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too because like I did I wasn't
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homeschooled all the way through and so
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so many people now that I'm talking to
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I'm like they did the whole way they did
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K through 12 my sister included like K
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through 12 that's all they ever knew I
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like granted it was only for 2 years but
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like I did understand the classroom
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setting and so like to go from that to
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like at home was so weird so now talking
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to all these people who kind of like did
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the at home thing for 12 11 12 to 13
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years of their life and then maybe like
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went into a college setting was that
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like a big shock for you where you were
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just like oh my gosh like now I'm in the
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classroom it's like totally different
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I'm being lectured to like was that a
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shock or not really I'd say surprisingly
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not because I think I was gearing up for
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it to be more of a a big change than it
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ended up being but I think just being in
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co-ops like group Solutions and doing
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like like writing class like what we did
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like I think that prepared me really
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well for just being in a regular
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classroom setting and I ended up
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enjoying it a lot yeah group Solutions
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was like was dope it because it was
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basically yeah the collective of like
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parents coming together and being like
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we're going to teach classes and do
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classroom setting which was super cool
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and then yeah shout out to Mrs yip's
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writing class cuz that's I feel like
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that's where we became better friends um
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because our class was just hilarious um
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and uh you me uh Colin and Anan Lee were
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like you know the Four Musketeers um of
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that class and uh I think we we raised
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uh quite a bit of hell for Mrs Yip but
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um but when I talked to her she's always
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like you guys were one of my favorite
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classes so yeah those were the best
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times it's like well and that was like
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what really got me into like just even
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what I ended up majoring into because I
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majored in English and like just the way
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that her classes kind of prepared me for
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that and just taught me to write
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correctly you know it's like that yeah
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that was life-changing honestly see I
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had a mom my mom majored in English and
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so she had kind of taught me some of
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that like the creative writing aspects
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of it and like whatever but you know
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it's funny because even though your mom
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is your teacher or your parents are your
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teachers right but like it you also
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still have that like mentality of like
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when your mom tells you to do something
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you're like no I'm not going to do that
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right it's still your mom telling you to
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do something even if she is your teacher
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so going to a classroom like Mrs gib's
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classroom was like fantastic because
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well if Mrs Yip is telling us this is
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how we do it okay maybe there's some
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weight behind it now and I don't know
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about for you but for me she helped me
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so much with like prepping essays to get
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into colleges um and even like job
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applications and stuff like she just
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helped me understand how to not write
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sentences that were just boring you know
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exactly yeah the band words was like
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stuck with me like like all sentence
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openers and stuff that's
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yeah they're so yeah I still for the
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longest I kept it for most of college I
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had the the the sentence openers and the
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bandw list on my laptop and I would
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whenever I needed to write something I
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would pull that up and stick it in the
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corner and be like okay like you know
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got to give them some something
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different you know and it helped a lot
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you know it really does so did you after
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you graduated did you go straight into
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college or did you do community college
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for a while and then transition into a
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University or what did that look like
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yeah so I did I started with Community
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College at Ventura College um I did one
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year of that and then I took a gap year
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because I just hadn't really fully
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decided what I wanted to do career-wise
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and I just wanted to just work and kind
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of figure out what I was what my next
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plan was um so I worked for a year then
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I went back to VC for two years because
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um I'd been kind of going slow with the
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classes and not doing like a full load
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um then I graduated from that in 2020
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which
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was interesting because I didn't really
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have an actual graduation or anything um
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and then from there because it was still
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like just in the middle of Co and like
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you know all the schools weren't really
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like everyone was doing it online no
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matter what so I just went to Channel
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Islands after that um and did that for
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two years and then graduated with my
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bachelors but yeah that was all it was
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interesting because that was all online
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at Chan islands like I I never
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physically went on the campus for my
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entire time there yeah which was a weird
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but um but I think that was another
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thing that homeschooling just kind of
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prepared me for because I was used to
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just you know being given material
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working through it you know submitting
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it when I needed to and yeah no that's
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so that's so wild it it's crazy because
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I graduated college in 2017 and so I
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still had a couple years before Co
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really hit and I took a few online
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classes but not really um and mostly
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like very basic stuff but yeah it's
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interesting to hear like yeah you just
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like you didn't set foot on and Channel
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Islands is not that far like you know
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it's maybe what an hour Max uh 45
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minutes like 20 minutes probably it's oh
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yeah yeah from oxer I was coming from
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ohigh so it was a little bit you know
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maybe double but but yeah like yeah so
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that's funny did you even like did you
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walk in graduation or anything or you
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just were like hey sh me my diploma yeah
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that's kind of I think by the time I was
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done that was kind of my mindset I was
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like you know what I'm I'm done I don't
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need to go like do just this one thing
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so yeah that's funny well and you had no
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attachment to it because you were like I
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never set foot on the college
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campus and I had I had a few good
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friends too that kind of theyd come over
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from VC too so it's like I still had
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relationships and you know there's one
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girl that I would partner up with in all
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of our classes and stuff and so it's
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like there were some people but she
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didn't do the graduation either so I was
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like it's not really worth
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it yeah I feel I feel you I was since I
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moved for college I was like I'm already
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here I might as as well do it but you
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know yeah it was like a whole day of
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like now I have a piece of paper um you
00:11:06
know well and I didn't even have a piece
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of paper because I still had to take
00:11:09
summer classes so so it got shipped to
00:11:12
me but yeah it was I it was special and
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I enjoyed it but it looking at my two
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graduations I'm like I think High School
00:11:18
graduation was uh a little bit better
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and um yeah what's cool too is like so
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we were talking about like achieve and
00:11:26
group Solutions and like those being our
00:11:28
homes School group I think what was cool
00:11:30
was the fact that like we did get to
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have a graduating class like I've met a
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couple homeschoolers now who they just
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the mom and dad hand him a piece of
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paper at the end of it and maybe Grandma
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and Grandpa come over and they go have a
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nice dinner or something like that but
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like we actually had like a physical
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graduation in a in a place capping town
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the whole the whole shebang so that
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really was like a great experience and
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then with like I think eighth grade and
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at least for me 8th grade and high
00:11:55
school we did that and then there were
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all the like events with with with the
00:11:59
other kids that were the same age you
00:12:00
know so we go like we did our Disneyland
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trip and you know took pictures and you
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know went on different like scavenger
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hun and stuff yeah they it's cool that
00:12:10
they made it try to be as close to a
00:12:13
normal school experience as possible for
00:12:15
a lot of us you know cuz it
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really it wasn't I mean it's all a lot
00:12:20
of us knew but it it wasn't when now you
00:12:23
talk to like a public school kid you're
00:12:25
like what you talk like you have a
00:12:26
locker and you you know you have like
00:12:29
periods and like what like it just
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doesn't like I don't know it doesn't
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compute to me you know another thing
00:12:34
that we like collectively became friends
00:12:36
on was the fact that we were both like
00:12:39
uh into swing dance and I feel like by
00:12:42
the time you were kind of starting to
00:12:45
come to the dances because that was like
00:12:47
Junior High I think is when kids started
00:12:48
to be allowed into like the dances and
00:12:51
stuff um was I teaching dance class at
00:12:54
that point or not quite yet yeah you
00:12:56
were the one that taught me pretty like
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you and Taylor I think were the ones
00:12:59
that taught me everything I know
00:13:01
currently so yeah I still remember like
00:13:03
that first class at her house and yeah
00:13:06
that was like that became one of my
00:13:08
favorite things ever like I still love
00:13:10
it don't get to do it anymore pretty
00:13:11
much yeah I love swing Dan yeah it's
00:13:14
hard to find like there's a couple
00:13:16
there's a couple groups out there that
00:13:18
that do it but yeah it's not like it's
00:13:21
not popular um by any stretch of the
00:13:23
imagination I've been asking people too
00:13:25
about like what are there any core
00:13:28
memories that stick out about
00:13:29
homeschooling whether it's like it can
00:13:31
be a super cringy moment or it's just
00:13:33
something super memorable like I I
00:13:35
always tell people I'm like I did school
00:13:36
at Disneyland like that was just a super
00:13:38
memorable moment for me but did you have
00:13:39
any moments like that where you're just
00:13:41
like now you look back at it and you go
00:13:42
oh my gosh like I would have never
00:13:44
gotten to do that or oh my gosh I can't
00:13:46
believe I did that uh you know from your
00:13:49
your home school journey I feel like
00:13:51
just like the type of classes that I
00:13:53
took like at um group Solutions because
00:13:56
U my radio theater class was probably
00:13:58
one of my favorite ones ever and it's
00:14:01
just so weird to say that I took a radio
00:14:03
theater class you know like that was
00:14:05
that was a pretty awesome one we'd like
00:14:07
go to a studio and record different
00:14:09
plays together and like it was that was
00:14:12
pretty
00:14:13
awesome and was that
00:14:16
at yeah yeah we did at Mountain Dog okay
00:14:19
very cool very cool like I don't I don't
00:14:22
remember that class so like did you guys
00:14:24
like write scripts or you guys or you
00:14:26
guys already had kind of written stuff
00:14:27
and then you were just learning the the
00:14:30
the behind the scenes of like making a
00:14:31
radio show I think we we kind of did
00:14:34
both cuz I know we did A Christmas Carol
00:14:36
that was one of the ones and um some
00:14:39
other kind of like pre-written ones but
00:14:40
then we also got to write our own and
00:14:42
submit them and then they'd like decide
00:14:43
who we would record so there's a little
00:14:46
bit of both which was cool because I
00:14:47
liked having the writing component of
00:14:50
it yeah I think I did that I may have
00:14:52
done that the same Year's guitar I think
00:14:55
Poss okay okay and then you brought up
00:14:58
mine yeah I was also a mime I think I
00:15:00
was before your time but um but yeah how
00:15:04
long did you do mime for two years yeah
00:15:07
so it was I think it was like my last
00:15:09
two years of high school if I'm not
00:15:11
wrong but um yeah that was awesome and
00:15:14
that's like a funny one to talk about
00:15:16
cuz I feel like it's just the weirdest
00:15:18
sounding thing if you like didn't know
00:15:20
what it was before like oh yeah I used
00:15:22
to be a m and everyone's like but um
00:15:25
yeah that was a lot of fun like we would
00:15:27
just go and perform skits like like the
00:15:30
prominade and Ventura and you know the
00:15:33
rescue mission all these different
00:15:34
places it it became one of my like two
00:15:37
truths and a lie if you've ever played
00:15:38
that game where I would tell people like
00:15:42
nobody believed it ever they were like a
00:15:44
m what the heck is he talking about you
00:15:46
know um and then they get to know me and
00:15:48
they're like oh yeah that makes that
00:15:49
makes sense
00:15:51
um but yeah have you ever had anybody um
00:15:56
I got this for quite a while after I
00:15:58
graduated was like you know you meet
00:15:59
somebody you're chitchatting whatever
00:16:01
School comes up especially like those
00:16:03
first couple years after you graduate
00:16:04
high school you know and and I would say
00:16:07
oh yeah I was like I was homeschooled
00:16:09
and then someone would go oh that makes
00:16:10
sense you know and it's kind of that
00:16:12
like demeaning thing and you're just
00:16:13
kind of like H dang it I I wasn't good
00:16:16
at covering that up like have you had
00:16:18
that happen to you at all I actually
00:16:20
don't think I really have but I feel
00:16:22
like it it should have happened I'm
00:16:25
definitely on the quieter side and good
00:16:27
awkward sometimes I feel like it it
00:16:28
shows
00:16:29
but but yeah I haven't had anyone
00:16:31
specifically be like oh yeah you see Mom
00:16:33
School sometimes being quiet is like the
00:16:36
secret too getting away with it though
00:16:38
because you're like you know it's just
00:16:40
like you're just there you're just cool
00:16:41
you're just chilling you know that kind
00:16:44
of a thing um yeah I was much more of
00:16:46
the like loud and proud and in yourr
00:16:48
face with it um kind of thing I started
00:16:50
telling people I went to private school
00:16:52
because I thought it I thought it
00:16:53
sounded better than being like Oh yeah I
00:16:54
was a weirdo homeschool kid uh I mean
00:16:57
it's not untrue I think was a private
00:16:59
school technically so so now that you
00:17:01
are like you've been a couple years
00:17:03
removed from like being a homeschooler
00:17:06
we talk about this before we it's been
00:17:08
eight years for you which is insane it's
00:17:10
been decade for me and like you know now
00:17:14
like you have your degree like are you
00:17:16
are you using your degree in your job
00:17:18
and stuff now or what what are you doing
00:17:20
careerwise yeah I kind of am um so I
00:17:22
work on a software company and I write
00:17:25
contracts for them and then I'm also
00:17:27
like my technical role as sales support
00:17:29
specialist so I kind of help the sales
00:17:32
people and then when they need a
00:17:33
contract for a client I'll write the
00:17:35
contract so they were specifically
00:17:37
looking for people with English degrees
00:17:38
for that job which I thought was
00:17:40
interesting but I think they just really
00:17:41
wanted someone with a good grasp on
00:17:44
writing and grammar and catching little
00:17:45
mistakes and things and so in that way I
00:17:48
use it but it's not I'm not like a yeah
00:17:50
like I feel like everyone when I said I
00:17:51
was an English major they're like oh so
00:17:53
you're going to be a teacher right and I
00:17:54
was like no I don't want to be a teacher
00:17:57
so it kind of I don't know worked out
00:17:59
with this and yeah I've been doing that
00:18:01
like I I got the job before I graduated
00:18:03
college and then I started right when I
00:18:05
graduated so I've been doing that for
00:18:07
about two years now and is that like I
00:18:11
mean obviously it's a job but like do
00:18:13
you have any um like dreams of like oh I
00:18:17
want to do this like I want to be a
00:18:18
creative writer or I want to like you
00:18:20
know is there anything like that that
00:18:22
you want to do or you're just like you
00:18:24
know it's good I like it I mean honestly
00:18:28
like
00:18:29
I feel like it's I don't know it's like
00:18:30
weird to say this but um no I I just
00:18:32
want to be a mom I think ultimately like
00:18:35
like in the long term I think I I
00:18:36
basically want to do what my mom did you
00:18:38
know it's like have have kids homeschool
00:18:40
them all the way through and just kind
00:18:41
of be there for them be a homem maker
00:18:44
and I'm getting into all the like
00:18:45
sourdough and kind of tradwife stuff
00:18:48
lately and I've really been enjoying
00:18:51
that so just kind of leaning into that
00:18:53
more I think I've never been like a huge
00:18:55
career-minded person I would say and hey
00:18:58
that's totally I mean mom is a career
00:18:59
within itself it is like the toughest
00:19:01
job um you know and that's super cool
00:19:05
you know and like I I was you know one
00:19:07
of the things too that I have been
00:19:09
asking people is like you know if you do
00:19:12
become a parent you know and or you have
00:19:15
homeschooled parents approach you and
00:19:16
ask you about like oh should we
00:19:18
homeschool our kids you know or or we're
00:19:20
thinking about it or anything like that
00:19:22
like uh is that something you're leaning
00:19:24
towards like with your with your kid
00:19:26
like you would be like oh yeah I want to
00:19:27
homeschool them and all the way through
00:19:29
or maybe part of the way through or have
00:19:31
you put any thought into that yeah
00:19:33
definitely and I think at this point we
00:19:35
definitely want to hes School them all
00:19:37
the way through like yeah I I want them
00:19:39
to have as much as possible kind of the
00:19:41
childhood that I did because I think it
00:19:43
worked really well for me and yeah
00:19:46
that's I definitely want to home school
00:19:47
all the way through and I'd say I have
00:19:48
nothing but positive things to say about
00:19:50
it just from my own experiences yeah
00:19:53
that's super cool cuz like I
00:19:57
like I I think that I highly encourage
00:20:00
parents to like just be involved in
00:20:02
their kids education I think that's what
00:20:04
made a lot of us like really good at
00:20:07
what we do right and just like
00:20:09
passionate about certain things was like
00:20:10
we had parents who obviously cared about
00:20:12
what we were learning and so regardless
00:20:14
of if you're kid is public schooled
00:20:16
private schooled homeschooled like being
00:20:18
involved in your kids's education is
00:20:20
like I think is massive and then
00:20:22
supporting them with like whatever their
00:20:24
interests are right like whatever they
00:20:26
want to pursue creatively or
00:20:29
you know they it it goes a long way um
00:20:33
you know and and being there involved in
00:20:35
your kids life and obviously not every
00:20:37
parent has the luxury of being a
00:20:39
stay-at-home parent but like it's okay
00:20:42
if you can't be you know you can still
00:20:43
be heavily involved in your kids life
00:20:45
and and be there for them but cuz I
00:20:48
remember like even it's funny because I
00:20:50
feel like some of the hom School dads I
00:20:53
don't feel like we're around a whole
00:20:54
heck of a lot but I remember seeing your
00:20:56
dad quite a bit at stuff oh
00:20:59
yeah he definitely he he was my ride a
00:21:01
lot of times and he' I remember he'd
00:21:03
come like on the last day at group
00:21:04
Solutions and that was always like a big
00:21:06
deal for me because I'm like oh he gets
00:21:07
to see all my classes and we put up our
00:21:10
boards and stuff and he'd come look at
00:21:11
him and yeah he was he was very involved
00:21:14
even though like he worked fulltime but
00:21:15
he was when he could he he was always
00:21:17
there and that that's good was he
00:21:19
involved too in like the actual like
00:21:22
dayto Day stuff like I mean obviously he
00:21:25
went to work but like was he helping
00:21:27
your mom like pick up curriculum and and
00:21:29
things along those lines or he served
00:21:31
more of like my dad in early years
00:21:33
served us like he was the principal but
00:21:35
then my mom was like the one really run
00:21:37
in the show uh a lot of the times but
00:21:40
you know was he involved at all like
00:21:41
with that kind of stuff I'm not sure
00:21:44
actually just as far as like the
00:21:45
decision- making on curriculum how how
00:21:47
much of a role he played in that but um
00:21:50
I'd say for the most part it was my mom
00:21:52
but obviously he supported you know her
00:21:55
decision to homeschool and you know it
00:21:57
was all for that and he would like he
00:21:59
was another one he would read to me too
00:22:01
like at night when he'd be at home and
00:22:03
that was that was a really fond memory
00:22:05
too but yeah i' say mainly my mom but my
00:22:07
dad was definitely present for it all
00:22:09
too well when you said so like you have
00:22:11
two older siblings um and they were
00:22:15
homeschooled part of the way through um
00:22:17
and so did you ever feel like you know
00:22:20
oh they were lucky like they got to go
00:22:22
to public school for a while or were
00:22:23
they telling you like no no no it's like
00:22:25
so much better at home like yeah yeah it
00:22:28
was more of that cuz I think I think the
00:22:30
reason my mom started homeschooling was
00:22:32
because I think they were I want to say
00:22:34
they went from private school to home
00:22:36
school I could be wrong but um it became
00:22:39
just so stressful like I know for my
00:22:41
sister she had like a teacher that was
00:22:43
really mean and just as a little you
00:22:46
know probably eight or nine year- old
00:22:47
girl she was like you know just so
00:22:49
stressed out every day to the point of
00:22:51
like being sick even and like I think my
00:22:53
mom saw that and was like okay like
00:22:55
we're we're not doing this anymore and
00:22:57
then she pulled both out and started
00:22:59
homeschooling but but yeah so I I never
00:23:02
really felt like oh I want that like I
00:23:04
wish I could have you know had that
00:23:06
experience because because I always like
00:23:08
I think from probably the time I was six
00:23:11
maybe I was always part of a co-op or
00:23:14
some kind of class where there was just
00:23:16
that social element to it so I never
00:23:17
felt like oh I wish I could go to class
00:23:19
and see my friends because like I still
00:23:21
got to do that so yeah absolutely no I
00:23:23
mean those came in so clutch right it
00:23:26
was just like one of those things where
00:23:27
it's like I if uh if we didn't have
00:23:30
group Solutions and like I don't I don't
00:23:32
think my family did group solutions for
00:23:34
like the first two years um and so it
00:23:36
was like really stressful it was really
00:23:37
hard to like be at home all the time
00:23:41
with just Mom and like I'm a little bit
00:23:43
more of a home body now like I I'm an
00:23:46
introvert so I'm like that 5050 I got a
00:23:48
little bit of extrovert I lean a little
00:23:50
bit more towards the introverted side um
00:23:53
so you know but when you're at home all
00:23:56
all the time it's like you just kind of
00:23:58
go stir crazy you know Co taught that
00:24:00
for a lot of people was it was just like
00:24:02
even just like the ability to just not
00:24:03
go outside was like oh my god um but uh
00:24:07
but yeah things like group Solutions
00:24:08
came in so clutch because it was just
00:24:10
like okay I have friends and I get to
00:24:12
see them every two weeks or I get to see
00:24:14
them every week or you know things like
00:24:16
skate day was like super important for a
00:24:18
lot of us you know and and the dances
00:24:21
and like all those things so I
00:24:22
appreciate all of our parents giving us
00:24:24
the opportunity to be in community
00:24:26
because you know I think that's the
00:24:28
biggest one of the biggest
00:24:29
misconceptions when it comes to
00:24:31
homeschool kids is like we don't have
00:24:33
friends you know it's your family and
00:24:35
that's it yeah and I'd say that's
00:24:37
definitely like wasn't the case at all
00:24:39
growing up it's like I always just had
00:24:41
you know some kind of community that we
00:24:43
were part of and then with church too of
00:24:44
course like we had that side of it and I
00:24:46
had I always had friends coming over too
00:24:48
and like yeah I think that made all the
00:24:51
difference and I'm hoping when I when
00:24:52
I'm homeschooling my own kids too that
00:24:54
similar things will be in place I'm not
00:24:56
sure how CH is doing at this point or if
00:24:58
it's still going but um yeah just having
00:25:02
something like that where you know my
00:25:03
kids could also have that community and
00:25:05
things still look forward to and you
00:25:07
know fun events to be a part of okay I
00:25:09
gotta ask are there any super cringy
00:25:13
stories that you can think
00:25:15
of for me I mean the reason I brought up
00:25:18
the One Direction thing was mostly
00:25:19
because of the fact that like I did show
00:25:21
up wearing bright red pants and like a
00:25:23
striped t-shirt and like very much
00:25:25
dressing like One Direction in the early
00:25:26
days and looking back at that I'm like
00:25:28
oh my God that's so embarrassing um and
00:25:31
I'm going to try to find the the picture
00:25:32
and post it so people can see it because
00:25:35
it is it's cringe um you look normal in
00:25:39
that photo I look awful in that photo
00:25:42
yeah but then in the subsequent photos
00:25:44
from other weeks I definitely wore
00:25:46
suspenders at one
00:25:48
point definitely that like that kind of
00:25:50
thing though I feel like the way I
00:25:51
dressed which is such a like typical
00:25:53
homeschooler thing that I I did not care
00:25:55
what people thought and I think it
00:25:57
showed for a
00:25:59
while it's crazy too because like I
00:26:02
don't know about you but homeschooling
00:26:04
also gave me like so many lifelong
00:26:06
friends that I still talk to to this day
00:26:09
and um do you have anybody like that
00:26:12
that you're still like pretty connected
00:26:13
with even if it's not on like a daily
00:26:15
basis but you you still chat with them
00:26:17
quite a bit yeah definitely so Kira I
00:26:20
don't know if you remember her she was
00:26:22
kind of younger but she's my best friend
00:26:24
like we've especially during Co like we
00:26:26
started just calling each other every
00:26:27
week she loves in Ohio so we're not even
00:26:29
like in the same state but yeah we we
00:26:31
call every week and keep up with each
00:26:33
other and yeah and she's I think we
00:26:36
we've known each other
00:26:38
for over 10 years I think at this point
00:26:41
and yeah that's that's been a huge
00:26:43
friendship for me and then um like
00:26:45
Esther and Sarah I don't know if you
00:26:47
remember them too like they're we still
00:26:49
keep up like Esther was in my wedding
00:26:51
and Kira was too and so yeah definitely
00:26:54
those people an and Le like she's
00:26:57
awesome and
00:26:59
yeah lots of good connections still
00:27:02
that's good because yeah I I think that
00:27:03
it's like it's one of those things where
00:27:06
you don't always realize like oh I'm
00:27:08
making a lifelong friend and then you
00:27:10
sit down and like it's been a decade
00:27:12
right and it's like oh my gosh I'm still
00:27:14
friends with this person and like and
00:27:16
then also people who maybe you didn't
00:27:17
think you would maybe you weren't as
00:27:19
good of friends with they come back into
00:27:21
your life and all of a sudden you're
00:27:22
like oh my God like now we're like best
00:27:24
friends um which has been fun too to
00:27:26
like reconnect with people and be like
00:27:28
oh my gosh like we have so much more in
00:27:29
common than we did back in the day and
00:27:31
like we can chat and we can share
00:27:34
stories and find out what's going on in
00:27:36
life and it's just been fantastic you
00:27:38
know it's like one of those things that
00:27:39
it it keeps giving right yeah so true
00:27:42
I'm trying to think of other cringy
00:27:44
stories or other just things that we
00:27:45
were involved in um I I mean it's funny
00:27:50
I was I think it was the year I
00:27:52
graduated um you me Colin and anal went
00:27:57
and did we have a a gigantic photo shoot
00:27:59
that we did at the beach um it's super
00:28:02
cringey I'm gonna find more of those
00:28:03
photos too to post that still like it
00:28:05
haunts my Facebook memories every year
00:28:08
it comes back up and I don't think I
00:28:11
feel like you and Anan Le definitely
00:28:13
understood a little bit more about like
00:28:14
photography and posing and things like
00:28:17
that Colin and I we had no clue what the
00:28:19
heck was going on um but it is like the
00:28:22
wildest uh group of photos but like I
00:28:24
know you were really big into
00:28:25
photography are you still are you still
00:28:27
doing photog graphy and stuff sometimes
00:28:30
yeah like I I do a lot of like like when
00:28:32
we have like birthday parties for my
00:28:33
nieces and nephews and stuff I'll always
00:28:35
like take all the family photos for that
00:28:37
and like every Christmas I'll do one
00:28:39
with the whole family and I do a little
00:28:41
bit of nature photography too I've kind
00:28:42
of not been doing that as much but but
00:28:45
yeah still sometimes well super cool I
00:28:48
appreciate you coming on and chatting
00:28:49
with me so much I love like I love
00:28:52
catching up with everybody because it's
00:28:53
just like it's so cool to see where
00:28:55
everybody's lives have taken them and
00:28:58
like you know we're just like we're
00:29:01
adults now which is weird I never you
00:29:03
know when you're when you're 12 years
00:29:04
old you're not thinking that oh someday
00:29:05
I'm going to still know these people
00:29:07
when I'm in my mid 20s but um but here
00:29:10
we are yeah really is
00:29:14
crazy that's super cool well thank you
00:29:16
again for thanks for coming on once
00:29:18
again and uh if you enjoyed the show
00:29:20
consider subscribing following uh
00:29:23
leaving a rating comment any of the good
00:29:25
stuff you know what to do and uh Emily
00:29:27
this has been fantastic and you know
00:29:30
let's let's stay in touch much more than
00:29:31
we have cuz it's been like I don't know
00:29:34
six seven years at this point and uh
00:29:36
that is
00:29:38
unacceptable oh for sure yeah let
00:29:40
definitely stay in touch all right well
00:29:43
this has been fun thank you so much oh
00:29:45
thank you
00:29:47
[Music]
