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The Mental Health Struggles of Homeschoolers | #23

January 16, 2025 / 01:12:23

This episode features Jacob Good and guest Aloette Kim discussing their shared experiences as homeschoolers. Topics include Aloette's homeschooling journey, her family dynamics, and her transition to nursing.

Aloette shares her background, explaining that she was homeschooled from K through 12 and reflects on her positive experiences. She discusses the curriculum her mother used, including the book "The Well-Trained Mind," and how it shaped her education.

The conversation shifts to the social aspects of homeschooling, including the challenges of making friends and the importance of community. Aloette recounts her experiences with various homeschool groups and how they helped her navigate social interactions.

Aloette also opens up about her mental health struggles, including anxiety and depression, and how these issues were often overlooked in her upbringing. She emphasizes the importance of seeking professional help and the positive impact therapy has had on her life.

Finally, the episode touches on Aloette's current role as a nurse and her thoughts on potentially homeschooling her daughter in the future, highlighting her desire to provide a supportive and nurturing educational environment.

TL;DR

Aloette Kim shares her homeschooling journey, mental health struggles, and transition to nursing while reflecting on the importance of community and support.

Episode

1:12:23
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we are back another ex- homeschoolers
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club with your host Jacob good today I'm
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chatting with my friend aloette uh some
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of you will know her as aloette Pettit I
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know that is no longer her last name and
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I'm blanking on what it is currently but
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um uh she I'm sure she will fill us all
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in but aloette and I have known each
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other I say this with everybody but
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we've known each other a long time um we
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both grew up in the ohigh valley um and
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things like that and we're going to get
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into her story and and just her
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homeschool experience but before we do
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that couple things um if you enjoy the
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show I want to hear from you I want to
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know what we can do better what uh
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you're liking people you want to hear on
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all of those good things so at the very
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top of the description the show notes
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whatever the links down below um there
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is going to be a uh a form to fill out
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it's six questions two of them are super
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easy your name and your email address
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and then it's just a bunch of questions
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about what we can do better where if we
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build an external Community outside of
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this
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where you want it to be Discord slack
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all of those wonderful wonderful social
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media places um that kind of thing I
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want to hear from you so if you don't
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mind take a second we'll
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wait okay and we're back okay aloette
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welcome to the podcast thank you for
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having
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me we got uh we've known each other like
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I said we've known each other for a long
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time um I feel like I I always try to
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think back to like how we met and I I
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just like I know we kind of we just ran
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in similar circles there was like theana
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group and there was just the ohigh
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valley Homeschool Group and all of those
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things and so I think at some point
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Calvary Chapel was up the street from my
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house and go there sometimes so I think
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we just kind of at some point our paths
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just they connected right Ami I know I I
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feel like that's how I feel about most
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of the people in like achieve and stuff
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is just I don't know when we met but we
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met and then it we just existed yeah and
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in each other's
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circles absolutely yeah no there's a
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those few people that I'm like I
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distinctly remember meeting you but then
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yeah there's exactly and then there's
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those few that I'm just like we just
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were friends we just ended up in the
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same Circle and somehow your parents
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knew my parents and we ended up taking
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classes together or what whatever it
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might be but anyway so tell us a little
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bit about your homeschool Journey fill
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us in like what was home life like were
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you homeschooled all the way through
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that kind of thing walk us through a
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little bit of that yeah so like you said
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aloette pedit now aloette Kim much
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easier last name now um growing up um I
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was homeschooled K through 12 whole
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way die hard since day one um I didn't
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do any side of any kind of outside
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schooling really um until College um
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well I took BC classes um during high
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school as well but it's still College um
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but started off with my mom just really
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wanting to homeschool and give it a try
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um both my parents were public schooled
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so it wasn't something that they had
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experience with um but they thought you
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know hey this will be kind of a fun
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thing to try out and I'm the first born
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so guinea
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pig yeah but they decided they wanted to
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do it my mom really loves the like
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curriculum the um guide the well-trained
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mind which is like a book on stuff and I
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don't know I it the uh importance
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alludes me
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but but um I know my mom really loves it
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and she swears by it so if we homeschool
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if me and my husband homeschool our
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daughter one day I'll probably look into
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it more um my mom um kind of headed that
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up obviously my dad was working um and
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so I you know started being homeschooled
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and that started the whole thing and now
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um you know my three younger sisters
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well two of them were homeschooled and
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then there's Eevee my sister who's right
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after me who's in special education um
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so she would she did go to public school
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but besides her the rest of us um we
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homeschooled and I think it worked out
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well I don't know I enjoyed it never
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regretted it I feel like you know
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homeschooling can go one of two ways for
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people and I'm positive about it for me
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yeah no that's that's good I I tell
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people that too I'm like I don't feel
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like I had there's things I would change
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but I think there's things I would
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change about you know every decision you
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make in life um so um well that's good
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that's good that it was a positive
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experience and you know one of the
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things to like you said you had a sister
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who was at special education I think
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it's interesting because I so many
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homeschool kids had siblings that were
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they needed some assistance whether it
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was just like a learning disability or
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uh like an actual disability or things
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like that and so I think it's
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interesting because we also grew up
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surrounded by those people or at least I
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did where now as an adult like I can
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kind of I I I feel almost like I can
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navigate being around somebody who's
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different quote unquote right like and I
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don't know and and handle it a little
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bit where some people I don't know I
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remember in college just specifically
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people not knowing how to handle
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somebody who is just slightly different
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than them they just kind of like so I I
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would imagine growing up in a house with
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someone who had some special needs like
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it it's made it probably a lot easier
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now as an adult to like I don't know see
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someone else out in the world and know
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just like how to interact with them
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right yeah absolutely and I think
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especially in terms of like my job like
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I'm a nurse you know you get patients a
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lot um who well not a lot but you get
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patients who are non-verbal um whether
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that's because of you know a genetic
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condition like my sisters um or if
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that's a medical condition they're in a
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coma or medically induced coma something
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like that and I think being able to
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especially interact with communicate
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with someone who's not able to verbally
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commun communicate is a definitely an
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acquired skill and having grown up
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around it it definitely helped out in
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that and
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um it's something that I'm thankful for
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especially with my line of work yeah no
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that's definitely and also homeschoolers
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in general I feel like aside from
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cognitive developmental learning
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disabilities we're all just kind of
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different so so learning how to interact
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with people who are different is are
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like bread and butter also because
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everybody's kind of you know maybe a
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little bit off in a good way yeah no I I
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I feel you I yeah I lean into the weird
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now I
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think but um okay so so homeschooled all
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the way through it's all you've ever
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known siblings kind of same deal
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homeschooled all the way through we're
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currently being homeschooled
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um what did like a typical day look like
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like were you always involved in some
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kind of Homeschool Group as well cuz I
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know that's that's kind of how we knew
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each other achieve group Solutions a
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little bit that kind of stuff but was
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that something you guys were always a
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part of or or did it build up over the
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years so starting off my mom actually
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made like she and a few friends started
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their own little tiny Homeschool Group
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it was like maybe four families and this
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is when I was really young like
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probably like kindergarten first grade
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second grade maybe like the beginning of
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it um and it was just a few of us
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families and it was fun I remember doing
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like show and tell and little you know
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like makeshift uh School field trips and
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things like that and I think it was good
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that we had that little group especially
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because I think most of us in that group
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were all all the kids were like the
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first born first homeschooled so it was
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kind of all these moms like working
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together to kind of figure out they're
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going to go about it yeah um and then at
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some point um we started going to
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achieve um and I think a big part of
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that was several of the families in that
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small group ended up moving across
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country so like my best friends as a kid
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and then one moved to Virginia one moved
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to Pennsylvania so it was just like all
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of a sudden all my little childhood
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friends were
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gone not all of them but you know some
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of the close ones and then I was thrust
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into the achieve group where there's
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like all these people everybody knows
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each other and I was like what
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um that was a hard I will say that was
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kind of a hard transition at first
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because I didn't know anyone and we
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started going to a new church at the
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same time started going to Calvary
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Chapel in Oakview and so I was kind of
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like having to make all these new
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friends all at once and I had some old
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friends who were going there um that I
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knew but like a lot of the group um that
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I was surrounded with was new friends
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that I made so like the Nelsons were new
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friends to me um jacine who's still my
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bestie is with a new friend to me at
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that time um Mandy Al Calla now Mandy
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gon it was one of my friends that I made
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during that time so a lot of people who
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later became like my close Circle were
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new when I was around like 8 n 10 and so
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it was kind of hard transition in terms
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of going from like this is the circle I
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know to this new Circle and everybody
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knows each other in this new Circle
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except for me but we're still all
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homeschooled we still all go to this
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achieve but I'm like the new kid in a
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chief but obviously you know over time I
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ALG in but yeah no I I feel that because
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even though I wasn't homeschooled all
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the way through I started in second
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grade which I was eight and so I similar
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to you I was like I went from I had my
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school group of friends that we were
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going to go through all the grades
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together and then we moved and it was
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like we moved 30 I mean venturo to ohigh
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so it was like 30 minutes away and yeah
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I didn't get to see those friends as
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much anymore if at all like um and and
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and yeah it was a brand new group and
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they all seemed to know each other so
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yeah breaking into that is like way
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harder it's really daunting as a child
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like you don't think about it that much
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but it is yeah it is and I mean
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thankfully it's still kind of that age
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where like I feel like parents have some
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influence over like oh hey your kid is
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the same age as my kid we should like do
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a play right like I think there's still
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some of that when you get to like high
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school level it's like weird if your mom
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calls your your your friend's mom right
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and be like uh I think we should have a
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play dat it's like Mom I'm 14 years old
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I can make my own
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decisions I know I think like in that
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sense I was lucky I was also pretty
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outgoing I've always been pretty
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outgoing as far as like making friends
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and so it was easier for me to be like
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hey you want to come over to my house
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but I do distinctly remember being like
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scared and feeling a little ostracized
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because I didn't know anyone and like
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like you said you're your kids so it's
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like it's flexible in terms that your
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parents can invite people over for you
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and it's not weird but at the same time
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kids don't always at that age know how
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how to like invite new people in like to
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make them feel welcome because you're
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still young you're still learning those
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like social like it's nice to invite the
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new person to do things and so I
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remember being kind of
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like I don't know anyone and it I feel
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like nobody likes me even and then like
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I slowly was like hey do you want to
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have a play dat do you want to come to
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my house and I know a big thing too was
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um Aaron Nelson and I ended up doing
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soccer um not on the same team because
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it was boys and girls leagues but in the
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same you know like the Ohio Rec Center
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yeah club and so our soccer games were
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like on the same days on the same field
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at my Monte Elementary and so afterwards
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we'd have like a play date we'd be like
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oh you want to come over to my house
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after our game and so that's kind of how
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I started getting like more mesed a and
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I became close to that so that was fun
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and I remember like early memories and
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stuff from starting to make new friends
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and it being a positive thing but
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definitely I remember the stress of it
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at first yeah yeah no it like you said I
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think once you kind of crack it a little
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bit like it only takes one person to
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really like kind of break it open where
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you're like okay now I'm in you know you
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get the stamp of approval here you go
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yeah welcome to the Calvary Chapel
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achieve Cool Kids Club exactly yeah no
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exactly no and well and I even remember
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I mean like I said I liveed down the
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street from Calvary Chapel so like I did
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go do stuff there going to VBS there I
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remember youth group every now and then
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like I was not a regular at those things
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but I would pop in every now and then
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and um and even old as an older kid I
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remember being like Oh okay this group
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has got it like you guys are locked in
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you guys are the group and then like I
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knew my friends like we were we were
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also kind of our own bubble of people
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inside The Homeschool community and like
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that's just the way it works right I
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think that's just kind of normal
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friendship kind of stuff but public
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school private school home school you
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all have your little bubbles click so
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yeah but hey I mean it breaks the myth
00:13:01
that like H school kids don't have
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friends cuz here we are sitting going we
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we had friends friends
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yeah so okay so talk about let's talk a
00:13:10
little bit about the transition out of
00:13:12
home school so like it seems like you
00:13:13
kind of had more of a traditional home
00:13:15
school experience where like Mom and Dad
00:13:16
were building the curriculum yeah um
00:13:18
that kind of a
00:13:19
thing were were your parents really
00:13:22
conscious of like what comes after uh
00:13:26
like high school and things like that
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because I think that's where a lot of
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people I think get bogged down is they
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their parents kind of are like the goal
00:13:32
is like get through high school and then
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they're like on their own and they
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figure it out um and in conversations
00:13:38
we've had before I feel like both of our
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parents kind of had more of this
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intention of like there's more to life
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past high school so we need to also prep
00:13:44
our kid so talk a little bit about that
00:13:47
so for me I I think like my parents
00:13:50
really they always focused on academics
00:13:53
so like that was a big um something of
00:13:55
importance for them like a lot of my
00:13:56
curriculum probably based on the well
00:13:58
trained my
00:13:59
thing that my mom read um was based in
00:14:02
like classical um learning like I
00:14:05
learned Latin and we did um logic and
00:14:08
critical thinking courses stuff like
00:14:10
that things that I feel like really did
00:14:13
I think I think they were beneficial I
00:14:14
think they helped prepare me for um
00:14:17
further education and learning and being
00:14:19
critical of what I'm learning and stuff
00:14:22
um and my mom
00:14:23
always put effort into our learning it
00:14:26
was never something that like she
00:14:28
slacked on or
00:14:30
by any means um and going into uh High
00:14:35
School specifically obviously as you're
00:14:36
preparing to go into college um my
00:14:38
parents gave me the option to go to a
00:14:41
you know a private or public high school
00:14:43
in town or stay homeschooled um and I
00:14:45
applied to Villanova I did their high
00:14:47
school placement test I shadowed a
00:14:49
student and through all of that I
00:14:51
realized very quickly that I was not
00:14:53
going to enjoy going there um I know I
00:14:56
mentioned when we talked before that the
00:14:58
n friends who interviewed me were like
00:15:00
do you have trouble making friends and I
00:15:03
was like no not at all I was like I'm H
00:15:07
school but I'm not like a shuted I'm not
00:15:10
a like what I don't remember what they
00:15:12
comment a Hermit right um and then when
00:15:17
I ended up like shadowing the students
00:15:19
and taking their placement test I scored
00:15:22
above the grade level that I would have
00:15:23
been entering in and through discussions
00:15:26
with my parents and me they you know the
00:15:28
school let us know they wouldn't let me
00:15:29
skip classes that I had already taken um
00:15:32
and so I was going to have to repeat a
00:15:33
lot of courses which was something that
00:15:35
I as a kid I was like I don't want to
00:15:37
redo school I already did you know yeah
00:15:40
and so I ended up opting to not go to
00:15:43
Villanova and I didn't want to go to nof
00:15:46
um so I ended up staying homeschooled
00:15:48
and then my sophomore year of high
00:15:50
school I started taking classes at
00:15:51
ventur College um which just to get my
00:15:54
gen EDS done you know have the college
00:15:57
experience um I started off with taking
00:16:00
um a couple classes with my friends so I
00:16:02
took one with Aaron I took one with
00:16:03
aurielle um and then after that I
00:16:06
started doing them on my own um and I
00:16:09
feel like honestly it wasn't as hard as
00:16:12
I expected I kind of anticipated it to
00:16:14
be a lot more difficult and I think
00:16:16
where college classes can be more
00:16:18
difficult for some people is that it's
00:16:19
really independent right you're
00:16:21
responsible for your learning more that
00:16:23
so than maybe in high school where you
00:16:25
have a teacher who's like okay make sure
00:16:27
you turn in your assignments on time and
00:16:28
and blah blah blah and I don't know I've
00:16:30
never been to a public high or private
00:16:31
high school what I assume is kind of the
00:16:35
experience um is different in college
00:16:37
you know it's a lot more independent
00:16:38
sometimes you're responsible for
00:16:40
learning material outside of the class
00:16:42
um that you won't ever be taught inside
00:16:44
of the course and I know for me that was
00:16:46
something that was kind of easy to
00:16:48
adjust to because during homeschooling
00:16:50
in high school I was responsible for
00:16:53
most of my teaching of myself you know I
00:16:55
read my lessons I did my homework I
00:16:57
doctored my own exam you know like just
00:17:01
stuff that we take for granted in being
00:17:04
um I think that's an important
00:17:06
distinction because I didn't really
00:17:07
think about this until I was in college
00:17:10
was the fact that
00:17:11
like when it came to school even at a
00:17:14
young age like yeah my mom maybe would
00:17:16
read the textbook with me or whatever
00:17:17
but like once I was able to really read
00:17:20
and comprehend things on my own it
00:17:22
really came down to like okay here's the
00:17:24
book you're going to do lesson one
00:17:26
through four you know read them do the
00:17:28
worksheets that kind of thing and then
00:17:30
like come back to me and if you have
00:17:31
questions you come talk to me and we'll
00:17:32
discuss it we'll figure it out together
00:17:35
right and she was also especially those
00:17:37
younger age she was also kind of reading
00:17:38
the textbook as well kind of in her own
00:17:41
time yeah um but it set me up so that
00:17:45
like by high school like you said I was
00:17:47
like pretty independent it's like handy
00:17:49
textbook like you know yeah my parents
00:17:52
would maybe come up with the syllabus
00:17:53
but like right if I wanted to get ahead
00:17:56
or I got a little behind it was like on
00:17:57
me to kind of make
00:17:59
work you know and so College was an easy
00:18:01
transition because the weirdest part
00:18:03
about college for me was I didn't
00:18:06
understand why we had to sit for an hour
00:18:07
and a half in a lecture like I was like
00:18:09
is this just all in the book like like
00:18:11
let me just read the book you know and
00:18:13
then I'll take the test um so it took a
00:18:16
while to adjust to that concept but
00:18:19
right I I don't know I don't know if you
00:18:20
had a similar thought or not when we
00:18:22
were in college or not I think I think
00:18:24
for me cuz like my really my only
00:18:27
experience with a class outside of
00:18:28
College was Mrs yep's writing class and
00:18:30
literature love those shout out to Mrs
00:18:35
hiep but like going from having that be
00:18:38
my only experience outside of college
00:18:40
and then into college I was like this
00:18:42
really isn't as bad as I thought it
00:18:43
would be the exams weren't as hard um
00:18:46
I'm lucky in that I test pretty well I
00:18:47
don't know I feel like I can figure out
00:18:49
like a teachers's like testing style
00:18:52
pretty well after the first exam and
00:18:54
then it makes it a lot easier for me
00:18:55
which I don't know maybe that's my mom's
00:18:57
critical thinking and
00:19:00
logic courses that she
00:19:02
put um I just remember being like okay
00:19:05
if I pay attention in
00:19:07
class personally this is like my
00:19:09
learning style I was like if I pay
00:19:10
attention in class like really focus I
00:19:13
don't have to read the textbook and I
00:19:14
don't really have to study that much it
00:19:16
just kind of embeds itself in my brain
00:19:18
yeah and so I figured out very quickly
00:19:20
that I was like oh I don't really need
00:19:22
to do much outside of go to the course
00:19:23
and then complete my homework and then
00:19:25
you know study a little for the exam in
00:19:27
order for it to be do doable but I also
00:19:30
recognize that that's not like
00:19:32
everybody's learning style and so I
00:19:34
think that when I was in college I was
00:19:35
like dang like these exams for me are
00:19:37
easy but I have classmates who I know
00:19:39
are really smart and they're really
00:19:41
struggling on these exams so there's
00:19:43
like a disconnect between like truly
00:19:46
evaluating someone's knowledge and the
00:19:49
ways we do it in traditional education
00:19:51
systems um and I think that's why
00:19:54
homeschooling I don't know it worked for
00:19:56
me was because it we could adjust it you
00:19:58
know kind
00:19:59
our needs and like you said you get to
00:20:01
college and you're like why do I have to
00:20:02
sit in a class if I could just read this
00:20:03
you know like for you reading the
00:20:05
textbook would be much more beneficial
00:20:07
than having to sit there for hours yeah
00:20:09
exactly I loved the classes that were
00:20:11
like a lab class because I was like okay
00:20:12
at least we get to do something do
00:20:14
something yeah pass the time so and
00:20:15
that's what I was used to like I mean I
00:20:18
I'm trying to remember I know at one
00:20:19
point in high school and I I want to say
00:20:21
you were there for this but like we did
00:20:23
science classes where we would do the
00:20:25
labs like together there was a small
00:20:26
group in Ohio that we get together I
00:20:28
know I did one at the Peter's house I
00:20:31
think that's what I'm thinking of yeah
00:20:33
yeah yeah we I think it was Kim we did
00:20:35
that year yeah so her house so it was
00:20:37
cool because one we really only needed
00:20:40
once we we just all did the science
00:20:42
experiments together and so it was it
00:20:44
was nice because it was like okay
00:20:46
everyone went and read the textbooks on
00:20:47
their own and we did our things at home
00:20:49
we took our test and then we just get
00:20:50
together once a week or every other week
00:20:52
or whatever do a science experiment
00:20:54
there's like six to eight of us easy in
00:20:56
someone's backyard M you know and
00:20:59
I I think that was one of the cool
00:21:00
things about the ohigh group and was the
00:21:03
fact that like we did things like that
00:21:05
right where it's just like there would
00:21:07
be classes where somebody's mom would
00:21:09
teach the specific thing that maybe they
00:21:10
were just much more talented in exactly
00:21:12
like we had enough parents that they had
00:21:14
like a wide variety of Specialties in
00:21:17
terms of like hey I actually majored in
00:21:19
something similar to this so here you go
00:21:22
I'll you the kids this year you know
00:21:24
yeah and then there were a great
00:21:25
research you brought up Mrs Yip Mrs Yip
00:21:27
was I want to Mrs Yip was a homeschool
00:21:30
mom at one point and then had just
00:21:33
continued great question Mrs hiip if you
00:21:35
are listening to this I would love to
00:21:37
interview you um want hear from you
00:21:40
you've gotten many shout outs on this
00:21:41
podcast um yeah uh and if she hasn't
00:21:44
heard it if you are in contact with Mrs
00:21:46
Yip send her the show and be like hey um
00:21:48
Jacob wants to talk to you um because
00:21:51
she was a great she was she was uh uh
00:21:54
like writing she was a writing class
00:21:56
right so I she taught took English Lit
00:21:59
or I don't know if it was English
00:22:00
literature but I took literature with
00:22:02
her as well yeah but she was just really
00:22:04
talented in like explaining how all of
00:22:07
that worked where like I mean I I joked
00:22:09
with somebody that when I was in college
00:22:10
I pasted like her all the worksheets
00:22:13
that she gave us of like the bandw and
00:22:15
the sentence openers and all that stuff
00:22:17
was all on my wall so I had my desk and
00:22:18
then my wall right here was just all Mrs
00:22:20
yip's worksheets and I would just refer
00:22:23
to them as I wrote papers and I mean hey
00:22:25
I I never got below a B in my papers so
00:22:27
I'm like had a one of my one of my
00:22:30
English teachers in uh at my University
00:22:33
told me she sat me down when we were
00:22:35
going over my final paper and she was
00:22:37
like I would be really disappointed if
00:22:39
you didn't at least consider getting a
00:22:41
minor in English and I was like it's not
00:22:44
going to happen but I'm glad he did that
00:22:46
positively and I was like that's for
00:22:49
you I like I wouldn't be
00:22:52
here yeah she yeah she taught us so many
00:22:55
of the secrets and things like that and
00:22:57
that's and I love of reading too I think
00:23:00
just that's something like she had you
00:23:02
know such great book recommendations and
00:23:03
a variety of you know styles that I
00:23:06
think like because we read the gier I'm
00:23:08
sure you probably read that too um and
00:23:11
that really got me into like dystopian
00:23:12
literature which was a fun thing for me
00:23:14
and like Junior High and high school um
00:23:18
and we read you know tons of other stuff
00:23:20
that during that class you know like the
00:23:23
um number of the Stars which I think is
00:23:25
the one about the um was she Jewish or
00:23:28
was the her frenchish anyways you know
00:23:30
the Holocaust and then yeah um I think
00:23:32
walk down the moon was about indigenous
00:23:36
people groups in America or based on one
00:23:39
um and like a variety of texts that I
00:23:42
think
00:23:43
really helped me find my interest you
00:23:45
know which at the time was dystopian
00:23:47
literature um and so I was really
00:23:50
grateful that I'm still very grateful
00:23:52
for that yeah no I think again it just
00:23:56
goes back to that was the cool thing
00:23:58
about homeschool our experience
00:24:00
homeschooling is just that in addition
00:24:03
to having our parents who were very much
00:24:06
involved and very like I I think they
00:24:09
wanted the best for us but they also
00:24:12
gave us a ton of resources outside of
00:24:14
just themselves to learn from and that
00:24:16
made a huge difference I think in just
00:24:18
the way that like it shaped us because
00:24:20
we had outside influence aside from just
00:24:23
like my parents are the only ones giving
00:24:25
me curriculum and education right um
00:24:27
right and that's important I think for
00:24:30
kids absolutely so and and even then
00:24:32
like I took classes with Mrs yep my mom
00:24:34
and my grandma are both
00:24:36
um very proficient writers both of them
00:24:39
have actually written novels my grandma
00:24:41
published my mom is hesitant to publish
00:24:43
she should
00:24:45
though but like I I'm like my my family
00:24:49
my parents are both you know like very
00:24:51
knowledgeable about things but they were
00:24:52
still not afraid to like Outsource my
00:24:55
learning to people they felt would be
00:24:56
even better at it you know yeah my mom
00:24:58
really excels in like educating us on
00:25:01
stem topics which came in helpful for me
00:25:04
because I ended up going into nursing
00:25:07
and uh my mom's major is in kinesiology
00:25:09
so she knows human anatomy very well we
00:25:12
had human anatomy books in the house and
00:25:13
that was something that I read for fun
00:25:15
growing up and um it kind of broadened
00:25:19
our like you said parents who let us go
00:25:21
out and learned from other people who
00:25:23
had Specialties and also I was thankful
00:25:25
for the ones that my parents were good
00:25:27
at my dad knows a lot about programming
00:25:29
and stuff which still is far above my
00:25:34
head yeah but appreciate the effort yeah
00:25:37
exactly but at least you had kind of an
00:25:39
understanding or just you yes it was
00:25:42
there you know um that's that's
00:25:44
important and I think it's cool that
00:25:47
yeah that you had parents who kind of
00:25:50
like gave you the ability to also kind
00:25:53
of seek out what you were interested in
00:25:55
so at what point did you settle on like
00:25:57
okay I think I want to go to nursing or
00:25:59
at least want to go into like health of
00:26:00
some kind I so it's really funny we
00:26:03
actually there's a um a family we knew
00:26:06
the dad I think he was in film school I
00:26:09
want to say and he decided to do a
00:26:11
little documentary special thing for his
00:26:13
one of his classes I think I I don't
00:26:15
really remember because this is when I
00:26:16
was young on my sister Edie with um
00:26:19
Angelman syndrome and so during that he
00:26:21
interviewed me and I was like maybe
00:26:24
maybe seven at the time six seven and in
00:26:27
his little interview with child be he's
00:26:29
asked me you know like what I want to be
00:26:30
when I grow up and I was like I want to
00:26:32
be a doctor or a scientist so I can help
00:26:35
you know like find a cure for Angelman
00:26:37
syndrome um and I want to be a mommy too
00:26:40
and it was really cute I have that
00:26:42
little clip on my phone saved because
00:26:44
it's really sweet but ever since I was
00:26:46
little I wanted to go into some kind of
00:26:48
stem field relating to health care or
00:26:51
biology you know um genetic you know
00:26:54
genetic something like that um so it
00:26:56
wasn't like me settling on nursing
00:26:59
wasn't really far-fetched
00:27:01
ever but I came to really decide on it
00:27:05
when I was in high school actually I
00:27:06
feel like I was like one of very few
00:27:07
people who in like the world ever who's
00:27:10
like I'm gonna do this now and I know it
00:27:12
pretty early on and I actually did it um
00:27:15
which I'm thankful for because I'm too
00:27:17
indecisive otherwise in every other area
00:27:19
of my life to make a decision so
00:27:21
thankfully that one thing came to
00:27:24
me but I pretty early on in high school
00:27:28
I wanted to go into nursing um I just I
00:27:31
was around it a lot with my sister um
00:27:33
being you know medically complex and so
00:27:36
I had been you know to the hospital a
00:27:38
bajillion times the ER you know like
00:27:42
Radiology we went to UCLA every year she
00:27:45
just had her annual neurology
00:27:46
appointment at UCLA like yesterday I
00:27:48
think um and so I grew up around a wide
00:27:52
variety of healthcare professionals I
00:27:53
got to see what they each did um and I
00:27:56
remember being really thankful for the
00:27:59
nurses because they were always the ones
00:28:00
that would stop kneel down to my level
00:28:04
and tell me that they were going to take
00:28:06
good care of my sister that she was
00:28:08
going to be okay you know like when
00:28:09
things were scary right um because my
00:28:11
sister has epilepsy um the type of
00:28:14
seizure she has can be fatal and so when
00:28:17
we were trying to figure out early on
00:28:19
how best to control those with
00:28:20
medications Etc um it was really the
00:28:25
nurses that I remember being there and
00:28:27
providing me a sense of comfort in
00:28:28
something that was really unknown and
00:28:31
terrifying for a young kid you know like
00:28:33
you're you're not really you don't have
00:28:35
a grasp on
00:28:36
mortality and like these really scary
00:28:39
things that are happening and like it
00:28:42
was totally new to me as a kid and my
00:28:44
family even and so to have someone be
00:28:48
able to step in and say hey like she's
00:28:50
going to be okay we're going to take
00:28:51
good care of her she's just going to
00:28:53
take a nap you know um for when she need
00:28:55
to be sedated for procedures Etc
00:28:58
um was really something that stuck with
00:29:01
me and so when I got to high school and
00:29:02
I was like what do I want to do do I
00:29:04
want to go to R school I was like not
00:29:07
really I was like you know I think I'd
00:29:09
really like to be a nurse I'd like to be
00:29:10
that for other people not just children
00:29:12
but yeah um be that sense of comfort and
00:29:17
um confident like Proficiency in taking
00:29:21
care of people medically so that's kind
00:29:24
of what led me to do it and then I just
00:29:27
followed the path
00:29:29
academically um from there on out and
00:29:32
here I am today so yeah yeah so you are
00:29:34
a nurse currently I know you are kind of
00:29:36
on leave or the last time we chatted you
00:29:39
were kind of on leave because you
00:29:40
recently had a baby
00:29:42
um girl so yeah so yeah tell tell us
00:29:45
okay so you so you're married you you
00:29:47
have a baby now how old is your baby
00:29:50
she's 10 months so we're closing in on
00:29:53
year which is like I can't it's
00:29:55
horrifying I can't believe that it's
00:29:56
already been year it feels like she was
00:29:57
born just yesterday so yeah but um yeah
00:30:02
she 10 months I love her to death um and
00:30:06
I actually the job I think I don't I
00:30:10
don't remember if I had mentioned it
00:30:11
last time we chatted um but I had
00:30:13
applied for a full-time position um
00:30:15
because I wanted to go back to work
00:30:16
full-time because you know things are
00:30:19
expensive yeah and I would like to keep
00:30:21
my nursing skills um so I had applied
00:30:25
for one and interviewed for it and I got
00:30:26
the to so I'm going to be in a new
00:30:28
position here shortly which I'm very
00:30:29
excited about um I'm actually thank you
00:30:33
I'm actually going to be stepping away
00:30:34
from the bedside um bedside care and so
00:30:37
I'm going to be going into our um
00:30:39
clinical education department at our
00:30:40
hospital so I'll be doing um kind of
00:30:44
like inservice management and um code
00:30:47
drills and like further education or you
00:30:51
know like skills education for our
00:30:53
nursing staff and other um ancillary
00:30:55
staff at our hospital so I'll be doing
00:30:59
kind of like tutoring but that's
00:31:02
awesome that's good though because it's
00:31:04
like I I mean one like if Co taught me
00:31:08
anything it's the importance of the
00:31:10
healthcare um professionals um
00:31:13
specifically like our nurse our nurses
00:31:15
and our doctors um and um so yeah
00:31:18
congrats I'm clapping over here for you
00:31:20
um because that's an amazing that's a
00:31:22
hard job and it's an amazing job and um
00:31:25
and with your personality and with every
00:31:27
everything I know about you and your
00:31:29
life and things like that I I know you
00:31:31
are fantastic at your job
00:31:34
so don't mess it up please
00:31:38
um I'm excited I'm excited for it you
00:31:40
know I really enjoyed my tutoring job in
00:31:42
college and as much as I miss tutoring
00:31:44
chemistry it'll be nice to do um kind of
00:31:48
use my educational skills in a yeah new
00:31:52
topic that I know even more about so
00:31:54
good good and you brought up so you
00:31:57
brought up earlier that you were kind of
00:31:59
like considering potentially like
00:32:00
homeschooling your daughter now which I
00:32:02
think is cool because like I mean one
00:32:04
like if you're going to kind of be
00:32:05
teaching as a part of your job now
00:32:07
you're also kind of setting those skills
00:32:08
in place but obviously your daughter's
00:32:10
not even one yet but are you like when
00:32:14
it comes to The Homeschool world and
00:32:16
like thinking about homeschooling her
00:32:18
like you know what I guess what's going
00:32:20
through your brain when you're thinking
00:32:21
about that yeah I think for me I really
00:32:24
benefited from homeschooling I think it
00:32:26
worked great for me I was really appre
00:32:28
for the effort my parents put in I think
00:32:29
my parents were um really well prepared
00:32:33
to homeschool which is something that
00:32:35
I'd hope to be also you know I I'll
00:32:37
always say that homeschooling is not for
00:32:38
everybody not it's not for every student
00:32:40
it's not for every parent um I don't
00:32:42
think that everybody should homeschool
00:32:44
their children I don't think that every
00:32:46
child would be most benefited by being
00:32:50
homeschooled um I think it worked out
00:32:52
for me I'd love to give it a try with my
00:32:54
daughter um but you know we'll see maybe
00:32:56
it doesn't work out for her maybe she'd
00:32:58
thrive in a public school environment or
00:33:00
a private school environment so we'll
00:33:02
see but I going into it I really want to
00:33:05
give the same attention and care to um
00:33:08
like her educational foundations and
00:33:11
knowledge that my parents did because
00:33:13
I'm feel like I really benefit from it
00:33:15
and then on top of it too you know I
00:33:17
have time to think about it it would be
00:33:19
lovely to stay at home with her I would
00:33:21
love to spend more time with my daughter
00:33:23
and whatnot you know she's going to be
00:33:24
going to daycare um while I when I start
00:33:27
my job in a few weeks here so I'm sad
00:33:30
about that I'm excited to have my like
00:33:33
adult Independence again and talk to you
00:33:36
know someone who's over the age of a
00:33:38
one-year-old um during the day but um I
00:33:43
you know I do grieve the fact that I
00:33:45
won't get to see her for the hours that
00:33:47
I went at work because she's a ham love
00:33:49
her to death um so it's something that I
00:33:53
think I would enjoy I would love
00:33:54
teaching her I think I know her
00:33:57
personality change a lot before she's
00:33:58
school age but right now she's very
00:34:01
energetic and full of life and I think
00:34:03
it would be she'd be a fun adventure to
00:34:05
do things with go on field trips with
00:34:08
and so if if the opportunity presents
00:34:09
itself if I'm able to you know find a
00:34:12
work schedule or not work or whatever
00:34:15
works out in order to provide her with
00:34:18
hes school education I would love to do
00:34:19
it yeah I'd love to find other families
00:34:21
you know that are looking to do the same
00:34:23
thing I think that' be really fun and I
00:34:26
know I I think it's I I come from a
00:34:28
positive experience with it so I would
00:34:30
love to be able to also give her the
00:34:32
opportunity for that but also the same
00:34:34
flexibility that my parents gave me and
00:34:36
that I didn't have to stay homeschooled
00:34:37
if I didn't want to yeah so no I think
00:34:39
that's you know life is phases that's
00:34:41
what I've learned it's it's just it's
00:34:43
always these phases and I personally
00:34:47
this sound woohoo but I I kind of
00:34:49
believe in manifestation I believe in
00:34:51
like setting goals and expectations and
00:34:52
things like that also being flexible but
00:34:55
you know putting it out into the
00:34:57
universe that it's like I would love to
00:34:58
do this but I'm also open to the abil to
00:35:01
the possibility okay maybe home school
00:35:02
isn't for her but I would love to give
00:35:04
it a shot all those things yeah it the
00:35:06
universe listens and it comes back and
00:35:08
it answers those things sometimes in
00:35:10
really weird and strange ways and so
00:35:13
yeah I I hope the same I hope that you
00:35:15
know you guys are able to figure it out
00:35:16
and find time to do that and you know
00:35:19
but the regardless of that I know from
00:35:21
our last conversation I mean the last
00:35:23
time we chatted on the phone uh your
00:35:26
baby was also there and so was great it
00:35:28
was like the three of us chatting um and
00:35:30
it was fantastic but uh I can tell you
00:35:34
love your daughter so much it's so
00:35:35
evident and I I think that is the core
00:35:38
of like and and you want what's best for
00:35:40
her and that is what I've realized is
00:35:42
like the core of all of like a lot of
00:35:44
The Homeschool people I've talked with
00:35:45
is like the parents who have loved their
00:35:47
kids so much and what the best for them
00:35:49
their kids have just thrived in life and
00:35:51
I recognize that maybe the best for her
00:35:53
won't be being homeschooled and that's
00:35:54
why I'm I have to accept that you know
00:35:57
like was best for me was being
00:35:58
homeschooled I loved it you know I think
00:36:00
my mom I'd like to think my mom enjoyed
00:36:02
homeschooling me um shout out to my
00:36:04
mother good question I mean Christmas is
00:36:06
coming you can ask her you you know
00:36:09
Mommy yeah but um I mean she did it with
00:36:12
my younger sibling so I mean if I was
00:36:15
horrible she probably would have never
00:36:16
done it again so I'd like to think that
00:36:18
that's proof enough um but you know it's
00:36:21
one of those things I love my daughter a
00:36:22
lot and I would love to give her you
00:36:24
know uh the blessing of the education I
00:36:26
feel I had um but if she doesn't feel
00:36:29
that that's right for her then so be it
00:36:32
you know I want I just want her to be
00:36:33
happy and um her to be able to pursue
00:36:36
what she wants to pursue and in that
00:36:38
kind of on that different topic I don't
00:36:40
think that um there totally in aide but
00:36:42
I don't think that everybody needs to go
00:36:44
to college if it's not beneficial to
00:36:46
their career you know um so whatever she
00:36:49
decides to pursue in her life I want to
00:36:51
support her um within reason obviously
00:36:53
and don't do anything too crazy I'm like
00:36:56
maybe if get into any high-risk sports
00:36:59
like football I don't I'm like the too
00:37:01
many head injuries I see too much in the
00:37:03
hospital I'm like maybe don't do that no
00:37:06
skydiving but but anything else you know
00:37:10
maybe craft with Mommy like yeah that's
00:37:13
pretty safe that's pretty safe yeah no
00:37:15
it's safe she can work in like you know
00:37:17
stuffed animals you know creating
00:37:18
stuffed animals it's a safe environment
00:37:21
stff the things I S exactly Build The
00:37:23
Bear great career there you
00:37:26
go they have good benefits I have no
00:37:28
idea Yeah well yeah good question um I
00:37:32
do want to Pivot this is g to be a
00:37:33
little bit of a hard pivot but I do want
00:37:35
to talk about this because this is
00:37:36
something we chatted about last time I
00:37:37
think it's important is that I know you
00:37:41
as just like one of the most happy
00:37:42
go-lucky like Smiley bubbly people in my
00:37:45
in my world and um but I know that
00:37:49
typically behind a lot of people who
00:37:52
exude that kind of Happiness there tends
00:37:54
to be other things they you know some
00:37:57
mental health struggles and things like
00:37:59
that and that was something we chatted
00:38:00
about before and you were open to
00:38:02
talking to our audience a little bit
00:38:03
about that and so um I don't exactly
00:38:06
know where to start with that or what my
00:38:08
question is there
00:38:10
but I don't know I don't know give I
00:38:14
guess I guess share with the listeners a
00:38:16
little bit about I guess the Dark Side
00:38:19
of of aloette unfortunately like that's
00:38:23
kind of a awful way of putting that but
00:38:25
no I mean I definitely felt like it um
00:38:28
so what we talked about before is that
00:38:30
during especially high school but for
00:38:32
much of my young life and I mean even
00:38:34
now it's something I always struggle
00:38:35
with you know I've always um kind of
00:38:38
dealt with mental health struggles and
00:38:40
growing up it was something that we
00:38:42
didn't talk about in my family it was
00:38:43
just like you know it wasn't didn't come
00:38:46
up nobody asked about it you know we had
00:38:49
enough to deal with with my sister who's
00:38:50
disabled you know that like she's got
00:38:53
real serious health issues right in my
00:38:55
little kid brain and so it wasn't
00:38:57
something thing I thought like oh I'm I
00:38:59
didn't feel like I was sick because I
00:39:02
saw my sister who had epilepsy and was
00:39:05
really disabled physically and
00:39:06
cognitively and I viewed that as like a
00:39:09
health issue but my thought process that
00:39:13
was like whack i' had no idea that
00:39:15
anything was wrong and so from a very
00:39:18
early age I started manifesting symptoms
00:39:20
of various things you know anxiety and
00:39:23
potentially some obsessive compulsive
00:39:25
traits um and so it was something that I
00:39:29
didn't really ever think of my parents
00:39:30
didn't really like address it you know
00:39:32
when I was little I got really scared
00:39:35
about my sister's health is when she'd
00:39:37
get sick she'd have a seizure you know
00:39:39
fevers illness they would flare seizures
00:39:41
for her and so I would be really
00:39:44
hyperfocused on those things and not
00:39:47
getting sick and if my friend was sick I
00:39:49
was really anxious I'd carry this like
00:39:51
anxiety um about it and it got to the
00:39:54
point where when I was pretty young I
00:39:55
want to say maybe eight or so I would
00:39:58
wash my hands so frequently that my
00:40:00
hands would like crack and bleed and it
00:40:02
was just like really aggressive so I
00:40:04
remember at I my family would have to
00:40:05
like wrap my hands in gauze and Vaseline
00:40:07
just to keep my like
00:40:09
skin from falling off um and that was
00:40:13
something that I dealt with when I was
00:40:15
really little but it was something that
00:40:16
we didn't really think much about
00:40:17
probably because my parents were you
00:40:19
know preoccupied with real serious
00:40:21
health issues with my sister and because
00:40:24
like kids don't like hand lotion so like
00:40:26
you know it makes sense that maybe I'd
00:40:28
get dry hands because I don't use hand
00:40:29
lotion you know I don't have Aqua on
00:40:32
standby and whatnot um but in reality
00:40:37
that was a and maybe the only physical
00:40:39
manifestation of a much deeper um
00:40:42
psychiatric problem and uh is something
00:40:45
that now I look back on and I go wow
00:40:47
that was like the first like some of the
00:40:49
first like moments where if anybody had
00:40:52
really asked me about what I was
00:40:53
thinking about during the day they would
00:40:54
have realized something was wrong um
00:40:57
because I would have these moments where
00:40:59
I'd be doing my home school at our
00:41:01
little desk with the candle of wisdom
00:41:03
that my mom lit every morning and i' you
00:41:06
know every hour or so have to go out and
00:41:08
count every single one of our pets and
00:41:10
our family members make sure everybody
00:41:12
was okay and if I couldn't find someone
00:41:14
it was like meltdown you know I was like
00:41:16
where I'd have to Loop the house and the
00:41:18
backyard until I found everybody um and
00:41:22
that kind of that behavior and the
00:41:25
handwashing and stuff um wasn't
00:41:27
necessarily what I carried throughout my
00:41:28
whole life but in high school it
00:41:29
manifested as like really severe anxiety
00:41:32
um and major depression and then
00:41:35
eventually I resorted to um self harm
00:41:38
and I was really struggling with
00:41:39
suicidal ideation which was something
00:41:42
that you know being in a um specifically
00:41:46
very Christian conservative
00:41:48
homeschooling um Community was never
00:41:52
talked about like yeah totally avoided
00:41:56
um and so I didn't know anyone never had
00:41:58
talked to anyone didn't have any friends
00:42:00
who had ever talked about dealing with
00:42:01
mental health issues it was like me and
00:42:04
this void of like outsideness of you
00:42:08
know I know something's wrong now that
00:42:10
I'm a teenager like I know that this
00:42:12
isn't normal right but I have no idea
00:42:15
what to do about it you know like I just
00:42:16
this is how I feel you know I'm just I'm
00:42:18
depressed I don't want to be in
00:42:20
existence it's you
00:42:22
know I feel that there's no point in
00:42:24
reaching out either you know yeah well
00:42:27
I think like you said we grew up in a
00:42:29
very yeah Conservative Christian
00:42:31
upbringing church was big deal for for
00:42:34
your family for my family yeah mental
00:42:37
health was not talked about in church a
00:42:38
lot and I know like I've had anxiety for
00:42:42
a long time as well and um you know F
00:42:46
firstly I want to acknowledge this that
00:42:49
you know um I work with this therapist
00:42:51
and she always talks about Big T versus
00:42:53
little te traumas and things in life and
00:42:55
I think that we sometimes I know for me
00:43:00
growing up that hearing stories of
00:43:03
people I would always compare my
00:43:04
problems of what I was struggling with
00:43:06
to other people and say well they have
00:43:07
like big tea trauma or troubles in their
00:43:10
life and I have like little tea troubles
00:43:12
in my life and traumas and so mine are
00:43:14
like insignificant and I can just kind
00:43:16
of like push it down and move on from it
00:43:18
and and what she's been helping me
00:43:20
realize is that the reality is like no
00:43:22
like every trauma manifests
00:43:25
itself differently and ab things like
00:43:28
that but they're all valid and they are
00:43:30
all trauma and troubles and things that
00:43:31
need to be addressed and and like you
00:43:35
said I think a lot of times they they go
00:43:38
a little bit overlooked because of other
00:43:39
things that are happening in life right
00:43:41
um and the reason I wanted I I wanted
00:43:44
you to share this and wanted to talk
00:43:45
about this is because I think now a lot
00:43:48
of us we're in our 20s we're some of us
00:43:51
in our 30s and we're starting to address
00:43:52
a lot more of these things and be much
00:43:54
more open and recognize these things and
00:43:56
help we need um to address these things
00:43:59
but it's important to know that like
00:44:01
we're not alone in this and a lot of us
00:44:02
were going similar things and but what I
00:44:05
was going to say about the church
00:44:07
situation was that mental health was
00:44:10
never really talked about in church it
00:44:12
was always just kind of like when you
00:44:13
have problems like pray about it yep
00:44:16
pray about it you know read your Bible
00:44:18
more it'll give you the instructions and
00:44:21
the reality is is that like sometimes
00:44:23
you need a little bit more than that and
00:44:25
that's where therapy can come and
00:44:26
helpful and medication can come in
00:44:28
helpful and those kinds of things and
00:44:30
so I guess when at what point did it get
00:44:36
so bad that you were like okay I need I
00:44:38
need some help like and it it really hit
00:44:41
a wall I guess I think for me I know
00:44:44
what she said like about Big T little
00:44:46
tea my big te was my sister right her
00:44:48
issues were so big and so I just
00:44:51
everything push it down deep inside
00:44:54
Let's ignore it um but then it really
00:44:56
came to a head and High School um and
00:44:58
probably during my sophomore year um was
00:45:00
when I really started to decline like
00:45:02
healthwise like I I think we tend to
00:45:05
view mental health as not a not as
00:45:08
legitimate as physical ailments um
00:45:11
unfortunately especially in medicine
00:45:13
even Healthcare Providers do that um
00:45:16
and when you look at someone who maybe
00:45:19
has a you
00:45:21
know fatal disease it we go oh they're
00:45:25
declining if they're you know
00:45:27
approaching death right if they should
00:45:28
be put on hospice Etc um and for me like
00:45:32
in high school was I was really
00:45:34
declining like I was in terms of my
00:45:38
disease that I was battling you know
00:45:40
being major depression suicidal ideation
00:45:43
um I was declining I was approaching my
00:45:45
death and that's the reality of it you
00:45:47
know I was seriously unwell um I was you
00:45:52
know hardly sleeping really hyperfixated
00:45:55
on how I was everything that was wrong
00:45:58
in my friends and my family's life and
00:46:01
my own life like I would never be happy
00:46:03
you know and these were things I
00:46:05
couldn't control I just that was how I
00:46:07
felt and it just felt like that was what
00:46:08
consumed my being um and very few of my
00:46:13
friends really knew how bad it was um
00:46:16
and even you know some of the ones that
00:46:18
I did tell it was really uncomfortable
00:46:20
for them to hear and so they were not as
00:46:22
maybe supportive as they could have been
00:46:24
but I understand it's because it's not
00:46:26
talked about you know when it's
00:46:27
something you you don't even know how to
00:46:29
respond to how do you know how to
00:46:30
comfort someone if it's the first time
00:46:32
you're ever hearing of someone thinking
00:46:33
such dark things you know um so it got
00:46:35
to a point where I had a mentor who I
00:46:38
had um confided in about my issues um
00:46:42
just that the mentor had watched me
00:46:44
decline um and was like came to me and
00:46:47
was like you know what I need think you
00:46:48
need to talk to your parents about
00:46:50
getting some professional help um and I
00:46:54
was really obstinate about it I was
00:46:56
really against it I didn't want to tell
00:46:58
my parents because my parents had
00:46:59
actually found out about me self Haring
00:47:01
like you know within the past year
00:47:03
before that and it was like my parents
00:47:05
had felt really guilty about it like it
00:47:06
was their fault even though it wasn't it
00:47:08
wasn't anything in particular that my
00:47:09
parents had done I was just mentally ill
00:47:11
you know um and essentially nothing had
00:47:15
been done about it it was just my
00:47:17
parents felt really guilty and I all my
00:47:20
Shavers got taken away I couldn't shave
00:47:22
my armpits anymore which was not great
00:47:23
for a teenage
00:47:25
girl and so was like this whole thing
00:47:27
where the last time I had talked to my
00:47:29
parents it hadn't done anything and it
00:47:31
just made me more self-conscious because
00:47:33
I was like oh my gosh I can't shave my
00:47:34
armpits which was like life ending at
00:47:37
the time yeah um and so it was this
00:47:40
whole thing but eventually they were my
00:47:43
mentor was like hey you need to talk to
00:47:45
your parents about this um and if you
00:47:47
don't I will talk to them and so I was
00:47:49
like can I write a letter to them and
00:47:51
you take it to them and sit with them
00:47:53
while I open it and so I can not be
00:47:55
there I can go over to a friend's house
00:47:56
or something thing you know and so
00:47:58
that's ended up that's what I ended up
00:48:00
doing I wrote a letter to my parents
00:48:01
saying that you know I was still
00:48:02
struggling um you know I was still self
00:48:05
Haring and that I think I needed
00:48:07
professional help and so um the end
00:48:10
result of that was I ended up going to
00:48:12
um a licensed therapist and receiving
00:48:15
cognitive behavioral therapy and that's
00:48:18
um really when my life turned around and
00:48:20
that was in
00:48:21
2014 um and I you know at first was
00:48:27
really kind of the classic teenager like
00:48:29
yeah whatever okay you know like this
00:48:31
isn't going to really help me and little
00:48:34
by
00:48:35
little my shell of skepticism um cracked
00:48:39
and I was able to really be able to
00:48:42
focus my um thoughts on other things and
00:48:46
you know there's a whole lot to
00:48:47
cognitive behavioral therapy that I
00:48:48
won't get into um but it's my our Focus
00:48:51
for my treatment was on thought rewiring
00:48:54
thought remapping um depending on who
00:48:56
you're talking to they'll word it
00:48:58
differently um but being able to come to
00:49:02
face the thoughts that I was having and
00:49:04
walk away from them instead of being
00:49:06
controlled by them and so it was
00:49:07
something that was really helpful for me
00:49:09
and I did therapy for seven years um off
00:49:14
and on um mainly because I moved to
00:49:16
college and found a new therapist and I
00:49:19
got really lucky in that the two
00:49:21
therapists that I was with for those
00:49:22
seven years um were exactly who I needed
00:49:25
in those moments my first therapist was
00:49:27
like a grandfatherly figure you know
00:49:29
someone who was just like warm and
00:49:31
inviting um and then my second therapist
00:49:34
that I had during college um was like a
00:49:36
younger woman who felt really relatable
00:49:39
to me in the moment and that was
00:49:41
something that I really needed because
00:49:43
in college I struggled more with my
00:49:44
anxieties and like social anxiety and
00:49:46
making friends and feeling really closed
00:49:48
off because I was so academically minded
00:49:50
and not focusing on my social needs too
00:49:53
you know we're humans we need we need
00:49:55
people um so having someone who was like
00:49:58
younger and More in tune with those
00:50:01
feelings and in her own way was really
00:50:03
helpful because I felt like um she was
00:50:05
able to give practical advice and listen
00:50:07
to me in a way that was felt more like I
00:50:10
was being understood so those two
00:50:12
therapists I had I was really thankful
00:50:14
for um because they were really uh
00:50:17
lifechanging their care was
00:50:18
life-changing for me in a way that I you
00:50:21
know wouldn't have ever found in reading
00:50:24
Bible passages or prayer yeah and I
00:50:27
think that's something that maybe people
00:50:28
think is scandalous to say I don't know
00:50:31
um but there is a place for you know
00:50:34
like prayer and reading scripture if
00:50:37
that's you know your conviction and
00:50:40
there's a place at which I think you
00:50:42
know if you believe in this that God can
00:50:46
use other people and their gifts and
00:50:48
their skills to provide help right we
00:50:50
don't go to the Bible when someone's
00:50:52
having a heart attack you know like we
00:50:54
go to the emergency room and so I think
00:50:56
with mental health also that's really
00:50:58
important to be able to recognize that
00:51:00
it's a clinical issue there's you know
00:51:02
you have a health problem and you can
00:51:05
pray about it absolutely you know if
00:51:07
that's your your way of um feeling
00:51:11
comfort and your your belief system um
00:51:15
but at the end of the day for some
00:51:17
people not everybody obviously mental
00:51:19
health varies greatly in what is needed
00:51:22
um but for some people myself included
00:51:24
um cognitive behavioral therapy medic
00:51:26
are necessary to be able to function and
00:51:29
it's something I'm very thankful for you
00:51:31
know I worked in the health field now so
00:51:33
I
00:51:34
see
00:51:36
how this is something that me and my
00:51:38
sister were just talking about how thin
00:51:39
the line is between like me and some of
00:51:42
my patients who are hospitalized for
00:51:44
like mental health issues like we're
00:51:46
really not so different and the
00:51:48
difference is that I was able to receive
00:51:51
care I was lucky enough that I had
00:51:52
access to care and um access to
00:51:55
providers who were really helpful for me
00:51:56
and this person didn't you know for
00:51:58
whatever reason and so I'm very thankful
00:52:01
that my parents were open to helping me
00:52:03
receive um therapy and now I'm on Zoloft
00:52:08
because postpartum anxiety is real
00:52:11
unfortunately and uh honestly feel
00:52:14
better than I ever have which is great
00:52:16
you know it's something where I look
00:52:18
back and I go wow that was a really
00:52:22
like can you never mind it was a really
00:52:27
crappy I'm censoring myself time in my
00:52:29
life um and I am so thankful for the
00:52:34
resources I had available and the point
00:52:37
where I am now because looking back it
00:52:39
was really hard to struggle so silently
00:52:41
and not be able to reach out and like
00:52:43
even when I started therapy I know I
00:52:45
mentioned this when we talked about it
00:52:46
before but when I started therapy like
00:52:48
people being like Oh can you hang out oh
00:52:50
no I have a doctor's appointment today
00:52:51
and having to say that every week at the
00:52:54
same time I know it's probably supicious
00:52:56
to some people um but I couldn't I felt
00:53:00
like I couldn't be honest even about
00:53:02
receiving the care that I needed yeah
00:53:05
and without it I wouldn't be here so
00:53:07
yeah no and and I I told you the last
00:53:10
time we chatted I was like I'm so
00:53:11
thankful that you did because I'm glad
00:53:12
that you're still here and I I mean
00:53:16
that's a tremendous story and so and
00:53:18
that's why I wanted you to share it
00:53:19
because I think it it's powerful first
00:53:21
of all um and the fact to know you were
00:53:24
in one place in a very dark place and
00:53:26
now you're in a much better place and
00:53:27
even though you still struggle you get
00:53:29
the help you need you to work on it you
00:53:32
have people in your life that also like
00:53:33
understand what's going on with you and
00:53:35
support you in that and that's important
00:53:37
you have a partner who you know is is
00:53:40
with you he's amazing yeah he sounds
00:53:42
amazing and things like that and I think
00:53:44
to your point of like it is very hard
00:53:47
when we were in high school especially
00:53:49
to talk about anything like that where
00:53:51
it's like it does feel this weird
00:53:54
shameful thing and I don't know descri
00:53:57
it yeah it
00:53:58
it's it's hard because I like I don't
00:54:02
even know like
00:54:04
it's not to go too much down like the
00:54:06
Purity culture rabbit hole but like
00:54:08
there's so many things about like
00:54:09
religion and and Christianity
00:54:11
specifically that there this like shame
00:54:13
built into like you should be ashamed to
00:54:15
feel this way or you should be ashamed
00:54:16
to question these things um at at the
00:54:19
time of recording this I just put out my
00:54:21
episode where I talk about
00:54:22
deconstructing my faith things like that
00:54:24
and it was like there was a lot of Shame
00:54:26
and there a lot of fear around being
00:54:28
vocal about things because yes
00:54:29
absolutely I think
00:54:31
we hope I hope that church is getting
00:54:35
better about this of of being like it's
00:54:37
okay to question things it's okay to
00:54:39
like be hurting it's okay to all these
00:54:41
things like it's I I think I I don't
00:54:44
know I grew up with an understanding
00:54:46
that it's like oh well when you believe
00:54:47
like everything's just good all the time
00:54:48
like God is good and God does good
00:54:50
things to you right so I just kind of
00:54:52
was like when stuff sucked it was like I
00:54:55
I don't feel like I should feel this way
00:54:56
because I'm a Christian and things
00:54:58
should be good what's wrong with
00:55:01
me that caused this to happen right and
00:55:04
then and you see people around you and
00:55:06
they're kind of they're acting like
00:55:07
everything's good too so you're like oh
00:55:09
well I'm the odd man out right and right
00:55:11
but the more we can be vocal about it
00:55:13
and say no I'm over here I'm struggling
00:55:15
with this it's like I've realized now
00:55:17
talking to so many homeschoolers I'm
00:55:18
like oh my gosh like we were all sitting
00:55:19
there being like Oh my gosh I'm drowning
00:55:21
in this despair of like whatever it is
00:55:23
right and I'm like so many of us can
00:55:26
relate to those things in different ways
00:55:29
um and yeah and I think also for parents
00:55:33
listening I think it's important
00:55:36
to share with your kids that things like
00:55:39
this are real and and people have
00:55:41
suicidal ideations people struggle with
00:55:43
depression with anxiety with all these
00:55:45
different things and so also teaching
00:55:47
your kids how to like it's okay to ask
00:55:49
questions about it it's okay
00:55:52
to at the beginning I feel like almost
00:55:54
be kind of weirded out by when when your
00:55:56
tells you those kind of things but learn
00:55:58
how
00:55:59
to help them with it right and be there
00:56:01
for them and I think that was even ask
00:56:04
yes like how can I help you how can I
00:56:06
best be for there for you I think the
00:56:08
friends I had that didn't know how to
00:56:10
react the few that I told like if they
00:56:11
had just been like how can I be there
00:56:13
for you that would have that hearing
00:56:16
that alone would have been really
00:56:18
meaningful because I know like you said
00:56:20
like there I felt alone in my mental
00:56:23
health struggles but I know I wasn't I
00:56:26
know there was probably a lot of us who
00:56:28
felt maybe the exact same way that I did
00:56:29
or was struggling with similar things
00:56:31
but it was that silence that like
00:56:34
self-inflicted
00:56:35
almost isolation that really Fosters
00:56:40
almost a like worsening of it too right
00:56:44
right I'm like the more vocal we are
00:56:46
about these struggles about having
00:56:49
mental health issues like I'm mentally
00:56:50
ill that's the reality like I I'm no
00:56:53
longer ashamed of it it's not something
00:56:54
I worry about I'm very open about it it
00:56:56
like I don't have any problems telling
00:56:58
people that I take so
00:56:59
off because the reality is like my
00:57:02
husband he takes blood pressure
00:57:03
medication is he ashamed of that no
00:57:06
because it's hereditary he can't control
00:57:07
it right no matter how much he takes
00:57:09
care of himself he's going to be on
00:57:10
blood pressure medication if he tells
00:57:11
people that like oh that sucks I'm sorry
00:57:13
but they're not going to judge him for
00:57:14
it right so why should I feel bad about
00:57:17
my condition that I'm treating with a
00:57:19
medication that no matter how much I do
00:57:21
I'm still going to have you know an
00:57:22
anxiety disorder and all this crap right
00:57:25
so yeah it's important to me that people
00:57:28
talk about it more and like you said
00:57:29
being open with kids I want for my
00:57:32
daughter um I want her to grow up never
00:57:35
feeling ashamed of feeling those things
00:57:38
you know we know now uh in current
00:57:40
literature that mental health issues
00:57:43
typically run in families psychiatric
00:57:44
disorders run in families I know there's
00:57:46
a likelihood that she'll probably deal
00:57:48
with some of the things that I'm dealing
00:57:49
with or that you know my people in my
00:57:52
family have dealt with and uh it's
00:57:54
something that I feel like has opened up
00:57:55
a lot um you know my mom also deals with
00:57:58
anxiety we've grown closer over being
00:58:00
able to talk about that together and
00:58:02
being able to empathize with each other
00:58:04
um my siblings as well you know we
00:58:06
empathize with each other better because
00:58:07
we're more open about those things and
00:58:11
it's something that's really important
00:58:12
to me I don't want
00:58:14
anybody specifically that I care about
00:58:16
that I'm close with because I can do
00:58:17
something about it um to feel like they
00:58:20
can't talk about those things because
00:58:21
I've been there it sucks you know and
00:58:25
there's that pressure
00:58:26
in Christianity modern Christianity to
00:58:30
you know be perfect be happy you know
00:58:33
the joy of the Lord right and when you
00:58:36
are unable to feel that it feels like
00:58:38
maybe I'm not Christian enough maybe I
00:58:40
don't love God enough maybe I'm you know
00:58:44
like broken in some way or maybe I'm not
00:58:46
really saved you know a lot of people
00:58:47
have anxiety about um salvation and such
00:58:50
and so that becomes this like
00:58:53
overarching anxiety of I have anxiety
00:58:55
and now I have anxiety about my sa
00:58:57
salvation too um and then nobody talks
00:58:59
about it and like you said being
00:59:01
critical of things asking questions
00:59:02
those are things that um I don't know I
00:59:05
I really struggle with in the modern
00:59:07
Church like they talk about oh the bans
00:59:10
and how the bans like questioned and
00:59:13
researched and read stuff and were were
00:59:17
skeptical about things but they were
00:59:18
good biblical Scholars and so we have
00:59:21
this image that's taught us in church
00:59:23
about oh the brands were good biblical
00:59:25
Scholars they
00:59:26
they learned a lot and were very
00:59:28
interested in learning the truth about
00:59:30
Jesus in the Bible right um but then if
00:59:34
we do that in real life or if we have
00:59:37
struggles it's
00:59:40
like yeah I think I I really think it
00:59:44
comes down to and I think this is just I
00:59:46
I think this is bigger than just a
00:59:47
Christianity problem but I think people
00:59:50
struggle with I think they have there's
00:59:51
a fear in people especially right now a
00:59:54
fear that educ leads to people leaving
00:59:57
the church that
00:59:59
people and I hate to say it I know I get
01:00:01
Flack on this every time I say this but
01:00:03
like things like religion have a sense
01:00:05
of control to them um want to control
01:00:08
people and so to a degree and so
01:00:13
understanding that the reason that they
01:00:14
get scared when you start to ask
01:00:15
questions is because they start to lose
01:00:17
a little bit of that control right and
01:00:20
that's it's just the reality of it like
01:00:23
it really is um and but it's okay it's
01:00:27
okay to like loosen up a little bit and
01:00:28
let people ask questions and let people
01:00:30
seek out answers and things like that um
01:00:33
because it can help them significantly
01:00:34
and yeah absolutely again I mean weal we
01:00:37
we said it before I'll say it again it's
01:00:39
like the more we talk about things like
01:00:41
this the more it enters in and hopefully
01:00:44
people hear it and they it resonates
01:00:46
with them and they go oh maybe I
01:00:47
struggle with that too something I've
01:00:48
learned about recently is generational
01:00:50
trauma yeah it's a whole can of worms
01:00:52
I'm not an expert in this but like do
01:00:53
your own research people but
01:00:55
generational trauma is that trauma that
01:00:56
was like inflicted on your
01:00:57
great-grandparents and it gets passed
01:00:59
down passed down passed down and
01:01:00
manifests itself in different ways
01:01:01
throughout the generations and it can be
01:01:03
things like cancer it can be things like
01:01:05
ailments it can be mental health
01:01:07
struggles it can be all kinds of
01:01:08
different things absolutely it's very
01:01:10
interesting I'm learning a lot more
01:01:12
about it recently um I highly encourage
01:01:14
people to go do do some research on it
01:01:16
because it's just a fascinating um thing
01:01:20
and like you said I'm glad that you have
01:01:21
the ability now to talk to your parents
01:01:23
about things that like your mom like you
01:01:24
said your mom struggles with things
01:01:25
anxiety and that's important to
01:01:28
understand is like Mom and Dad also
01:01:29
struggle with these things and we can
01:01:31
talk about it humanizing them it
01:01:33
humanizes them um because yeah I think
01:01:36
we also grew up with parents I mean I
01:01:38
love my parents and I always viewed them
01:01:39
as human but at the same time there's a
01:01:41
difference between now they are more
01:01:44
than my parents they are like also
01:01:45
friends and people I have a lot more
01:01:47
open dialogue with about right right
01:01:49
right awkward conversations about all
01:01:51
kinds of things um so uh which is
01:01:55
important think you know have those
01:01:57
awkward conversations with your parents
01:01:58
and sit in the awkwardness and let it be
01:02:00
okay um sometimes I think I think
01:02:02
especially in Christian culture we
01:02:04
suffer from the like almost like
01:02:07
santificar Claus ification of our
01:02:10
parents like they're they're very much
01:02:12
when we're little you know like oh my
01:02:14
parents are perfect and they love Jesus
01:02:16
and you know and when you're
01:02:18
homeschooled you're around them all the
01:02:19
time so like everything your parents do
01:02:22
is just like a romanticized and so when
01:02:25
you grow up and you struggle or your
01:02:26
parents hurt your feelings and you're
01:02:28
like Santa no you know that's a great
01:02:32
way to put it I've never I've never
01:02:34
heard it put that way before that's a
01:02:36
great I'm gonna steal
01:02:39
that I don't know how my mom would feel
01:02:41
about being compared to a um plump old
01:02:45
man but um if you will
01:02:48
um the the reality is is like said you
01:02:51
know like we're we're more I'm more
01:02:53
friends with my family my parents now I
01:02:55
feel like I'm close closer now with my
01:02:57
parents than I was ever growing up
01:02:59
especially because I internalized so
01:03:00
much my own issue in order to relieve
01:03:03
them of the burden of my issues on top
01:03:05
of my sister's medical complexity um and
01:03:10
so I'm grateful now that I can talk
01:03:13
about it and not worry and not feel
01:03:14
embarrassed or not feel like I'm like
01:03:16
saying a dirty word when I'm like oh
01:03:18
yeah I start you know up to my medicine
01:03:20
or you know right did this or that you
01:03:23
know because it's something where I feel
01:03:27
like and what I'm really thankful for um
01:03:30
is that my parents have really become um
01:03:33
very supportive of that they I feel like
01:03:35
their understanding of mental illness
01:03:37
and mental Wellness um has increased
01:03:40
just along with mine um and that you
01:03:43
know through my struggles and me
01:03:46
receiving care I feel like maybe they've
01:03:48
also been more open to the idea of it
01:03:51
themselves um and so I don't know not
01:03:55
that my struggling I feel like needed to
01:03:58
happen or do I wish it happened no but
01:04:02
at the same time I think it's beneficial
01:04:03
you know there's something to be said
01:04:04
about if I'm going to have to have gone
01:04:07
through this really tough trial I'm
01:04:10
thankful that we came out the other side
01:04:12
with some positives you know I'm really
01:04:14
close with my mom and my dad now yeah
01:04:16
and I'd like to think that maybe other
01:04:18
people in my life have benefited from me
01:04:20
being honest about my you know mental
01:04:22
struggles and feeling like maybe if they
01:04:25
went through something hard they could
01:04:26
come to me about it because I'm not
01:04:27
going to judge them for it so yeah well
01:04:30
and hopefully too that firstborns
01:04:32
sometimes get the short end of the stick
01:04:34
um I'm also a firstborn kid um but I I
01:04:37
think that
01:04:39
sometimes sometimes it's nice to be the
01:04:41
firstborn
01:04:42
because maybe our parents missed some
01:04:45
things but with our younger siblings
01:04:47
they're able to say okay I need to be
01:04:48
checking in with them to make sure like
01:04:50
they're good or they have the things
01:04:52
that they need um and so I don't know
01:04:55
I'm thankful for that sometimes that's
01:04:57
not the say all are doing but it's just
01:04:59
you know I think parents learn from the
01:05:01
first kid and they're able to implement
01:05:02
with the second third fourth ETA with
01:05:05
homeschooled sometimes down to the 12th
01:05:06
kid um and hopefully by then they've got
01:05:08
it really dialed in um but and my
01:05:12
youngest sister you know she's the
01:05:14
youngest of four right so there's three
01:05:16
of us before her we're all girls so it's
01:05:18
the same thing over and over again
01:05:20
pretty much with the exception of
01:05:21
obviously E's um Advanced Medical needs
01:05:25
but um my youngest sister we always joke
01:05:27
that she's like the final form like of
01:05:29
us like between me and my other sisters
01:05:31
um because she's like so confident like
01:05:34
wait if you asked her like do you worry
01:05:36
about what other people think about you
01:05:37
and she's like not really like and I'm
01:05:39
like I could never imagine feeling that
01:05:41
way but she's so confident in herself I
01:05:44
just facetimed her like yesterday and or
01:05:46
she sent me a video or something and she
01:05:48
was wearing a shirt that said like it
01:05:50
was like her PJs and it said like baddy
01:05:52
Vibes and I was like yes Badd Vibes like
01:05:58
I would never in a million years like be
01:06:00
so confident about myself but she was
01:06:02
like she's like I'm a queen and I know
01:06:04
it and I love that for her because it's
01:06:06
something that you know like I feel like
01:06:07
through each of us like siblings we
01:06:10
slowly got more comfortable with
01:06:12
ourselves and now she's like so
01:06:15
confident and she's an incredible friend
01:06:17
to those around her she's like everybody
01:06:19
calls her their best friend so she's got
01:06:22
like five friends who are like yeah I's
01:06:24
my best friend and she's like thank guys
01:06:27
like and yeah I just I'm thankful that
01:06:30
you know as the oldest sibling even
01:06:32
though I may have been the guinea pig I
01:06:34
can see the benefit of now my younger
01:06:37
sisters
01:06:38
like having come through the other side
01:06:40
and turning out maybe a little better
01:06:42
than I did yeah yeah it's it's a good
01:06:46
feeling take some ownership in that you
01:06:48
know feel proud of pro feel proud of
01:06:50
that welcome yeah I feel like we turned
01:06:54
out okay though
01:06:56
you know we're okay we're okay yeah
01:06:57
we're not to not to Mom Dad you didn't
01:07:01
screw us up too badly okay we live on
01:07:03
our own some have kids we've got jobs
01:07:07
everything's okay we we made it
01:07:09
through sorry this has been oh my gosh
01:07:12
this has been amazing and I feel like we
01:07:14
could just go and go and go I mean the
01:07:15
last time we chatted I think we chatted
01:07:16
two hours um but um this has been
01:07:20
amazing I hope at some point you come
01:07:22
back and we can talk more about other
01:07:24
things as well but but I want I always I
01:07:27
want to leave on this are there any in
01:07:29
in reminiscing and talking about stuff
01:07:31
are there any funny cringey hilarious
01:07:35
just happy homeschool moments that
01:07:36
you're like okay I got to tell the
01:07:37
people about this maybe it was a unique
01:07:39
to your experience maybe it wasn't it
01:07:41
could be something we've already talked
01:07:42
about on the show I I don't know but is
01:07:43
there anything that's like popped in
01:07:44
your brain where you're like oh my gosh
01:07:45
I gotta like gotta say this so okay this
01:07:49
is not specifically involving other
01:07:50
people but I know I mentioned it earlier
01:07:52
in this episode and I don't know if I
01:07:53
told you this when we chatted last
01:07:56
but my mom always lit the candle of
01:07:57
wisdom every day before we did our
01:07:59
school and um you know it was fine
01:08:03
whatever we didn't know at the time that
01:08:05
I was going to have problems with flames
01:08:07
but what happened was one day in my math
01:08:09
book I had the Saxon Math book okay and
01:08:11
the younger grade ones flipped open like
01:08:13
this like vertical not like this they
01:08:16
flipped like this right and I had
01:08:17
flipped over my math book to work on the
01:08:19
next page um and it caught fire oh no
01:08:23
and so my math book literally caught on
01:08:25
fire and thankfully you know crisis
01:08:27
averted bounded it out it was fine you
01:08:29
know but now there was this big old
01:08:30
burnt hole in my math book um and when I
01:08:33
tell would tell people that they'd be
01:08:35
like oh yeah sure it accidentally caught
01:08:37
on fire and I was like no really my
01:08:39
mom's candle of wisdom was right there
01:08:41
and I didn't know and I flipped it over
01:08:43
and and they were like yeah sure you
01:08:45
caught your mouth I'm like it was a page
01:08:46
I already did so it didn't help me
01:08:47
anyways like it was already filled out
01:08:50
um but that was the beginning of a long
01:08:53
line of me catching things on fire uh
01:08:55
caught my hair on fire caught my pants
01:08:57
on fire caught myself on fire a number
01:09:00
of times so me and Flames don't really
01:09:02
mix um and if I could give anyone a
01:09:04
suggestion it would be that if you
01:09:06
homeschool your kids please do not have
01:09:08
a real candle of wisdom get a fake flame
01:09:12
please yeah and we also grew up in
01:09:14
Southern California where Fire's a
01:09:16
problem it's a very it's a very
01:09:18
dangerous thing um this okay so the
01:09:21
candle of wisdom I got to ask this is
01:09:23
this like we also oh is very like hippie
01:09:26
dippy we got witches we've got crystals
01:09:28
we got all kinds of things like that are
01:09:29
we talking like C wisdom candle that's
01:09:32
bought that's like specifically crafted
01:09:34
for wisdom or are we just talking about
01:09:35
like it's just a generic candle that
01:09:36
she's like this is the candle of wisdom
01:09:39
I think it was literally just to like
01:09:40
get me like look it it's school time
01:09:43
we're lighting the candle wisdom it was
01:09:45
just like TL's dog like ringing the bell
01:09:47
it's time for school um I'm pretty sure
01:09:49
it was it though but you know it's oh
01:09:51
high so I got some incense in the room
01:09:54
right now you know I don't live in Ohio
01:09:56
anymore but it's still deep within me
01:09:59
yeah I yeah no I I feel yeah I'm like I
01:10:01
still got some I got my Essential Oils
01:10:04
somewhere around here to H schooled not
01:10:05
homeschooled enough so all this has been
01:10:08
amazing um like I said I hope you come
01:10:10
back uh for a part two at some point or
01:10:13
or something um but thank you yes and
01:10:17
this has been amazing I hope audience I
01:10:19
hope you've got gotten something from
01:10:21
this uh whether it's funny story or
01:10:24
hopefully a desire to be vocal about
01:10:26
when we're struggling with things um be
01:10:29
true to who you are you know and it's
01:10:31
okay if you need help yes please do and
01:10:35
I'm still here even if we haven't talked
01:10:37
in a long time yeah yeah that's exactly
01:10:40
and that's what I like to live on every
01:10:42
episode is just you know if you've got a
01:10:44
story you want to share reach out to me
01:10:46
it's easy right shoot me an email send
01:10:48
me a DM exhs [email protected] or ex exhs
01:10:52
Club on all the socials and stuff like
01:10:54
that shoot me a message just say hey
01:10:56
what's up you know we can talk about an
01:10:58
episode we can talk about your story
01:11:00
maybe we'll have you on the podcast if
01:11:01
you don't want to be on the podcast
01:11:02
that's okay I still want to get to know
01:11:04
you if you have watched this and you go
01:11:06
oh my gosh this made me think of this
01:11:08
person text them today okay text them
01:11:10
shoot them a text shoot them a video
01:11:12
call I don't get do something reach out
01:11:14
to them say hey what's up how are you um
01:11:17
that is how so many people have gotten
01:11:19
on the show that's how I reconnected
01:11:20
with so many of you guys is either you
01:11:22
have reached out to me or I've reached
01:11:23
out to you and it's been amazing I've
01:11:26
reconnected with people I never thought
01:11:28
I would ever talk to ever again in my
01:11:30
life okay um and we've had amazing
01:11:32
conversations and so again just do it
01:11:35
it's okay people if people are busy they
01:11:37
won't respond okay that's that's the
01:11:39
biggest thing that has always held me
01:11:41
back from texting people is they go they
01:11:42
don't have time for me if they have time
01:11:44
for you they will respond if they don't
01:11:46
have time they'll get to it eventually
01:11:47
okay so keep that in mind so this has
01:11:51
been the exom schoolers Club I hope you
01:11:52
tune in next week we'll be back uh with
01:11:55
another great conversation I don't know
01:11:57
who it's going to be yet um but we'll
01:11:59
find out okay peace out
01:12:08
[Music]
01:12:15
[Music]

Badges

This episode stands out for the following:

  • 70
    Most heartwarming
  • 60
    Most emotional

Episode Highlights

  • Aloette's Homeschool Journey
    Aloette shares her lifelong homeschooling experience and how it shaped her life.
    “I enjoyed it, never regretted it.”
    @ 04m 09s
    January 16, 2025
  • Transitioning to New Friendships
    Aloette recalls the challenges of making new friends after moving.
    “It was a hard transition at first.”
    @ 08m 33s
    January 16, 2025
  • Preparing for Life After Homeschool
    Aloette discusses her parents' focus on academics and preparing for college.
    “They always focused on academics.”
    @ 13m 53s
    January 16, 2025
  • Navigating Learning Styles
    Discovering personal learning styles can ease the exam process, but it's not universal.
    “There's a disconnect between truly evaluating someone's knowledge and traditional education.”
    @ 19m 46s
    January 16, 2025
  • A Future in Nursing
    Inspired by childhood experiences, a passion for nursing develops early on.
    “I wanted to be a doctor or a scientist so I can help find a cure.”
    @ 26m 32s
    January 16, 2025
  • The Impact of Homeschooling
    Homeschooling allowed for tailored education that met individual needs and preferences.
    “I think it worked out for me; I'd love to give it a try with my daughter.”
    @ 32m 54s
    January 16, 2025
  • The Dark Side of Happiness
    Exploring the hidden struggles behind a cheerful facade, revealing mental health challenges.
    “Typically behind a lot of people who exude happiness, there tend to be other things.”
    @ 37m 54s
    January 16, 2025
  • Breaking the Silence
    Highlighting the need for open conversations about mental health, especially in conservative communities.
    “Mental health was never really talked about in church.”
    @ 44m 10s
    January 16, 2025
  • The Importance of Therapy
    Discussing the transformative power of therapy in overcoming mental health issues.
    “Cognitive behavioral therapy... really turned my life around.”
    @ 48m 15s
    January 16, 2025
  • Breaking the Silence
    Being vocal about mental health issues can foster understanding and connection.
    “It's important to talk about mental health more openly.”
    @ 57m 25s
    January 16, 2025
  • Generational Trauma Explained
    Understanding generational trauma can help us recognize patterns in our lives.
    “Generational trauma is trauma passed down through the family.”
    @ 01h 00m 50s
    January 16, 2025
  • Awkward Conversations Matter
    Having open, sometimes awkward conversations with parents can strengthen relationships.
    “It's important to have awkward conversations with your parents.”
    @ 01h 01m 57s
    January 16, 2025

Episode Quotes

  • I lean into the weird now.
    The Mental Health Struggles of Homeschoolers | #23
  • I feel like I can figure out like a teacher's testing style.
    The Mental Health Struggles of Homeschoolers | #23
  • I would love to give her the blessing of the education I feel I had.
    The Mental Health Struggles of Homeschoolers | #23
  • I was seriously unwell... hardly sleeping, really hyperfixated.
    The Mental Health Struggles of Homeschoolers | #23
  • Without it, I wouldn’t be here.
    The Mental Health Struggles of Homeschoolers | #23
  • We turned out okay, though.
    The Mental Health Struggles of Homeschoolers | #23

Key Moments

  • Positive Homeschool Experience04:16
  • Making New Friends08:33
  • Seeking Help46:42
  • Feeling Alone56:20
  • Open Conversations57:25
  • Generational Trauma1:00:50
  • Awkward Family Talks1:01:57
  • Sibling Confidence1:06:38

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown

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