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A Boy Scouts Guide To Surviving Homeschool | EXHS #15

November 06, 2024 / 01:12:33

This episode of the Ex-Homeschoolers Club features Jacob Goodon and John Slagboom discussing their experiences with homeschooling, injuries, and life after school. Key topics include John's finger injury before graduation, his homeschooling journey, and the social dynamics of homeschool groups in Southern California.

John shares a vivid story about slicing his finger while sharpening a knife, leading to a trip to the ER and a humorous encounter with his pet bird. He reflects on his homeschooling experience, including video schooling and the challenges of socialization.

The conversation shifts to their respective homeschooling groups, with John describing the differences between Oxnard, Ojai, and Ventura homeschoolers. They discuss the impact of their upbringing on their current lives and the importance of guidance in education.

John talks about his transition to college, the challenges he faced, and how he eventually found direction. He also shares his thoughts on parenting, considering whether to homeschool his son and the resources available for modern education.

The episode concludes with reflections on personal growth, relationships, and the importance of reaching out to others. John emphasizes the value of genuine connections and the lessons learned from their experiences.

TL;DR

Jacob and John discuss homeschooling, injuries, social dynamics, and personal growth after school.

Episode

1:12:33

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all right all right all right we are

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back for another episode of the ex-

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homeschoolers Club I of course am your

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host Jacob goodon and today I'm joined

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by my wonderful friend John slagboom uh

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it has been a minute my friend since we

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have chatted it's been a minute yeah

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well we I have known you oh man I'm

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trying to think I feel like I've known

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of you for a very long time um but we've

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known each other for a good chunk of

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time

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there's a couple things that come to

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mind honestly when when I think of you

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one is uh I was at your graduation you

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you're we we discussed this like right

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before we we hit record which is like

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you're about four or five years older

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than I am and uh right before your

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graduation you had like sliced half your

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finger off and you had this like

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comically large bandage and um so

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bad so tell me really quickly tell me

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that story how did that happen what

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exactly happened there that's a great

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opener because it's

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ridiculous I was at home my mother was

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outside talking to the landscapers and

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it's weird because this was like the one

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time we ever had landscapers we never

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had money for that but for some I guess

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we're like redoing the lawn or something

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I was in my room sharpening my

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knife and I was like I want to see how

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sharp this knife is it's got to be

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really sharp and so I'm like cutting

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through a 3x5 card and I for forget what

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distracted me or what dip [ __ ] thing I

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did I looked away for a second and I

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looked down and my knife is like halfway

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into my knuckle okay like and and as I'm

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yanking my hand away this chunk of skin

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just goes flying into The Ether I

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couldn't find it for a while and I'm

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just like looking at it I can see like

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fat globules I can see like my little

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bit of bone and you know have you ever

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gotten like a really bad

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injury and it doesn't bleed for like

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that first like I don't know if it's a

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second or not a second like a really

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short amount of time is just not

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bleeding and I was like holy

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crap a little nauseous all a

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like I'm sorry to any listeners out

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there who might have a problem with this

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but it is what it is uh and it was just

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going everywhere I was

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spurting I'm like oh man so I like put

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pressure on it put it over my head I'm

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like going to my mom's linen closet I

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get a hand towel and it's just like

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soaking through my hand towel I'm have

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my hand over my head and I was like

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Mom oh right now John Calvin talk you

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with the landscapers [ __ ] okay so I go

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in my room I'm like okay well I better

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not bother my mom um Okay and like a

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couple minutes later I don't know how

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long it was it wasn't that long she

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comes and like mom um yeah so I think we

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need go to the ER and this is my first

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incident need to go to the ER for like

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an a stupidity related edged

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disaster uh so she's a veteran and she's

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like okay well you know we had our uh

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adopted my adopted siblings at the time

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and still with our family great kids but

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they were going to elementary school at

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like EO green or something and I forget

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the rough sequence of events but I think

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we went and picked them up and we go to

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an emergency room and long story short

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the emergency room was this like Vietnam

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vet doc like this old crusty like guy

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and uh he's like oh yeah this looks like

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one of the moons from like you know I I

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just got to approximate the edges and

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he's like long story short and ended up

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with like 12 stitches and have you ever

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had stitches before yep yeah okay so you

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know like the cord that they use is like

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pretty thin but black yeah and but this

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[ __ ] was thick like it wasn't like

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paracord thick but it was a lot thicker

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than like I've had a lot of stitches and

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it was a lot thicker than the stuff you

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usually use and I had lost so much

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tissue that they had to pull it together

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like yeah and it took a long time to

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heal as you know as you noticed um and

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then I could we get back and um I'm like

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looking for this piece of Flesh that is

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like somewhere in my

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room and uh like you know it's not

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anywhere on the desk it's not on the

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carpet and eventually I get my

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flashlight start looking under

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things I have a bird a little cocka at

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the time and um I looked underneath this

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bookshelf and there's my bird you know

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know birds get really good red eye

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effect like if you shine a light in

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their eyes yeah I shine under this shine

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under like my book shelf or I forget

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what it I think it was a bookshelf and

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there's my bird these like red eyes

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eating my flesh it was a

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nightmare oh my God that's my story

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that's wow wow you know what's funny I

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remember you saying the bird thing way

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back in the day however I always thought

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it was like a madeup story like I have a

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friend who got hit by a car and lost a

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chunk of his leg and he and he would say

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like oh I got mauled by a bear but no

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that was

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real wow what a way to kick off said a

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lot of like stories that were like

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embellish but that one was real well

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yeah I just yeah I yeah I've obviously

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seen the scar it's been a while but I do

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yeah I remember seeing the stitches and

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stuff yeah I'm sure if you're if you're

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talking about down to the bone and oh my

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God but yeah but I just remember you

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delivering some speech at your

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graduation with this gigantic it was

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just comically big bandage over your

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finger and um it looked like something

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out of the cartoons it was hilarious it

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was hilar I remember I that was the year

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I got like my Eagle Scout award there's

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all sorts of like ceremonies and things

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I had to speak at and it was literally

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always holding the mic and my fingers

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were always just like hello my name Isn

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I'm pleased to accept the eagle scout

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award or you know just something dorky

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like that so glad that happened oh man

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that's so funny well what a good way to

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kick off this episode because um that's

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just I I that's the memory that I think

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always sticks with me of you but glad I

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could leave that impression yes

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yeah but uh yeah like we said we've

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known each other for a good chunk of

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time and uh but your homeschool journey

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I don't know that much of because I feel

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like by the time we started to get to

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know each other you were you were kind

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of older leaving uh The Homeschool world

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and I was still very much in it so give

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me quite the kind of quick rundown of

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like were you always homeschooled you

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know what years all that kind of stuff

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yeah years okay when it comes down to

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specific details I am terrible with that

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stuff so I will give you the kind of the

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narrative

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version um but so I was born no um we're

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always a homeschooled family uh grew up

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in the first part of my life kind of

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moving around in the Southern California

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area um parents and my family so my

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older sister Deborah myself Lizzie

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hadn't been born yet Elizabeth she

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prefers that um I get to call her Lizzie

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older brother privilege um so Lizzie

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hasn't been born yet but we're living in

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Eagle Rock our Burbank Glendale

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area and my parents were living with my

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grandparents and that was really early

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parts of my life like I just remember

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like crawling around and eating a Lego

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at one point

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anyways uh so we did that and then

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eventually ended end up in Oxnard

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California Berard little 805 uh

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homeschooled from the start

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um and let's see I think I'm

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abbreviating too much now I think one of

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my earliest memories of the

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homeschooling

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experience was going to picture days

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okay picture days in the park um that

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was good Mrs ep's riding class at Oxnard

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Public

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Library um early early homeschooling for

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me

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unfortunately my mom and thank God that

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she's been cancer-free for a very long

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time now um but she had really bad

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cancer and I think this was more in

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junior high to be honest with you I

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think I've blanked a lot of that part

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out just because it was a really

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difficult time yeah no understandable

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yeah she was uh she was she was really

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bedridden going through chemo and all

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that stuff and she was kind of close to

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uh close to kicking the bucket there um

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but I was video schooled a lot of it uh

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with uh through Pensacola

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Christian Academy I think it's like the

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the the K through2 of Pensacola

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Christian College but we had video

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school so uh um that's that was like

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early years of homeschool for me before

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Co-op before group Solutions um before

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we really integrated with the chief when

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you say video school are we talking like

00:08:46

VHS and DVDs VHS baby okay yeah DVDs

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came later but I had a little like

00:08:51

little silver like VHS and TV and one

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player on my desk and it would be like

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wake up plug in the the the the tape and

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watch other kids go to school that

00:09:04

sucked um and uh dude it was rough uh

00:09:08

there is a lot of good memories this is

00:09:10

just the Highlight like I I think the

00:09:11

rest of my homeschooling experience

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before and even after my mom really got

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out of the the roughest of it with their

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cancer is pretty normal homeschool

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experience like you've described in this

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podcast and your other guests have but

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that was like the Highlight um or the

00:09:25

low light uh of my homeschooling

00:09:28

experience there because I was always

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been a really social guy yeah and I just

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remember watching these kids like a

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sitcom almost and like being like damn I

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wish I was in that monitor with these

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kids yeah and and then like watch and

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this is getting really dark really fast

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but like like the the worst part of it

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was was there is a window right here in

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my room so my TV right here my window

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and I'd be watching kids outside going

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to school and back it's like dang it wow

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this sucks and then the uh other

00:09:59

negative was uh I know I'm going to

00:10:01

start with the negative guys but I'm

00:10:02

going bring out the positives later just

00:10:03

kind of go down and then dip back up

00:10:05

again this show is all about The Good

00:10:06

The Bad Andy ugly okay so we're going

00:10:09

there

00:10:10

today uh yeah so I think the negative

00:10:14

like academically it was kind of a mixed

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bag but I cheated a ton dude because you

00:10:18

know this is really bad I me I feel like

00:10:20

a piece of chip for this but like my mom

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was sick and like I'd score my own stuff

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and be like well you know got the answer

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book right here it's go I'm doing great

00:10:28

in m

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yeah um but yeah that was kind of unique

00:10:32

experience um I that only lasted a few

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years too and there's other things going

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on in my life so it wasn't just like you

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know boy stuck in his room wishing he

00:10:41

could socialize there's there's pros too

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so I was in Cub Scouts weeow

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sparkies um was doing I think Jiu-Jitsu

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came later and my dad did a lot of

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paintballing with me and then eventually

00:10:54

I did Airsoft with you and your Bros

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yeah so uh that was that was the like

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the very beginnings of my homeschooling

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memory though like before that I

00:11:03

remember doing like mation tables and

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spelling with my mom on the kitchen

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table which was wonderful and that's how

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we figured out that my eyesight is just

00:11:10

absolutely terrible because I was

00:11:12

holding the spelling book up like

00:11:13

backwards and upside down oh man I guess

00:11:16

you can only do upside down my was like

00:11:17

what the crap are you doing stop

00:11:18

clowning around I just kept on doing it

00:11:20

I was like what the crap is going on

00:11:21

over here that's when I first started

00:11:23

getting my vision checked I've been

00:11:24

wearing contact since I was like eight

00:11:26

okay so wow yeah dang a lot there to

00:11:30

unpack a lot yeah yeah but no that's so

00:11:35

it's interesting because I I had Julia

00:11:38

humbles recently on the show uh to

00:11:40

interview it as of recording this it

00:11:42

hasn't come out yet but her mom also had

00:11:44

cancer um as people know and and so Mrs

00:11:49

Sanchez actually took over a lot of her

00:11:52

education so she still kind of had

00:11:55

somebody there to to do that but it's so

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interesting to hear like I mean I had

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video class but by video class it was

00:12:01

typically just a lecture and then like I

00:12:05

would go do a workbook but I wasn't

00:12:06

watching other kids in a classroom I was

00:12:08

typically just watching some dude with a

00:12:09

whiteboard talk about you know 2 plus 2

00:12:12

equals 4 um kind of a thing you know it

00:12:15

was very just a lecture based but yeah

00:12:18

you're talking about like an actual

00:12:19

School room yeah I tell you kid you not

00:12:22

it was like a sitcom of a school room

00:12:23

because like we' go up we'd say like

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line up and like say the Pledge of

00:12:28

Allegiance and we do crafts I remember

00:12:30

like in Thanksgiving like Pilgrims make

00:12:34

the turkey kind of thing uh yeah it was

00:12:37

I had a crush on a girl in the TV from

00:12:40

the you know from the video school don't

00:12:43

remember her name but you know like you

00:12:45

know it was like it was watching a

00:12:46

sitcom you know it's kind of cool in

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that regard but to your point it's like

00:12:51

it's kind of hard to like get a good

00:12:54

education sometimes from that especially

00:12:56

when like Mom is sick and then you're

00:12:58

having to grade own work it's really

00:13:00

easy to just kind of be like lazy yeah

00:13:04

yeah we've all been there we've all had

00:13:05

that moment but like yeah it's it's you

00:13:08

know it's super easy to just kind of be

00:13:10

like oh yeah I got an A in math you know

00:13:12

like I definitely got the answer to this

00:13:14

one that's forward all right done didn't

00:13:17

even think about that yeah I watched the

00:13:18

video mom like it's not a big deal uh I

00:13:20

know what I'm talking about is this

00:13:23

happening pre- aieve in group Solutions

00:13:26

or like kind of in the midst of

00:13:27

definitely pre-group Solutions I think

00:13:29

group Solutions came later for us okay

00:13:33

um I think it was during achieve but we

00:13:37

were limited in our participation right

00:13:40

you know and getting ready for this

00:13:41

episode I was actually this a bit of a

00:13:43

tangent but um getting ready for this

00:13:45

episode I was kind of reminiscing with

00:13:46

Elizabeth my like younger sister was

00:13:49

like it seems like there's a couple

00:13:50

distinct groups of homeschoolers and

00:13:52

they're all kind

00:13:54

of uh had different Focus areas or kind

00:13:57

of different themes so you had the

00:13:59

Oxnard homeschoolers and there wasn't

00:14:01

very many of us I don't really remember

00:14:03

a lot I think the

00:14:05

powers

00:14:07

Stovers uh a couple others maybe maybe

00:14:10

more than I know or more than I remember

00:14:12

but then there's the ohigh homeschoolers

00:14:14

and those are like the thesians those

00:14:15

are like the the I just remember going

00:14:18

to a lot of really cool plays over there

00:14:20

at the Mitchells and doing Airsoft and

00:14:23

the riverbeds and that was like the

00:14:24

coolest part of homeschooling for me was

00:14:27

like anything that had to do in Ohio was

00:14:29

just like a magical place and then there

00:14:31

is the Ventura homeschoolers which was I

00:14:33

think the coolest most like kind of like

00:14:35

well-rounded homeschoolers they had like

00:14:37

the Ventura Vibes they're all like

00:14:39

closer together and well connected to

00:14:41

each other and like always doing stuff

00:14:43

with each other and there's Camaro

00:14:45

homeschoolers which were a little bit

00:14:47

more Casa kind of got the casa group

00:14:49

going on over there and um a little bit

00:14:51

like the ohigh homeschoolers but not

00:14:53

quite um kind of bigger family

00:14:57

sometimes yeah yeah that's totally what

00:15:00

it is like ohigh was yeah very despian

00:15:02

based like pretty tight group what's

00:15:05

funny is even within the Ohi group it

00:15:07

felt like there was this segmented

00:15:10

within the ohigh group there was the

00:15:11

achieve ohigh group and then there was

00:15:13

like the casa ohigh group and it was

00:15:15

like the Catholics versus like the

00:15:17

evangelicals kind of a thing right right

00:15:21

because yeah Kaza was like very Catholic

00:15:23

based uh homeschool families massive

00:15:26

families right eight plus kids typical

00:15:29

kind of a thing and then achieve had a

00:15:31

lot more of the like two and done or

00:15:34

like two or three kids kind of a thing

00:15:36

um but yeah no that's that's so funny

00:15:39

that you bring that up because yeah

00:15:40

Ventura definitely was like the cool

00:15:42

kids kind of normal some of them would

00:15:44

go to like the high school or the

00:15:46

college for a class or going to Buena

00:15:48

later you yeah exactly they Sports yeah

00:15:51

and then yeah and then ohigh was yeah

00:15:53

we're the weirdo thespian kids um and

00:15:56

then Oxnard was yeah Oxnard it always

00:15:59

yeah it did feel like there was less

00:16:00

kids in Oxnard however I think more I

00:16:04

think there was under the lopezes were

00:16:05

there too and you just interviewed uh

00:16:06

Laura yeah yeah I just had Laur a good

00:16:09

episode um but yeah there's also a bit

00:16:12

of a social Island going on in oxnar too

00:16:15

because you're only connected to Camario

00:16:18

and Ventura and therefore the rest of

00:16:20

the county through like two main

00:16:22

highways and you had to navigate through

00:16:24

suburbs to get there so there's always

00:16:26

like added 30 minutes to whatever you're

00:16:28

doing so so there is definitely a social

00:16:30

Island and I didn't really even start

00:16:32

integrating independently and this is

00:16:34

obvious until I got a car um but I

00:16:37

integrated so much more once I was you

00:16:39

know independent in that way because

00:16:41

just the commute and the travel times

00:16:43

were were a lot more and I think that

00:16:44

affected my my experience a lot

00:16:46

especially in the younger years where I

00:16:47

was so dependent on my mother to uh get

00:16:50

me

00:16:51

places um you know it'd be okay we're

00:16:53

going to the picture day this month or

00:16:54

we're going to you know this activity

00:16:56

that month it' be kind of like two or

00:16:58

three times a month tops or like maybe

00:16:59

one or two times um to get out and get

00:17:02

those social things so I didn't really

00:17:04

even fall into like the different you

00:17:06

know social groups and I I don't want to

00:17:07

say clicks they weren't really clicks

00:17:09

but like the social groups and kind of

00:17:10

like little kadre is also not the right

00:17:12

word you know but you know until until

00:17:14

later on you know yeah yeah but again I

00:17:17

had I had other things going on too so

00:17:19

it just wasn't with the homeschooling

00:17:21

Community yeah no and that's that's been

00:17:23

interesting to hear from people too

00:17:25

because like I feel like early on in

00:17:28

home school years for me I feel like I

00:17:29

did integrate more with like ohigh kids

00:17:32

in sports like I I played soccer I did

00:17:35

stuff for the rec center that kind of

00:17:37

thing so like I had friends that were

00:17:38

like public school kids

00:17:40

also uh and then by the time I was

00:17:43

graduating basically the majority of my

00:17:45

friends were homeschool kids and we were

00:17:47

it was all homeschool activities this

00:17:50

the dances and uh I mean Airsoft was

00:17:53

like my was my sport so it was all

00:17:55

homeschool kids for the most part like

00:17:57

playing and things like that so and then

00:18:00

yeah to your point of like once you turn

00:18:02

16 you get a car you got your license so

00:18:05

much easier to kind of like go be in the

00:18:08

other friend groups right I had my

00:18:09

venturo people had my ohigh people I had

00:18:12

the Oxnard people who I saw yeah once a

00:18:14

month or whatever and yeah it was like

00:18:17

an

00:18:18

interesting Dynamic to say the least but

00:18:20

yeah I yeah I wouldn't say growing up I

00:18:23

had like my best friend didn't live in

00:18:24

oard my best friend lived in oh

00:18:27

because my mom was going to drive me to

00:18:29

my best friend's house uh you know six

00:18:32

days a week

00:18:34

uh so that's super fascinating but okay

00:18:39

so here's something that I've been

00:18:40

thinking about that is

00:18:43

so after you graduated you came back to

00:18:46

group Solutions at some point to teach a

00:18:49

class or two thought about that and you

00:18:51

taught I don't remember if it was called

00:18:53

like Wilderness survival that was it was

00:18:55

that what it's called okay and basically

00:18:59

correct me if I'm wrong but it was kind

00:19:00

of like glorified Boy Scouts to a degree

00:19:03

of like you were just teaching us like

00:19:04

how to camp and and just like the man

00:19:09

stuff shelters fires first aid not yeah

00:19:13

it was basically like pick and choose

00:19:14

your adventure

00:19:16

from you know stuff I learned and really

00:19:18

appreciated that from Boy Scouts that I

00:19:21

you know sorry I learned from Boy Scouts

00:19:24

that I thought were you know really

00:19:25

useful and that like every kid should

00:19:27

know how to do like here's how to pitch

00:19:29

a tent here's how to make a fire here's

00:19:31

how to make a fire in the rain here's

00:19:32

how to make a shelter you know here's

00:19:34

how

00:19:35

to um I think we did a little bit of

00:19:38

literature I had them read Lord of the

00:19:39

Flies which is like why I don't remember

00:19:42

I did a lot of weird stuff that I

00:19:45

thought was cool back then which is

00:19:46

something we can talk about later but

00:19:48

like uh yeah I remember reading because

00:19:52

I was in that class and I remember

00:19:53

reading lord of the

00:19:57

student I remember you Jacob good yeah I

00:20:01

think I think your class was the only

00:20:03

reason we got to bring knives to group

00:20:05

Solutions uh because you made us you had

00:20:08

us make like bugout bags or something

00:20:10

like that that's awesome and yeah it was

00:20:12

just like you know it was just camping

00:20:13

gear basically and uh and you I don't

00:20:16

know like we all showed up with knives

00:20:18

because you need a knife when you're in

00:20:19

the wilderness and I and I remember

00:20:22

somebody was coming by I was like um why

00:20:25

do all these 12-year-old boys have

00:20:26

knives like this

00:20:31

this is probably shouldn't be

00:20:33

happening don't worry we're we're uh

00:20:36

we're in the wilderness survival classes

00:20:38

yeah yeah exactly that was

00:20:40

yeah yeah um yeah even I remember my mom

00:20:44

being like yeah you can take it but like

00:20:46

don't show like just show John and then

00:20:48

just like keep it away because like I

00:20:50

think I remember a conversation like

00:20:51

that now I complet I'll be honest I

00:20:53

completely forgot about that yeah I

00:20:55

remember I I was I think I remember

00:20:57

teaching it was rain

00:20:59

I remember teaching a bunch of you guys

00:21:01

I think you were in there m karelli was

00:21:03

in it and we were trying to do like the

00:21:04

flint and steel in the rain we gotta go

00:21:07

in it took a while but we gota go yeah

00:21:10

yeah you had us like setting fires in

00:21:12

the in the parking lot and under

00:21:14

coverage and we're just for context too

00:21:17

group Solutions was like at a church so

00:21:19

it was not like we were not in the

00:21:20

wilderness it was like in the middle of

00:21:22

oxar in the suburbs yeah exactly there

00:21:24

was no Wilderness so we were just like

00:21:27

yeah playing in like the grass basically

00:21:28

lighting fires in Southern California

00:21:31

also um Chef kiss yeah exactly no but we

00:21:36

but we had an eagle scout with us we

00:21:37

were protected everything was

00:21:39

fine a totally sane and Bright Young

00:21:43

Eagle Scout that has never made a

00:21:44

mistaken his life y yeah yeah yeah well

00:21:48

okay but you brought up Lord of the

00:21:49

Flies and that was another thing that I

00:21:50

was thinking of I was like I I was like

00:21:53

I'm pretty sure that I read that book

00:21:55

because of John okay so you so why did

00:21:57

why that book

00:21:59

you know um because I think there wasn't

00:22:02

a lot of reasoning behind it I just you

00:22:03

know there's a bunch of kids on the

00:22:04

island and they had to survive until

00:22:06

they rescued yeah and I think I had like

00:22:09

skimmed through it

00:22:12

before and they were reading through I'm

00:22:14

like oh [ __ ] this is dark it's a dark

00:22:17

book I think one of the parents asked me

00:22:19

too and I was like it's about kids

00:22:21

surviving on an island like why didn't I

00:22:23

have read Hatchet or something you know

00:22:26

exactly exactly I was going to bring

00:22:27

that up I was like hatch is such a great

00:22:29

book for that because it's yeah but Lord

00:22:31

of the Flies they turn on each other

00:22:33

they're murdering each other it okay

00:22:36

yeah no but that was a great class I

00:22:39

yeah I remember very specific thing like

00:22:40

starting fires you taught us how to

00:22:42

change a tire on a car like you taught

00:22:43

us some really basic stuff jump starting

00:22:45

a car jump starting a car you know stuff

00:22:48

that I use to this day so thank you

00:22:51

you're welcome you're welcome but do you

00:22:54

remember why it was that you came back

00:22:56

to teach's class like was there a reason

00:22:57

behind it or you just were like I'm

00:22:59

passionate about this and I just I think

00:23:01

we need something like this I don't

00:23:03

remember a specific reason yeah um but

00:23:07

I've always been passionate about that

00:23:08

in fact now I have a son it's nine

00:23:12

months 10 months 10 months and on the

00:23:15

15th um I've been really thinking about

00:23:18

how I want to recreate the things I was

00:23:20

able to learn through the Boy Scouts in

00:23:23

the context of you know just a bunch of

00:23:25

young men and their fathers and

00:23:26

sometimes families going out and doing

00:23:29

just having fun just having fun in the

00:23:30

outdoors and learning useful life skills

00:23:33

and not making about like Wilderness

00:23:34

survival but like just skills that are

00:23:36

good to have and fun to have and knowing

00:23:38

how to Camp well and how to be prepared

00:23:41

for um you know not having your bed and

00:23:44

a running water sink and a toilet and

00:23:46

just being able to be outside

00:23:48

comfortably and learning how to enjoy

00:23:50

nature and the outdoors and what to do

00:23:52

when you know something happens like you

00:23:53

cut half your finger off because you're

00:23:55

an idiot you know um it's just you know

00:23:59

so that was one of the things I loved

00:24:02

about Scouts was you know those kinds of

00:24:03

skills and beyond that just like how to

00:24:05

be a a a good citizen you know um a a a

00:24:09

good productive young man in a lot of

00:24:11

different areas of life and I think

00:24:13

that's really valuable aspect of

00:24:14

scouting and I think um I can't remember

00:24:17

the specific reasons why I came back and

00:24:19

taught at group

00:24:21

Solutions but I've always been

00:24:22

passionate about those kinds of lessons

00:24:24

that I got from scouts back in the day

00:24:27

um and maybe that's why I wanted to go

00:24:28

back and and teach it yeah um so yeah I

00:24:32

don't know I don't know I don't remember

00:24:33

why but I've always been passionate

00:24:34

about that and it's continued to be like

00:24:36

a thing that interests me that's cool

00:24:38

because yeah I mean there wasn't a lot

00:24:40

of stuff like that at groups it was very

00:24:41

much like it was it was a lot of moms

00:24:44

teaching classes there was a few dads

00:24:47

but there really wasn't any classes like

00:24:50

that and so it was cool it was

00:24:52

definitely and that's why I took it

00:24:53

because it was more interesting than

00:24:55

taking a science class or you know

00:24:57

something

00:24:59

Jacob but um that's so cool too that

00:25:01

it's something that you want to pass on

00:25:02

to your kid and I and that's something I

00:25:04

was going to kind of navigate into was

00:25:07

like you

00:25:08

know you know we've been out of

00:25:10

homeschooling for a number of years for

00:25:12

it sounds like 15 years for you 10 years

00:25:14

for me and like you know life has

00:25:17

changed so what's like what's going on

00:25:19

now what what what's different and you

00:25:22

know hit me with that once I graduated I

00:25:26

kind of bounced around junior college

00:25:27

for a while one thing

00:25:30

listeners get a counselor when you're

00:25:33

going to Junior College or you'll go to

00:25:35

Junior College for two damn

00:25:38

long I was like why haven't I gotten my

00:25:40

AA yet what's going on and I just

00:25:43

because I was I wasn't Tak taking

00:25:44

responsibility for it and I was just

00:25:45

kind of like I guess I'll take this I

00:25:47

guess I'll take that I guess I'll take

00:25:48

this like you haven't completed your

00:25:49

your PRX for for

00:25:52

University and um it's so funny because

00:25:54

my father just came up um and he brought

00:25:57

me a bunch of the stuff from the house

00:25:58

so my old notes um my you know just a

00:26:01

bunch of paperwork and and memorabilia

00:26:04

and I was going through it and yeah I

00:26:07

had taken so many classes at Junior

00:26:08

College just because I didn't I didn't

00:26:10

really have a direction I didn't really

00:26:12

know what I was doing or I was going and

00:26:13

that was fine I learned a lot while I

00:26:14

was there and had fun but after that I

00:26:16

went to Junior College and then I

00:26:17

started like applying out to different

00:26:19

universities I got accepted to Aza

00:26:21

Pacific which I completely forgot about

00:26:23

I found the acceptance

00:26:24

letter and but I ended up going to csuci

00:26:28

and uh that was a wild time man uh yeah

00:26:34

that was that was really really crazy uh

00:26:37

grew a lot grew up a lot there um did a

00:26:40

lot of things I shouldn't have done

00:26:41

there just something I also want to

00:26:43

touch on and talk

00:26:44

about

00:26:46

um but at a high level you know

00:26:49

graduated from

00:26:50

Co-op went to Junior College went to C

00:26:54

Channel

00:26:56

Islands um met my wife in 2015 I was I

00:27:01

think

00:27:03

a sophomore or a

00:27:05

senior think it was a sophomore at

00:27:08

CCI um met my wife a long distance she

00:27:13

was the maid of honor I was the best man

00:27:14

she's up here in Idaho and kind of had a

00:27:17

longdistance relationship for a

00:27:19

while um and then from 2015 through

00:27:25

2017 he's working at a startup up over

00:27:28

in Pacific Palisade so kind of near

00:27:30

Santa Monica moved up from Santa Monica

00:27:33

to spoken Washington and St Patrick's

00:27:37

Day of

00:27:38

2017 lived up there until

00:27:43

last November no last October

00:27:48

2023 my wife and I got married in

00:27:51

2018 I had my son in November of

00:27:56

2023 and now we're here

00:27:58

nice so I've been through so many

00:28:01

different things as we all have in that

00:28:03

time I've been through so many changes

00:28:05

in that time as well not so much

00:28:07

physically it just gotone fatter uh but

00:28:11

spiritually philosophically politically

00:28:14

oh we're doing well man we're fat and

00:28:15

happy

00:28:17

yeah uh just so many changes man and

00:28:21

it's been so interesting because you

00:28:23

know when I left the Ventura County area

00:28:25

I lost contact with a lot of people like

00:28:27

the only person I've really kept in

00:28:29

close contact with this Caleb G great

00:28:31

guy great friend um you know I still

00:28:34

follow or people follow me from those

00:28:36

days though I don't really interact with

00:28:38

them but it's just been really wild

00:28:40

seeing the changes that everybody's gone

00:28:42

through this past 15 years for me it

00:28:45

sounds like um yeah so now I'm here I

00:28:47

have a kid living in the panhandle of

00:28:50

Idaho no I'm not a white supremist for

00:28:52

some reason that's a meme that's going

00:28:53

around I'm Mexican in the panan of Idaho

00:28:56

and I haven't received any uh uh racism

00:28:59

so that's just a mean but don't come up

00:29:00

here anyways if you're from California

00:29:02

it sucks it's terrible I wouldn't

00:29:03

recommend it

00:29:05

um keeping keeping the gold for yourself

00:29:08

I see what what are you talking about I

00:29:10

know what you're talking about um but

00:29:12

yeah that's a long that's the that's the

00:29:13

really high level View and there's so

00:29:15

much to hit on and talk about but yeah

00:29:18

what are you doing careerwise select the

00:29:20

highlights I'm an energy engineer okay

00:29:23

so I'm an energy engineer I've been in

00:29:24

the energy industry

00:29:26

for shoot

00:29:29

10 11 years now I started in 2013 at CC

00:29:32

China Islands as a student assistant and

00:29:34

it kind of worked my way up that's

00:29:35

actually why I moved up to Spokane is

00:29:37

because when I met London I was like

00:29:38

this beautiful woman lives very far away

00:29:41

from me um so it was advantageous that

00:29:45

at the time I had a job at a startup

00:29:48

that was uh my responsibilities were

00:29:50

looking at what other companies and

00:29:51

Industry were doing and if we could you

00:29:53

know do anything better so I found a

00:29:56

really large company called Ng

00:29:59

um based up in spok p and I got a like

00:30:01

90-day attempt to hire and thre

00:30:04

everything in the back of my little subc

00:30:06

compact hatchback Econo

00:30:08

box and found a roommate with a

00:30:11

six-month lease and kind of moved up

00:30:13

there and made it work it it's cool to

00:30:15

see where the homeschool people have

00:30:18

landed because and some people fast

00:30:21

start some people slower start I mean I

00:30:24

graduated 2014 from high school within a

00:30:27

couple

00:30:29

yeah moved to Illinois for college yeah

00:30:32

three years in college graduated I had

00:30:35

more you talked about getting a

00:30:36

counselor and that was something my

00:30:38

parents did for me that they that helped

00:30:40

significantly I knew that for my

00:30:42

personality I was like if I go to a

00:30:45

community college I'm gonna get stuck

00:30:47

and kind of just I I was just going to

00:30:50

spin my wheels and not get anywhere and

00:30:52

I was like I got to got stuck yeah and

00:30:56

and I think that was a thing that was

00:30:57

common among a lot of The Homeschool

00:30:59

kids and I think it had to do with this

00:31:02

is not to blame the parents but I think

00:31:04

a lot of parents their end goal was just

00:31:05

get my kid graduated oh 100% yeah they

00:31:09

weren't 100 yeah they weren't looking to

00:31:11

the future of like what's the next step

00:31:12

for they're like doing this month to

00:31:13

month and they weren't investing you

00:31:15

know like yeah well they were investing

00:31:17

way but like they weren like what do we

00:31:19

need what does this kid need in like 10

00:31:21

years you know exactly yeah and and I

00:31:23

think that's where not to toot my

00:31:25

parents horn but my parents did a good

00:31:26

job of when I from when I was young to

00:31:30

graduating they were like very much like

00:31:32

well here's kind of what life looks like

00:31:34

right of like you're going to be a kid

00:31:36

and you're going to go to school and

00:31:37

you're going to do this and that and

00:31:38

then you're going to graduate and then

00:31:39

you're going to probably move out you're

00:31:41

going to go to college or you're going

00:31:42

to get a job or you're going to do a

00:31:43

trade like they so they had set this

00:31:45

trajectory in motion and then they were

00:31:46

like as I got older they were like okay

00:31:49

well he seems inclined to go to college

00:31:51

so let's figure out how do we get him

00:31:53

there and uh you know and so part of the

00:31:57

reason I think homeschool parents get

00:31:59

stuck on the like we just got to get in

00:32:00

through high schools cuz there was a lot

00:32:01

of homeschool parents who didn't go to

00:32:03

college um there's a lot who did and

00:32:05

there's a lot who didn't and so I think

00:32:07

that the ones who didn't they really

00:32:09

just were like I don't know what the

00:32:10

next step is because they didn't take it

00:32:12

themselves and to your point they they

00:32:15

didn't know how to bring in a counselor

00:32:17

to say and somebody who was an expert in

00:32:19

it to say hey here's what you need to do

00:32:21

and that helped me so much cuz like

00:32:23

applied to six schools got into like all

00:32:25

six of them and this is making me sound

00:32:27

like a genius I'm a very average person

00:32:29

when it comes to intelligence you're

00:32:31

less [ __ ] than me

00:32:33

[Applause]

00:32:34

Jacob you did very good you know I'm

00:32:36

really proud of what I did to advance

00:32:38

your career through my Wilderness

00:32:39

survival classes clear that was the one

00:32:41

thing that was the one thing that set me

00:32:43

apart in all of my college applications

00:32:45

I was like I understand how to start a

00:32:47

fire with flint and steel um y just you

00:32:51

got scholarships to all the prestigious

00:32:53

and I've read Lord of the Flies that's

00:32:55

all I need we're good

00:32:58

so but yeah to your point it's like it

00:33:00

would it would have been very easy to

00:33:02

just get stuck without kind of that

00:33:04

guidance to be like okay like here's

00:33:05

what you're going to do and then you

00:33:07

know have a once you get in there have a

00:33:08

plan and you know be okay with the fact

00:33:10

that yeah you might major in something

00:33:12

that never use down the line but that's

00:33:14

okay you know um some people choose a

00:33:18

major that's a little bit more specific

00:33:19

and then they really pursue that but

00:33:22

anyway that was yeah that's my little

00:33:25

soapbox moment of like parents help your

00:33:27

get out please for the love of God when

00:33:30

it comes to stuff also going to college

00:33:32

is it's it's hard work but to actually

00:33:35

get into college a lot of homeschool

00:33:36

kids I think they get afraid because

00:33:40

will I am I actually smart enough to get

00:33:41

into college because sometimes you're

00:33:44

told that you're like the dumb kid and

00:33:46

it's like no you're a genius and you

00:33:48

totally are smart enough it's just a

00:33:49

matter of getting the paperwork in order

00:33:52

really is all it is anyone can give it

00:33:54

to College oh yeah absolutely they want

00:33:57

your money guys they want your money

00:34:00

they want your money so bad they'll give

00:34:02

you loans that you can never get out of

00:34:03

unless you

00:34:05

die yeah yep there's that and then guess

00:34:08

what they will come to you and they will

00:34:09

say you're an alumni we're going to beg

00:34:11

you for more money to support other

00:34:12

students I don't okay I don't understand

00:34:15

why people I guess I could so I work at

00:34:17

a large University now I'm not going to

00:34:19

name it but um I kind of understand now

00:34:24

why people do that I I don't understand

00:34:26

personally but like I I work at a large

00:34:28

University now that has his own football

00:34:29

teams that has his own sports programs

00:34:31

and like there's so much College spirit

00:34:33

and like where are these people yeah so

00:34:36

I get like if you went to that college

00:34:38

for four years and did like the what

00:34:40

everybody expects to do the university

00:34:41

experience I could see why you'd have a

00:34:43

dedication to your Alma matter Mo

00:34:45

whatever I don't even know how to speak

00:34:47

Jake that's how bad my education was no

00:34:50

but

00:34:51

um I just have never

00:34:54

understood from my own perspective like

00:34:56

you ain't kidding any more of my money

00:34:58

yo I'm paying interest on what I took

00:35:01

what you guys gave me already yeah I

00:35:03

really think it has more to do

00:35:06

with sometimes it's a legacy thing um

00:35:10

yeah you know uh and then other times I

00:35:13

think you know for those people I went

00:35:15

to a college where it was a smaller

00:35:16

Christian college but there was some

00:35:18

there were some big guys who had gone

00:35:20

there one of the CEOs of like Pedigree

00:35:22

dog food had gone there you know and he

00:35:25

wanted his name like on buildings and

00:35:28

that was like his deal like it was like

00:35:30

it had less to do you could you could

00:35:32

tape it up and put it in a pretty box

00:35:34

that was like it's benefiting the

00:35:35

students but ultimately it was I want my

00:35:38

name on a plaque now look if I could

00:35:40

have my name on a

00:35:41

building I would love to do that because

00:35:43

everybody like can you go to the slag

00:35:45

boo building no the slack boom boo the

00:35:48

the the what build just to screw with

00:35:51

people I don't have building money you

00:35:53

know it's not yeah hey someday you never

00:35:55

know you never know

00:35:59

well it's so cool too that like you

00:36:01

brought up wanting to teach your son

00:36:04

about like the Wilderness and be

00:36:06

involved in like just like giving him

00:36:09

that experience that you had of a kid of

00:36:11

like going on adventures out in the

00:36:12

wilderness so I do I ask this of most

00:36:15

people is just like you

00:36:17

know are you thinking of homeschooling

00:36:20

your kid public schooling you obviously

00:36:22

want to be involved in his education to

00:36:24

some degree but like are you have you

00:36:26

given it any thought I mean it's been 10

00:36:27

months so you know we got to be thinking

00:36:29

about these things today you know dude

00:36:31

dude yeah I got his whole life planned

00:36:33

out he's going have to do all of it you

00:36:34

know I got I got all all planned out got

00:36:37

on my rails no um that's a good question

00:36:41

so I definitely don't want to put him

00:36:43

through public school you know when I

00:36:44

was a kid I really wanted to go to

00:36:46

public school and we even tried testing

00:36:48

into public school and I AC the testing

00:36:50

like but you're gonna have to start back

00:36:51

as a freshman again and at that point I

00:36:53

was already a sophomore in high school

00:36:54

was like yeah no I'm not doing that um

00:36:57

and I'm honestly looking back in

00:36:58

retrospect I'm so glad I didn't go to

00:37:00

public school so glad um know a lot of

00:37:03

good kids that grew up and went to

00:37:04

public school but I'm just glad I didn't

00:37:07

um I don't see sending my son to Public

00:37:10

School uh I might say I kind of mean we

00:37:12

you know my wife and I um private school

00:37:16

it depends like that shit's expensive

00:37:18

man yeah and um there's a lot of good

00:37:20

private schools around where we live

00:37:22

right now but it also depends uh I

00:37:25

honestly think that you know my wife and

00:37:27

I we could put a pretty robust

00:37:28

homeschooling curriculum together for

00:37:30

him and you know obviously wouldn't be

00:37:31

all us on our own um but I'm pretty

00:37:35

proud of you know the things that we

00:37:37

both know um I feel confident in the

00:37:40

ability to at least for the first few

00:37:42

years you know get him on the right

00:37:44

track you maybe even get him accelerated

00:37:46

past what would be kind of normal for a

00:37:48

public school actually I'm pretty

00:37:49

confident I could do that but

00:37:55

um yeah I it I think I would be down to

00:37:59

homeschool

00:38:00

him I have no worries about his social

00:38:03

life up here so the neighborhood or the

00:38:05

town we live in is really small it has

00:38:07

two universities close to it though so

00:38:08

it's kind of like small big yeah um and

00:38:12

the neighborhood we live in is like a

00:38:14

Pixar neighborhood from the you know 90s

00:38:16

still and we all of our friends are

00:38:20

within walking distance there's a ton of

00:38:21

young families just like us that have

00:38:24

you know they're starting their families

00:38:25

or they may even have like three four

00:38:27

five kids now and they're all within a

00:38:29

couple years of Theodore's age range

00:38:30

they're all within bicycle distance so

00:38:34

I'm not even worried about the social

00:38:35

aspects they're all great upstanding

00:38:37

families

00:38:39

um yeah I I mean I could totally see

00:38:41

homeschooling him at least for the first

00:38:44

couple years Junior High maybe and then

00:38:48

maybe just like doing Junior College

00:38:50

stuff at high school like it's not

00:38:52

looking back in retrospect and you know

00:38:54

I know it's different when you're

00:38:55

looking forward at it as a kid like

00:38:58

it's just not that bad I think that's

00:39:00

that's something that I tell myself

00:39:02

constantly is I'm like it always um uh

00:39:06

what's What's the phrase I usually say I

00:39:08

I it's all going to be okay like that

00:39:10

was like even back in the day it was

00:39:12

like when when stuff sucked when school

00:39:15

was hard when I was like I wish my mom

00:39:17

just put me in regular high school or

00:39:19

whatever it was like it's all going to

00:39:21

be okay and yeah looking back on it it's

00:39:23

a lot easier to say like no like

00:39:25

legitimately it's all going to be okay

00:39:27

and uh to your point I think you have

00:39:30

you don't have to have a full decision

00:39:32

today I just but to hear that it's like

00:39:34

yeah you want to be involved and you

00:39:36

know and I would say yes I would put my

00:39:39

kid through homeschool it's kind of just

00:39:41

context dependent on what happens when

00:39:44

get closer to that point but I would

00:39:45

definitely do that I think too what's

00:39:48

interesting is is like there's so much

00:39:52

more flexibility with like homeschooling

00:39:54

and even like yeah even even some of the

00:39:57

Alternatives of like you can still do a

00:39:59

public or private school education

00:40:01

that's got some flexibility to it you

00:40:03

know and so I think it's just one of

00:40:05

those things

00:40:07

where it there's there's so many options

00:40:09

now I don't know like when we were kids

00:40:11

I feel like the option was like home

00:40:13

school private school public school and

00:40:16

that's not 100% true I knew there was

00:40:17

other options in that but like it really

00:40:19

felt like those are the three options

00:40:21

and now it just feels like there's a

00:40:22

hundred different options of things you

00:40:24

can do um yeah especially post pandemic

00:40:27

exactly yeah exactly I mean I just I've

00:40:30

met so many people recently who are like

00:40:32

they're full-time rvers and they

00:40:33

technically homeschool their kid but

00:40:35

they their kid has a classroom with

00:40:37

people and they log into zoom and they

00:40:39

you know do all kinds of stuff together

00:40:41

um and it's like that's a cool

00:40:43

experience that it probably it might

00:40:46

have existed when we were kids but I

00:40:48

don't I never had heard about that until

00:40:50

now you know it's wild kind of talking

00:40:53

on the same notes is we have so much

00:40:55

more information available to us today

00:40:56

than we did even in like the late 90s

00:40:59

early 2000s early 2010s even um where

00:41:03

you know like heck just even talking

00:41:04

about something totally unrelated but

00:41:07

similar diet and food you know like you

00:41:11

know I grew up eating you know pretty

00:41:12

good food but also a ton of [ __ ] and you

00:41:15

know now we're raising you know our kid

00:41:16

on like you know eating a lot of red

00:41:19

meat a lot of liver a lot of lot of

00:41:21

vegetables lot of lot of like all these

00:41:23

like foods that people have been eating

00:41:24

since you know we were created you know

00:41:27

and um and it's just you know because

00:41:30

there's so much more awareness of like

00:41:31

oh yeah know [ __ ] that makes more sense

00:41:33

but

00:41:34

like the only reason I even took that

00:41:36

seriously is because you you have the

00:41:38

internet right here and you can research

00:41:43

high quality

00:41:46

information

00:41:48

instantaneously yeah okay so it's like

00:41:51

you know everything going on with AI now

00:41:54

even know it's like kind like AI seems

00:41:56

to be a little bit biased in some ways

00:41:58

but you know there everything going on

00:41:59

with AI teaching software just

00:42:02

connectivity to um educational

00:42:06

programs the options are abundant and

00:42:08

they're boundless and uh parents have

00:42:12

more resources than ever right now to

00:42:15

give their

00:42:16

kids the best I'm GNA say

00:42:19

opportunity to to fully maximize their

00:42:22

potential yeah yeah no I think about all

00:42:26

the things we were passionate about as

00:42:28

kids right it's like you know passionate

00:42:30

about Wilderness and camping and you

00:42:33

know those types of things and I was

00:42:34

passionate about like dance and music

00:42:36

and the entertainment industry and stuff

00:42:38

like that and so the amount of things

00:42:42

that I have learned now just from the

00:42:46

internet I mean I'm a podcast producer

00:42:48

now about I knew some about audio

00:42:51

engineering but like about 90% of what I

00:42:54

do for my work is YouTube University

00:42:58

dude that didn't exist like 10 years ago

00:43:00

okay so yeah like like but it's like one

00:43:03

of those things where it's like I just

00:43:05

went on YouTube I just got on Reddit I

00:43:07

just you know like you're saying I just

00:43:08

accessing information on the internet

00:43:10

that didn't exist 10 15 years ago that

00:43:14

just it it's not even that it's

00:43:16

information that didn't exist but it

00:43:18

wasn't readily available 10 15 years Ag

00:43:21

and so here we are living in the digital

00:43:25

age um I was going to ask you

00:43:29

so are there any in you know I we've

00:43:33

been kind of prepping for this interview

00:43:34

for a couple weeks now but like yeah

00:43:37

have there been any memories as you've

00:43:38

been thinking that have just like stood

00:43:40

out as like just a favorite memory a

00:43:43

cringe moment a just like a significant

00:43:46

thing that happened that you're just

00:43:49

like I got to share this I think one of

00:43:51

my favorite memories maybe it's because

00:43:52

I saw a photo of this recently but I

00:43:54

think it's actually rooted in that is I

00:43:56

remember were going

00:43:59

to you know the Little Harbor that was

00:44:02

in Ox art that they kind of dug out and

00:44:04

built when we were going to group

00:44:05

Solutions yeah um I forgot the name of

00:44:08

it but there's like a Starbucks there

00:44:10

there's a yolandas at one point and the

00:44:12

smoothie place and yeah you walk around

00:44:15

and be like boats for all the rich

00:44:17

people with all the rich

00:44:18

houses yeah um anyways I remember going

00:44:22

there after group Solutions with a bunch

00:44:24

of like our click my click basically or

00:44:26

the click I was a part of it wasn't mine

00:44:27

I was kind of the loser of the punch

00:44:29

maybe but it was just you know me Caleb

00:44:32

Laura Mueller Amil gutterz uh a bunch of

00:44:35

other people too but I was like the core

00:44:37

four in my opinion and we go there after

00:44:39

group Solutions get like smoothies and

00:44:41

kind of walk around and just be

00:44:42

teenagers and have a good time you know

00:44:44

those were the really core moments

00:44:46

almost like breakfast club like moments

00:44:47

for me whereas yeah um just being able

00:44:51

to hang out without adults and be kids

00:44:54

or young adults and just

00:44:57

you know shoot the [ __ ] kind of like

00:44:59

what we're doing right now you know with

00:45:01

uh except without beer and cigarettes

00:45:03

and with uh orange

00:45:05

dreamsicle yogurt smoothies you know

00:45:08

yeah those those were really just the

00:45:10

core cherish memories I really enjoyed

00:45:13

the dances um you know the skating plus

00:45:17

I suck so hard at skating it was like a

00:45:21

ritual

00:45:22

humiliation um going to it but like the

00:45:25

payoffs in terms of socializations were

00:45:27

more than worth it you know what's funny

00:45:30

I the last time I was in Ventura I went

00:45:32

to skating plus because they have there

00:45:34

huh it's still there they had like an

00:45:36

adult uh only night kind of thing and uh

00:45:40

car I texted Carrie FR I was coming to

00:45:42

town I said hey we got to do some fun

00:45:44

let's go skating and uh and her and I

00:45:47

the entire time were just like weirding

00:45:50

out because we were just remembering all

00:45:52

the racing at the at SK the skating plus

00:45:55

like uh you know we were like oh this

00:45:57

conversation happened over there and

00:45:59

this thing happened over there and just

00:46:01

like weird reliving these memories

00:46:03

together it was really funny and um yeah

00:46:06

and her boyfriend and my wife were just

00:46:07

kind of like why is this place so

00:46:09

special to you and you like we're like

00:46:11

you just don't get it it was like like

00:46:13

you said it's like our breakfast club

00:46:15

moment it was just like one of those

00:46:16

things that's so burned in there of just

00:46:19

like it all comes back you're just in

00:46:20

that place and you're like I remember

00:46:22

this and I remember that and I remember

00:46:24

this person falling and I remember you

00:46:25

know this person winning this game and

00:46:27

you know whatever it's just funny to

00:46:29

like go relive some of those memories

00:46:31

and in those places again yeah

00:46:33

absolutely just a lot of Golden Memories

00:46:36

in that regard in terms of cringe

00:46:37

memories there's so many having a hard

00:46:40

time like picking one you know you

00:46:42

should ask Caleb y he knows all my he

00:46:44

has all the dirt on me he's got the dirt

00:46:46

okay he's got the dirt but uh you know

00:46:49

honestly I think most of the cringe

00:46:50

moments had to do with like girls and

00:46:52

like attempts at romance and like

00:46:55

misguided attempts at Romance

00:46:58

okay uh I was so ill advised when it

00:47:01

came to like how to handle those types

00:47:04

of

00:47:05

emotions um

00:47:08

and I think the cringiest thing about me

00:47:11

what among a many of the cringiest

00:47:14

things about me especially in that time

00:47:18

um the time was cringe it was I got a

00:47:21

lot of my social information from movies

00:47:24

okay okay I watched so many movies and I

00:47:28

got all of my like you should do this

00:47:30

this will definitely work from movies

00:47:34

and um I can't name a specific event or

00:47:39

accounting like I'm sorry because it

00:47:41

would be hilarious if I could but I just

00:47:43

remember just like like why isn't this

00:47:48

working and um just the whole courtship

00:47:51

culture and just yeah oh my gosh just

00:47:54

being a just being a 16-year-old dude in

00:47:57

a homeschool World our homeschool world

00:48:00

was brutal in that regard um no

00:48:04

definitely like the cringiest of of

00:48:06

memories from there I didn't I didn't

00:48:08

date at all in high school

00:48:11

um and I'm trying to remember I just

00:48:13

tried to yeah okay but I didn't even the

00:48:16

thing is I didn't even try to like I had

00:48:18

crushes on people obviously but I just

00:48:19

was like I'm not I'm not I wasn't going

00:48:22

for it but um but yeah talk like the

00:48:26

court thing was weird right like I'm not

00:48:28

alone in thinking that that was strange

00:48:31

I think that was a mistake I think that

00:48:32

was a community culture mistake yeah uh

00:48:37

did you ever read the book um I kiss

00:48:40

Dating

00:48:41

Goodbye I've heard about it a lot I

00:48:43

never bothered to crack it open this is

00:48:46

just this just smells like horseshit

00:48:48

from here man

00:48:49

yeah it's kind of that concept of like

00:48:53

it's it's it's that concept of like well

00:48:57

dating is like is a non-committal type

00:49:00

of thing right it's just kind of which

00:49:02

is like this is [ __ ] but like it was

00:49:05

kind of this like he was he was

00:49:07

preaching this idea that like dating is

00:49:09

like non-committal because like you're

00:49:11

basically just like I'm gonna hang out

00:49:12

with this person and potentially get

00:49:14

some kind of sexual gratification out of

00:49:15

it and then like when I'm done with it I

00:49:18

just throw it in the trash and move on

00:49:20

yeah right and so it was kind of then

00:49:21

placing this whole courtship idea of

00:49:23

like you're G to go into dating somebody

00:49:26

with this strong intention of like we're

00:49:28

GNA get married which is like the point

00:49:31

the the reason to date somebody is to

00:49:33

know do you like this person cancer or

00:49:36

not you know yeah exactly there's a

00:49:39

reason that you have to like get to know

00:49:40

somebody and you can still have that

00:49:42

like internal intention of like if this

00:49:44

isn't going somewhere it's pointless but

00:49:46

like it takes months sometimes before

00:49:48

you even get an idea like if you get

00:49:51

that idea like of somebody of like could

00:49:53

I be with this person you know yeah and

00:49:55

I think there's an definitional

00:49:57

distinction that wasn't made at that

00:49:59

time there's a difference between hookup

00:50:03

culture

00:50:04

dating and

00:50:07

courtship and those are really important

00:50:09

distinctions to make because when I was

00:50:11

in college and and to to air on the side

00:50:14

of you know tipping my Hut to courtship

00:50:17

culture is hookup culture is horrible I

00:50:21

went through a lot of that in college

00:50:23

okay and that was like I thought it was

00:50:25

great at the time and looking back was

00:50:26

like that was terrible for me um and for

00:50:30

the people that are involved with it you

00:50:31

know um and I have a lot of regrets from

00:50:34

that and a lot of lessons learned so cup

00:50:35

culture is honestly frankly toxic and I

00:50:37

think it's a really horrible disease of

00:50:40

our culture um on the other hand you

00:50:45

have courtship which is like this chalc

00:50:48

like my lady I must throw myself on my

00:50:51

sword to slay the Dragon for your love

00:50:54

you goddess of beauty and it's like

00:50:59

bro you're

00:51:01

17 yeah exactly it's like healthy dating

00:51:05

is probably the way to do it courtship

00:51:07

definitely not hookup culture you're

00:51:10

going to regret it it's not good for

00:51:11

anyone and there's it's called it's

00:51:13

called finding the balance man it's

00:51:15

called finding this maybe not balance

00:51:18

between hookup culture and dating

00:51:20

because there's no balance there but

00:51:21

just you know investing yourself

00:51:23

genuinely in someone to find out who the

00:51:26

are who you are to them

00:51:29

and if that's a good thing and if it is

00:51:32

that's great get married have kids

00:51:34

you'll have more joy than you've ever

00:51:36

had in your life if it's not get the

00:51:38

heck out of there with Grace if you can

00:51:41

you know gently if you can but if that

00:51:43

person's not the right one for you don't

00:51:45

try to make it

00:51:47

work because you're just GNA be paying

00:51:49

the piper later bro yeah no I totally I

00:51:53

totally agree with you it's such a weird

00:51:56

ah such a weird concept that like I

00:52:00

think one of the reasons I didn't date

00:52:01

in high school primar partly had to do

00:52:03

with the courtship thing because I was

00:52:05

just

00:52:06

like I just I kind of knew I don't want

00:52:09

somebody's parent tagging along I don't

00:52:11

want to go on a date with somebody and

00:52:13

their sibling be there as a chaperon

00:52:15

like I'm an adult I'm mature you know

00:52:19

like I'm mature enough to I say I'm

00:52:21

mature 16 17y old kid is not mature but

00:52:25

but like but like

00:52:27

you know I was like it's not about for

00:52:31

me it was like it's not about funny

00:52:32

business it's like we're just going to

00:52:33

hang out kind of a thing so when I got

00:52:35

to college it was interesting because as

00:52:37

I started to pursue

00:52:38

girls there was those few who started to

00:52:41

have like one of the one of the girls I

00:52:42

was interested in she had this rule

00:52:44

where she's like well if we date you

00:52:45

have to call my dad and get his

00:52:46

permission and I was like nope no we're

00:52:48

not going to date then and like because

00:52:50

I was just like if you you're an you're

00:52:53

an adult you get to make your own

00:52:54

decisions you know um and if you're not

00:52:57

comfortable doing that and you rely on

00:52:59

your dad to do that for you that's it

00:53:01

was like red flag right and to your

00:53:03

point of like that's the healthy balance

00:53:05

between hookup culture and and kind of

00:53:08

then the cording and finding that middle

00:53:10

ground of dating where it was just like

00:53:12

that for me was a that was a no so I was

00:53:15

just like we're not doing that um but

00:53:17

then I started to find people who were

00:53:19

like yeah let's go have fun we'll go get

00:53:21

dinner you know go to a concert go do

00:53:24

whatever and then you find your person

00:53:26

hopefully yeah once you find your person

00:53:28

it's like yeah people out there man yeah

00:53:30

but you you invest your time and your

00:53:32

energy in this person and you go yeah

00:53:34

this is the person I want to be with and

00:53:36

uh there's a lot more to it than that

00:53:38

but funny story not mention that um so

00:53:42

my wife and I were dating in college or

00:53:44

talking to each other really and I

00:53:46

wanted to start dating her and the funny

00:53:48

thing is so preface I was a

00:53:52

hedonist in college so I left hom School

00:53:55

culture and I went

00:53:57

insane which is something I want to talk

00:53:59

about if we have time later I see that

00:54:01

pattern in a lot of people specifically

00:54:04

in achieve kind of circles that kind of

00:54:07

like seemly went off the deep end or

00:54:09

just like totally didn't end up the way

00:54:10

that we were thought we were going to

00:54:12

like our parents thought we were going

00:54:13

to end up which is fine Free Will and

00:54:15

all that but I was just interesting the

00:54:17

pattern that I've been

00:54:18

seeing um but I did it too I went off

00:54:21

the deep end so deep you know sex drugs

00:54:24

rock and roll um

00:54:26

I was terrible rock and roll I was

00:54:28

severely uncool up to this day but I did

00:54:31

it you know and

00:54:34

um anyway so my wife and I or uh you

00:54:38

know at the time we were dating she was

00:54:40

like you know I really like you in fact

00:54:41

you know we love each other but you know

00:54:43

I can't be with you you have no

00:54:44

Foundation dude like you're you're a

00:54:47

punk like there's good stuff here but

00:54:49

you're a punk and I'm not going to be

00:54:50

with you if you're a punk and um funny

00:54:55

thing is is we did have that I did have

00:54:57

that conversation with her father

00:54:58

because she wanted me to get her his

00:54:59

permission which I think is Honorable

00:55:01

you know not not required but I think

00:55:03

it's honorable and

00:55:06

um her father he and I are great friends

00:55:10

I love my in-laws uh at that point he's

00:55:12

like no I forbid you from talking to my

00:55:15

daughter because he knew from a mile

00:55:17

away that he was talking to a punk and I

00:55:19

was a punk at that time um and I was

00:55:22

like okay yeah I'm going to keep on

00:55:25

talking with your daughter bro

00:55:28

like but it's just funny that that came

00:55:30

up you know that wasn't honorable of me

00:55:32

um it ended up working out we have a

00:55:34

great relationship in our families and

00:55:36

um but I just thought that was funny

00:55:38

that you mentioned that we'll talk about

00:55:40

so you wanted to yeah you brought up

00:55:42

wanting to talk about kind of going off

00:55:43

the deep end a little bit and I think

00:55:45

that was yeah I've seen that too it's

00:55:47

been true

00:55:48

of and I I think it has to do with

00:55:51

partly like The Homeschool bubble that

00:55:53

we grew up in was very it was very much

00:55:55

that it was a very much bubble right and

00:55:57

it was I don't know if you felt this way

00:55:58

I I definitely felt this way growing up

00:56:01

where I kind of had this skewed view

00:56:03

that everybody inside the bubble was

00:56:05

like we were all the same we all believe

00:56:06

the same thing we all had the same

00:56:08

values didn't fight like it was very

00:56:11

yeah exactly

00:56:13

monoculture and and then to come out of

00:56:15

it and realize like oh people's parents

00:56:17

are like don't get along or these

00:56:19

siblings like really hate each other or

00:56:21

like this stuff like this was happening

00:56:23

at home or this person had this

00:56:25

experience you know it's like very

00:56:28

interesting and it was like yeah it

00:56:30

shakes you quite a bit right and you

00:56:32

kind of I don't know you can sometimes

00:56:33

snap right and kind of go and be like

00:56:35

well now I'm just gonna be that Rebel so

00:56:37

yeah talk about your experience with

00:56:39

that yeah I'm just gonna talk about my

00:56:40

experience because that's the only one I

00:56:42

can speak to like we've seen it and I

00:56:43

won't go into other people like what

00:56:45

I've seen other people because that's

00:56:46

not fair to them um but in my own

00:56:49

experience like I left the home I got

00:56:52

roommates that were you know just

00:56:55

typical college guys

00:56:57

and I was like dude life is so freaking

00:57:00

cool like we're partying all the time

00:57:04

chasing

00:57:05

skirts you know just you know smoking

00:57:08

dope like life was fun but there was

00:57:10

completely it was just pursuing the

00:57:13

desires of the flesh full stop you know

00:57:16

and one of the things that I

00:57:19

think was a weak aspect that you know I

00:57:22

only hold myself uh myself responsible

00:57:24

for the actions that I've taken

00:57:27

um but I think there's predispositions

00:57:29

that can happen based on the way that

00:57:31

you were raised and one of the things

00:57:33

that led me to leave the church full on

00:57:36

when I was a kid was I just saw a ton of

00:57:39

hypocrisy um in my own household in the

00:57:42

homes of other people and I used a lot

00:57:44

of that as an excuse to do whatever I

00:57:46

wanted which wasn't right but a lot of

00:57:47

people do that um to do whatever I

00:57:50

wanted but also just like a lot of don't

00:57:52

do this don't do that kind of thing um

00:57:54

Without Really explaining it other than

00:57:56

Jesus told you so or just like it's in

00:57:58

the Bible or you know all these things

00:58:00

but there's no deep meaning like you

00:58:01

can't [ __ ] a kid kids are smart man

00:58:03

even me

00:58:05

significantly average could tell that

00:58:07

like hey there's no real reason behind

00:58:10

there's no real like fundamental

00:58:11

philosophy behind the reasons you're

00:58:13

giving me it's just we don't do this

00:58:15

because we're X or don't do that because

00:58:17

of why and it's not like what's good

00:58:20

what's bad like actually good and bad

00:58:22

you could say you know drinking cocacola

00:58:24

is bad okay um that's not good enough

00:58:27

because Coca-Cola tastes great smoking

00:58:29

cigarettes is bad for you okay um

00:58:33

clearly not motivated enough with the

00:58:35

information you've given me or not

00:58:36

convinced enough with the information

00:58:37

you've given me and it's not the parents

00:58:38

job to convince that something is bad

00:58:41

it's a parents job in my opinion to be

00:58:45

informed enough so that they can

00:58:46

actually give a good reason as to why

00:58:48

something is bad or something shouldn't

00:58:50

be done um whether or not a child will

00:58:53

be convinced or do the right thing or or

00:58:56

or pursue wisdom is totally up to the

00:58:59

kid but it's the parents responsibility

00:59:02

and the parents

00:59:03

opportunity to pass on that wisdom in

00:59:06

such a way that it's not just yeah so

00:59:08

what I love ice cream I'm G eat ice

00:59:10

cream every day eat for breakfast lunch

00:59:12

and dinner yeah you didn't tell me you

00:59:14

didn't sufficiently convince me why it

00:59:15

was bad thing and

00:59:18

it's it's more Nuance in that because

00:59:20

like you know parents don't always have

00:59:22

the opportunity or really the it's not

00:59:25

always the appropriate thing to like sit

00:59:26

down and like have a aristan dialectic

00:59:29

with their child as to why something may

00:59:31

be bad but like it's important as a

00:59:33

child grows older that they know that

00:59:36

what their parents and that the

00:59:37

community that they're being raised up

00:59:38

in is doing things

00:59:40

genuinely and not just to check off a

00:59:43

box or just to meet a performance

00:59:45

standard which I think was really

00:59:48

prolific um in many communities and I

00:59:50

think it was pric in ours as well um and

00:59:52

I think that's why as soon as kids left

00:59:54

the house many

00:59:56

many of them went off the deep end

00:59:58

because they traded off one set of

01:00:01

assumptions and one set of Notions for

01:00:04

another one because they never really

01:00:06

had a foundation in that first set to

01:00:08

begin with they were just doing what

01:00:09

they were told either directly or

01:00:11

indirectly from the culture that they

01:00:12

were brought up in and now they're

01:00:14

inserted into a whole another culture

01:00:16

and of course of course they're going to

01:00:18

do whatever the heck they want in that

01:00:20

culture because they weren't really

01:00:22

rooted in that one in the first place so

01:00:25

um

01:00:26

yeah so I mean as soon as I left the

01:00:28

house um you know I everything that was

01:00:31

fun and pleasurable I I went after a

01:00:34

full stop and I tell you it was like

01:00:36

having schizophrenia because you know

01:00:39

you have that you know I don't know if

01:00:40

you've gotten stoned before but like you

01:00:42

know that anxiety that can happen it's

01:00:43

like oh man this is so wrong this is so

01:00:46

wrong I can hear my heart

01:00:49

beating yeah you know it was it was like

01:00:51

a mix of that and like just like the

01:00:52

best highes listening to like the

01:00:53

Grateful Dead But like um you it was

01:00:57

like this like because I had given my

01:01:00

life to Christ before I went to college

01:01:02

but it

01:01:03

was a meaningful level but not in a

01:01:07

really informed or even knowledgeable

01:01:10

level I had genuinely done it but it was

01:01:13

like it was in a I would say kind of

01:01:17

like a rocky soil context maybe I don't

01:01:19

know I'm not a philosopher

01:01:21

but um

01:01:24

because I anyway it's given that context

01:01:27

like man I was in college I was like

01:01:29

running two different ways in one time

01:01:31

you know and I was like smoking dope to

01:01:33

try to get myself to sleep because I was

01:01:35

like battling my conscience all the time

01:01:38

and I was like reading the Dow day I got

01:01:41

super into other religions like like

01:01:43

reading like you know the da Jing the

01:01:48

dhap like trying to find Truth where I

01:01:50

knew really it wasn't and I don't mean

01:01:52

to be preachy and pastoral or anything

01:01:53

I'm not and I suck at that but like I'm

01:01:56

just giving you my experience yeah I was

01:01:59

just I was just running I was running

01:02:00

from I was running from what I knew was

01:02:02

truth um and I'm so thankful that I met

01:02:05

my wife because she uh has more of a

01:02:09

spine than

01:02:10

me and she's like dude you are messed up

01:02:13

man what are you doing bro um and that's

01:02:16

really I was like what am I doing what

01:02:18

what is this life that I'm living right

01:02:20

now and

01:02:22

um yeah it's been let's see 2015 to now

01:02:27

yeah so I left college and I totally

01:02:29

flipped the bucket you know I used to be

01:02:31

you know young Earth creationist

01:02:33

evolution is bad we should drill more

01:02:35

you know before I went in college and

01:02:37

then I totally just traded that off for

01:02:38

like Bernie Sanders um everything is

01:02:42

like you know climate

01:02:44

catastrophism and you know just being

01:02:47

afraid of everything and trying to give

01:02:50

license to everything I wanted and

01:02:53

trying to just be totally truth is

01:02:56

subjective morality is subjective

01:02:58

therefore I can do anything I want and I

01:03:01

that messed my life up so bad man and

01:03:04

then just thankfully I was able

01:03:08

to I was given an opportunity to turn

01:03:11

away from that um and I never would have

01:03:14

unless I met people who actually think

01:03:18

who actually think critically and it's

01:03:21

not that they subscribe to a certain set

01:03:23

of beliefs or anything it's just more

01:03:25

like old school like critical thinking

01:03:27

you know they say they teach you

01:03:28

critical thinking in

01:03:30

University I have my

01:03:34

doubts because I never really challenged

01:03:37

what I was taught in h school and then I

01:03:41

went to University and never really

01:03:42

challenged what I was taught until I

01:03:44

left it and I actually started being

01:03:46

challenged on the assumptions that I had

01:03:49

just been freely given not freely it was

01:03:51

you know had to take out student Lo to

01:03:53

get them in University and um yeah it's

01:03:56

been it's been a wild ride it's been

01:03:58

good I think I think I've grown a lot

01:04:00

and

01:04:02

um yeah I would just say I know I

01:04:04

totally took a long T man I'm sorry but

01:04:07

no that's that's good you were going you

01:04:10

you were inting you hit the flow and you

01:04:12

were like I gotta ride it no I think I

01:04:15

think what you're saying is is very no

01:04:17

it's very important because one of the

01:04:19

things like college shook me too with

01:04:23

that concept of like I felt felt like I

01:04:27

I had a religion class one of my first

01:04:29

semesters of college he comes in the

01:04:31

class he's sitting us down he's asking

01:04:33

us questions the very

01:04:35

boilerplate Christian questions of like

01:04:38

do you believe in s-day creationism do

01:04:40

you believe that Noah Arc is a was a

01:04:42

reality right or is it a parable these

01:04:45

types of questions right and I'm sitting

01:04:47

there giving my cookie cutter answers of

01:04:49

going well yeah 7-Day creationism duh 24

01:04:52

hours 7 days a week duh who it question

01:04:56

that I also went to a Christian college

01:04:58

so I was still of that mindset that I'm

01:05:00

inside of a bubble and I was inside of a

01:05:02

bubble a little bit of a bigger bubble

01:05:04

but but everyone here agrees with my

01:05:07

thinking my rationale here and so so I

01:05:10

start to do these start to say these

01:05:12

things in class and he goes but why but

01:05:15

why it was like an annoying toddler kind

01:05:17

of ask you know proding their parent but

01:05:19

why why are we doing this why are we

01:05:20

making and I couldn't answer it and it

01:05:23

yeah to your point it's like it sends

01:05:25

you down the spiral of

01:05:27

like do do I either just go with

01:05:30

whatever's next right this next belief

01:05:32

system that someone lays out for me or

01:05:35

sense in the moment right or do I sit

01:05:38

down and do my research to say I'm gonna

01:05:41

read these other religions I'm going to

01:05:43

read these other works of um you know

01:05:46

scientists and artists and all these

01:05:48

things of like these ideas and start to

01:05:50

develop what I actually personally

01:05:52

believe and build that backbone and that

01:05:54

Foundation that then your life can be

01:05:56

built on and like that was tough dude

01:05:59

that was like it changes you because you

01:06:01

start to go into spiral mode really

01:06:04

easily where it's like it becomes so

01:06:07

easy to just be like well I'm just going

01:06:08

to go along with what everybody else

01:06:10

does

01:06:11

because I felt like I had done that the

01:06:13

whole my whole life right so it's like

01:06:15

it's just the easy route to just

01:06:16

continue to do that and it's like that

01:06:19

yeah that's I don't know we're we're

01:06:21

supposed to create our own belief system

01:06:25

based off of critical thinking right

01:06:27

based off of our own research and it's

01:06:29

okay to disagree it's great have

01:06:31

conversations please do you know and

01:06:34

respectful conversations with one

01:06:35

another because that's that's where we

01:06:38

get lost a lot of times to think is you

01:06:40

don't agree with me you're written off

01:06:42

as you don't agree with me you know and

01:06:43

it's like and things get really heated

01:06:46

because I think it's really it's really

01:06:48

scary I mean I can say to speak of this

01:06:49

from my own experience it's really scary

01:06:51

to have your belief system really core

01:06:53

level it's really scary to possibly be

01:06:56

wrong yeah and um not even realizing

01:06:59

that in the moment but like at a really

01:07:00

deep level you do realize oh man I don't

01:07:03

know the answer to that question [ __ ] um

01:07:07

and but you don't have time to do that

01:07:08

in a conversation so barring a really

01:07:12

good

01:07:12

conversation with people who have open

01:07:15

minds are willing to concede that they

01:07:17

don't know something things can get

01:07:18

really heated really quick I mean we see

01:07:21

that United States of America 2024 yeah

01:07:24

don't need any example you just turn on

01:07:26

the news but like um yeah I

01:07:31

think I

01:07:33

mean I yeah I it's just like there's

01:07:37

reality is definable and like you can

01:07:41

follow the questions and the path to

01:07:45

understand to get a closer understanding

01:07:47

of that I'm not saying that I can leave

01:07:50

people to that I'm not saying that I can

01:07:51

even do that myself but the important

01:07:53

thing is just really asking yourself

01:07:55

Hest questions and seeking honest

01:07:57

answers um it doesn't even have to come

01:07:59

from it absolutely doesn't have to come

01:08:01

from a chistian perspective it can come

01:08:02

from a

01:08:03

completely a religious perspective but

01:08:06

reality is real and if you're seeking

01:08:09

you're going to find things I mean hey

01:08:11

that's to you know to bring It full

01:08:13

circle that's how I came to the

01:08:14

realization that Bigfoot is real so John

01:08:17

this has been fantastic it's been great

01:08:19

to catch up with you and um I yeah

01:08:23

before we wrap cuz I feel like we could

01:08:25

go for another two hours

01:08:29

um but um is there before yeah before we

01:08:32

go is there anything you want to leave

01:08:33

the people with anything that's popped

01:08:35

in the brain of like oh shoot we didn't

01:08:37

touch on this but if not we can always

01:08:39

do a part two if if new thoughts

01:08:42

arise I just say you know I spent a lot

01:08:44

of time just trying to be the cool guy

01:08:46

and just trying to live live I would say

01:08:48

a lot of the experiences that I had were

01:08:50

kind of like synthetic almost there's a

01:08:52

lot of genuine stuff there's a lot of

01:08:53

good stuff but

01:08:58

I really didn't start learning anything

01:09:01

about

01:09:02

myself

01:09:03

until I met people who weren't afraid to

01:09:06

call [ __ ] on things and challenge my

01:09:09

assumptions and challenge me um and I

01:09:13

think that's something we didn't get a

01:09:15

whole lot of growing up I don't think

01:09:17

many people do so I'm not just putting

01:09:19

that pin in you know the GRE up in

01:09:21

particular I think that's really

01:09:22

important for everyone to have and not a

01:09:24

lot of people get

01:09:26

so I mean I just say I'm really happy

01:09:29

with the way I grew up for the most part

01:09:30

because obviously things that be done

01:09:32

better but that's just life baby

01:09:34

um and just challenge yourself challenge

01:09:37

your assumptions

01:09:39

and

01:09:42

um yeah you know it's sad I see a lot of

01:09:45

lonely people out here these days and

01:09:47

specifically in the society you know a

01:09:49

lot of a lot of Lely dudes a lot of Lely

01:09:51

ladies meet each other go out get

01:09:54

married have a family have kids it's

01:09:58

awesome it doesn't matter if you're poor

01:10:00

or you're broke dude having a family is

01:10:05

the best thing that has ever happened to

01:10:07

me it's

01:10:10

great that's glad I'm glad to hear that

01:10:13

yeah and yeah just to put a bow on

01:10:16

everything too is like I I have been

01:10:19

practicing this this year 2024 I made

01:10:22

kind of a promise to myself that when

01:10:24

people come to mind

01:10:25

I do my best to reach out to them

01:10:27

because I think it's the universe's way

01:10:29

of if someone Pops in my brain whether

01:10:32

it's I saw them post something on

01:10:33

Facebook or whether I had a memory of

01:10:36

them or

01:10:37

whatnot it it's a reminder to reach out

01:10:40

to that person and say hello and so I

01:10:42

encourage people to do this is like this

01:10:44

week if someone comes to your mind

01:10:46

whether it's your mom your sister your

01:10:47

brother some distant friend that you

01:10:49

haven't talked to in a decade uh like

01:10:51

John and I haven't talked to each other

01:10:53

in forever like reach out to them say

01:10:56

hello ask them how they're doing listen

01:10:58

to what they got to say and just be

01:10:59

there for them you know and let them

01:11:00

know that they're being heard with no

01:11:02

expectation back that they're going to

01:11:04

give you anything but just let them know

01:11:05

that you're thinking of them and uh yeah

01:11:09

with that dude this has been awesome uh

01:11:12

man I would love to have you back

01:11:13

sometime because this has been a great

01:11:15

conversation and I appreciate you being

01:11:17

vulnerable and open and um yeah yeah

01:11:21

talking about it sweet well this has

01:11:24

been the ex homeschoolers Club

01:11:25

and uh you

01:11:28

know it's it's cool to go deep I'm very

01:11:30

excited with the direction that the show

01:11:32

is going and uh if you're enjoying it I

01:11:35

would love for you to hit that subscribe

01:11:36

hit a follow five star it if you think

01:11:39

it's worth it um all of the things worth

01:11:42

all of the things um that you know how

01:11:44

to do if you've got questions or you

01:11:46

want to chat with me there's two ways

01:11:48

you can do it you can either email me at

01:11:50

exhs [email protected] uh that'll be linked

01:11:54

in the show notes or you can reach out

01:11:56

to me on Instagram again it's exhs Club

01:12:00

um on all the social platforms and uh

01:12:03

yeah my DMs are open so uh yeah this has

01:12:06

been great reach out if you've got

01:12:08

questions until next time we'll see you

01:12:10

all right peace

01:12:17

[Music]

01:12:23

[Music]

Badges

This episode stands out for the following:

60
Most shocking

Episode Highlights

A Comically Large Bandage
John shares a wild story about slicing his finger before graduation, leading to a hilarious ER visit.
“I had like sliced half my finger off and you had this like comically large bandage.”
@ 00m 48s
November 06, 2024
Homeschooling Memories
John reflects on his homeschooling journey, including unique experiences and challenges.
“I was always a really social guy, and I just remember watching these kids like a sitcom.”
@ 09m 31s
November 06, 2024
Wilderness Survival Class
After graduating, John returns to teach a class on wilderness survival, blending fun and practical skills.
“It was basically like pick and choose your adventure from stuff I learned in Boy Scouts.”
@ 19m 16s
November 06, 2024
Wilderness Survival Skills
Teaching kids essential survival skills like fire-making and shelter-building.
“You need a knife when you’re in the wilderness!”
@ 20m 18s
November 06, 2024
The Impact of Lord of the Flies
Discussing the dark themes of the book and its relevance to survival.
“Oh, this is dark!”
@ 22m 14s
November 06, 2024
Navigating Life After Homeschooling
Reflecting on the challenges and changes after graduating from homeschooling.
“Life has changed so much since then.”
@ 25m 14s
November 06, 2024
The Homeschooling Journey
Exploring the confidence in homeschooling and its social aspects.
“I'm confident I could do that but...”
@ 37m 49s
November 06, 2024
The Digital Age of Learning
Discussing how the internet has transformed access to information and education.
“We have so much more information available to us today.”
@ 40m 55s
November 06, 2024
Navigating Relationships
Reflections on the complexities of dating and courtship culture.
“It's about finding the balance, man.”
@ 51m 15s
November 06, 2024
The Struggle for Truth
Navigating the complexities of belief systems can be daunting but essential for personal growth.
“It's really scary to have your belief system challenged.”
@ 01h 06m 51s
November 06, 2024
The Importance of Connection
Reaching out to others can create meaningful connections and combat loneliness.
“If someone comes to your mind, reach out to them and say hello.”
@ 01h 10m 29s
November 06, 2024

Episode Quotes

That’s the memory that I think always sticks with me of you.
A Boy Scouts Guide To Surviving Homeschool | EXHS #15
I remember teaching a bunch of you guys flint and steel in the rain.
A Boy Scouts Guide To Surviving Homeschool | EXHS #15
I was like, I understand how to start a fire with flint and steel.
A Boy Scouts Guide To Surviving Homeschool | EXHS #15
I just accessed information that didn't exist 10 years ago.
A Boy Scouts Guide To Surviving Homeschool | EXHS #15
Life is so freaking cool!
A Boy Scouts Guide To Surviving Homeschool | EXHS #15
Having a family is the best thing that has ever happened to me.
A Boy Scouts Guide To Surviving Homeschool | EXHS #15

Key Moments

Graduation Memory06:10
Teaching Wilderness Skills19:16
College Journey26:50
Homeschooling Confidence37:59
Dating Culture48:37
Hypocrisy and Faith57:39
Personal Growth1:04:00
Reach Out1:10:40

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown

Sharpening a Knife Gone Wrong! #shorts

November 08, 2024

01:26

Sharpening a Knife Gone Wrong! #shorts

Purity Rings, Weird Analogies, and Why Sex Felt Wrong | EXHS #27

February 13, 2025

01:08:20

Purity Rings, Weird Analogies, and Why Sex Felt Wrong | EXHS #27

Our Weirdly Similar Homeschool Lives (Mime, Theater & Chaos!) | #30

March 20, 2025

01:07:38

Our Weirdly Similar Homeschool Lives (Mime, Theater & Chaos!) | #30

my grandpa died

April 27, 2026

16:35

my grandpa died

Where Have I Been?

October 03, 2025

11:44

Where Have I Been?

What Was It Like Being Homeschooled In The 90's? | #25

January 30, 2025

01:02:22

What Was It Like Being Homeschooled In The 90's? | #25

Did You Even Want To Be Homeschooled? | EXHS #10

October 02, 2024

57:11

Did You Even Want To Be Homeschooled? | EXHS #10

The Truth About Life After Homeschooling | #31

March 27, 2025

45:22

The Truth About Life After Homeschooling | #31

What Happens When a Homeschool Kid Becomes an Art Teacher? | #44

July 17, 2025

02:23:10

What Happens When a Homeschool Kid Becomes an Art Teacher? | #44

The Shocking Truth About Homeschool vs Public School Education | EXHS #22

January 09, 2025

58:11

The Shocking Truth About Homeschool vs Public School Education | EXHS #22

Do Homeschoolers REALLY Lack Social Skills? | EXHS #4

August 14, 2024

01:08:41

Do Homeschoolers REALLY Lack Social Skills? | EXHS #4

Was Homeschool The Best Choice For Me...Or My Parents? | EXHS #24

January 23, 2025

48:50

Was Homeschool The Best Choice For Me...Or My Parents? | EXHS #24