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Welcome back to the Exhomes Schoolers Club. That's right, it's the best exhomeschooler podcast this side of the
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internet. I'm your boy, Jacob Gooden, and uh we're hanging out. You and me,
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me, myself, and I, we're doing a solo today. And what the heck are we even talking about? Well, I got asked this
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question this week, and I've been asked this question a couple times, but what
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is an ex homeschooler, right? How do I define it? What is the definition there? uh you know, am I one? All these types
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of things. And so anyway, so let me give you my definition and then we'll get
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into some of the more nuance about it. Okay, this is how I define an exhomeschooler. Someone who has
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experienced homeschool and lived to tell the tale. Okay, this could be a student
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or a teacher. It could be someone who was homeschooled for three days. It could be someone who was homeschooled
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for their entire educational experience, right? And um so why was I asked this question? Okay, so I was asked this
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question kind of in the context of trying to figure out like is it someone who has walked away from homeschool and
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has a negative taste in their mouth about it or doesn't support it any longer? Is it, you know, more my case of
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what I believe it's it's somebody who just went through it, right? They did
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the thing. They were homeschooled, they're no longer homeschooled, but it's
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still part of our identity. Okay? whether we like it or not. Unfortunately, it is. And it kind of led
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me down this path of even looking at the bigger picture of like why have I made this such a big part of my identity in
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the more recent years. And it kind of stems from this place of like after high school. So, if you don't know, I was
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homeschooled all the way through high school. And when I moved to college, I didn't tell a lot of people I was
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homeschooled. I really hid it for a little bit. Um, some would argue I didn't hide it very well, but I I did
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hide it. I told people I would went to private school and that that was more, you know, my jam. And and
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but I didn't want that to be the defining characteristic of who I was when I got to college. I knew that there
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was preconceived notions. A lot of people know the preconceived notions, right? That you're antisocial, that
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you're a weirdo, that you went to prom with your sister in the basement, like
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all those types of things. And I didn't want that. I wanted to I wanted my experience at college to be a fresh
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start for me to be this new thing and I could just go and and make a new version
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of myself, right? And uh yeah, and and you know what's interesting is that like as time has
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gone on, right, and things have shifted in my life and I kind of reclaimed the homeschooler brand a little bit for
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myself and that yeah, that was who I was. And part of the reason for that was I started to see the strengths and the
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weaknesses of having grown up in a situation like that. I saw the fact that like homeschooling really prepared me to
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educate myself, right? To make my own schedule. It prepared me like I run my own business now. I h I am the boss. I
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have to make my own schedule. Nobody is telling me I have to be at work at this time. Like I have to do that for myself,
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right? And so those are all things that I learned in my time being a homeschool kid, right? I had to get up in the
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morning. I had to accomplish my, you know, English lesson and my math lesson. And yeah, I could have had like my
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parents, you know, maybe breathing down my neck a little bit, but like overall they really gave it to me to be like,
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you run the ship, you do the thing. Now, of course, there's also weaknesses,
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right? I could argue my education in certain areas isn't super strong, right?
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I don't feel really solid in my understanding of science, right? Things like that. I would also argue that one
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of my weaknesses is I do struggle socially sometimes. I I can talk to pretty much anybody, but at the same
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time, I do sometimes have moments of really struggling to pick up cues of like, hey, you got to like end the
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conversation. you got to like move on, you know, and that's just it's a funky
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part of who I am. I want to get better at it. I'm hope hoping to get better at
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it, but you know, it's a part of my identity, right? And I know that it stems from my experience as a
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homeschooler. So, you know, this this podcast really kind of came was birthed out of
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me looking at my life, right? 2020 was a big shift year for a lot of people, right? Uh co made us sit with thoughts
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and ourselves a lot more. And I don't know about you, I know for me, it made
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me a little bit more introspective and looking at my life and looking at my belief systems and looking at who I was
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as a person and and trying to figure out who I was. And so the original goal for
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this podcast was really, I would argue, a little bit more selfish. During 2020, 2021, I was starting to have more
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conversations. I was reconnecting with other homeschool kids. And I wanted more of that. And so it was kind of this
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like, well, if I start a podcast, it's kind of a selfish way of being able to
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do that, right? I wanted to catch up with you guys. I wanted to hear what was new.
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Um, but I didn't maybe really have a fully fleshed out goal or purpose of like what is why are we telling these
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stories? What is it impact? Right? And you know, I think I could have made the argument like, you know, we're reliving
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the past and we're doing it for the next generation of homeschoolers so that they
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can know that it it gets better, right? Um, maybe it'll help parents not make
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the mistakes that our parents made. Maybe it'll, you know, whatever. I don't
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know. And that's kind of where like the good, the bad, and the ugly of homeschooling came into play, right? The
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subtext of this show, right? And what have I learned, right? Like we've been doing this for nine months,
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okay? I've done I think this will be episode 32. You know, we're almost we're getting
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we're we're nearing a year of this. And so some things have shifted. Some things
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have changed for sure in the way I think about the show, in the way I prepare for
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the show. Um, I will say there's a lot more intentionality, I think, behind when I bring people on.
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But what have I learned? What have I learned? Well, hopefully I've learned to make
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people a little more comfortable when they come on the show in in being able to share their story. That's what this
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is meant to be. And I want this podcast more than anything to be a safe space to come and
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to tell an audience to tell other homeschoolers, other exhomies who you are, what your life has been like, how
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things have shifted, how they've changed, right? And you know, from my perspective, that
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means asking certain questions, right? And being able to go down and navigate certain
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paths. I think a lot about when I was a kid, I was heavily involved in church and testimony is a big part of church
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and I remember there always being people who would tell these stories, crazy stories of like, you know, I was a
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heroin addict for, you know, a decade of my life and then I got clean and I turned to Jesus, right? And I would have
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there would be other people who were like, you know, I did this thing and I was involved in gang, you know,
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whatever. And like, and then I met Jesus and he saved me and like these insane stories, right? And they kind of
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feel like like when you're someone like me who just had a normal life, right? I
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had two parents. I grew up in a household. Like I, you know, I went to church every Sunday, went I had school,
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whatever. like my life didn't seem that crazy. And so it was definitely hard to
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want to share my story because I just didn't feel like it meant anything to anybody. Just was like nothing. It
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didn't I don't know. But the more that I've talked about the things I've been
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through and the more I've started to ask you guys the things that you've been
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through and we we talk about it, even the most mundane stuff can be impactful, right? Our stories have purpose. Our
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stories have meaning. You know, our lives have purpose. They they have meaning to them. And just because
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maybe my story doesn't hit with somebody, it doesn't mean it's not going
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to hit with the next person, right? It we find commonality. Um, and that's what has
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built this community hopefully. I hope so at least. But I've really learned that I I I firmly believe that no story
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is too boring to share and that we each have a unique voice. We each have a unique story and I want this to be a
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place that we can share those things. So that being said, I'm going to keep it
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short. We're at like 11 minutes right now. It's going to be a really short
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episode. But that being said, if you've got a story that you want to share, I
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want to hear it. I want to I want to have you on the show. I want you to share it with my friends, this audience,
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right? I want this to be a place that can be safe for anybody and everybody. And that's
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why, you know, sometimes when I ask questions and I have certain people on, conversations go a certain direction, we
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talk about certain things and maybe I don't push back or I don't make my side
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of the story quite as known. It's because that's not always the purpose.
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The purpose is to let people tell you who they are. Um, and like I said, I think we find
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commonality, we find family, we find connection inside of that. So, like I said, you want to come on, you got a
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story you want to share, let me know, okay? Shoot me an email, [email protected]. I want to hear from
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you. I really do. Or if you don't have email, I don't know why you wouldn't
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have email, but if you don't have email or whatever, you can hit me up in the
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DMs, exhub on Instagram, threads, Tik Tok. Um, I'm trying to think where else
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it is. I think those are the main three social platforms, but you can find me. Um, you know, drop it in the, you know,
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review section of the podcast. I don't or the, you know, comment section of this video, wherever you're at. you
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know, put a little thing, shoot me a little message. Uh, I'll do my best to to get back to you. And all that being
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said, I would appreciate if you would also go subscribe to my newsletter. Uh, it's kind of a new thing. I got got some
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passion behind it, but I'm trying to once a week, but for sure every other week, shoot out a little newsletter with
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updates. you know what what episodes aired in the week, the last week or two. Maybe the books I'm reading, maybe the
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movies I'm watching, maybe the music I'm listening to, the podcasts I'm listening
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to. I don't know. It's still getting built out. But if you want me in your
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inbox, that'd be awesome. The first link below is going to be that. So, I don't
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know what else to say. Uh, if you're an exhomie, if you're an ex homeschooler,
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or you identify as an ex-h homeschooler, awesome. Welcome to the club. With that being said, I think I'm
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going to wrap things up. I know this has been super short. I appreciate you guys
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and uh until next week. We'll see you. All right. Peace. [Music] [Music]