00:00:00
Where the heck have I been? Is the show
00:00:01
canceled? And did Jacob finally lose his
00:00:04
mind? Uh all these questions and more
00:00:07
going to be answered on this special
00:00:08
edition of the X Homescholars Club.
00:00:15
What is good my X Homies? It's your boy
00:00:17
Jacob Cogan and uh
00:00:19
if you hadn't noticed, the show's been
00:00:21
pretty silent for the last almost 2
00:00:23
months. Um
00:00:25
and there's good reason for that.
00:00:27
But I'm going to tell you why. Um
00:00:30
So, this episode
00:00:32
a little bit different than usual. Uh
00:00:34
it's going to be a little life update.
00:00:35
We're going to do a show update as well
00:00:37
as some special announcement type stuff.
00:00:40
And so,
00:00:41
let's just start with the life stuff um
00:00:43
because that's really the catalyst for
00:00:46
why I haven't been around.
00:00:48
So, at the end of March um I got a phone
00:00:50
call that nobody ever really wants to
00:00:52
get. Um and that was that my grandfather
00:00:56
uh we call him Poppy
00:00:58
uh
00:00:58
was in the hospital with some heart
00:01:01
stuff. And
00:01:03
you never want to hear that somebody's
00:01:04
in the hospital. It's just never
00:01:06
great news. But this was not
00:01:08
this was really not great news. And um
00:01:11
things were very complicated. Um and so,
00:01:14
for about a week, things would kind of
00:01:15
flop between there being hope for his
00:01:19
recovery to it being very dire. Um he
00:01:23
was sick with some other stuff in there
00:01:25
as well. And so, it just was this very
00:01:27
complicated
00:01:28
um thing. And uh if you don't know, I
00:01:32
don't live near my granddad. Um he lives
00:01:35
in California. I live in Tennessee.
00:01:37
Not the most convenient to just hop in a
00:01:39
car um and drive all that way or even
00:01:42
hop on a plane
00:01:43
um because it's expensive and uh
00:01:46
time-consuming. And so, anyway, so for
00:01:48
about a week,
00:01:50
I just kind of existed in this very
00:01:53
question mark of what is going on in my
00:01:55
life
00:01:56
um and had to somewhat operate as if
00:01:59
life was normal even though it very much
00:02:01
was not and it was not in my head. So, I
00:02:03
had decided I'm not going to put the
00:02:05
show out that week.
00:02:07
And cuz it was just too much to handle.
00:02:10
And
00:02:11
uh, later on that week I got a another
00:02:14
phone call um,
00:02:15
very early in the morning that he passed
00:02:18
away.
00:02:19
And he went peacefully and leading up to
00:02:22
him dying
00:02:24
he got to spend time with his kids. He
00:02:25
got to spend time with uh, his siblings
00:02:28
and um,
00:02:30
us grandkids, we didn't get to go see
00:02:32
him, but we got to send him messages
00:02:34
um, of love and and
00:02:37
remembering
00:02:38
um,
00:02:39
the good the good stuff.
00:02:41
And um, and that's why we didn't get to
00:02:43
go see him either was he didn't want us
00:02:45
to see him be sick. He wanted us to
00:02:47
remember him
00:02:48
healthier and
00:02:50
just who he was. The normal the normal
00:02:53
Poppy. Um,
00:02:55
and so anyway,
00:02:57
um,
00:02:58
but
00:02:59
like every death uh, it's typically
00:03:01
followed by a funeral and so
00:03:03
um,
00:03:04
so I ended up going out to California
00:03:06
and was there for most of April. Um, I
00:03:09
actually just I flew out on the 1st and
00:03:12
I didn't get home until the 20th. And so
00:03:15
um,
00:03:16
just a lot of time spent with family
00:03:19
doing funeral stuff
00:03:21
uh, helping clean out his house
00:03:23
dealing with with things um,
00:03:27
doing a lot of like remembrance type
00:03:29
stuff and
00:03:30
just spending time with family honestly
00:03:32
because even though
00:03:35
that those times are like very sad,
00:03:38
right? Because you just lost a loved
00:03:40
one, there's also
00:03:42
I think sometimes some joy that can be
00:03:44
found in there, right? Remembering their
00:03:46
life and the funny moments and the
00:03:49
stupid moments and the the games and the
00:03:52
adventures and the life lessons and all
00:03:54
those types of things. So,
00:03:57
we did a lot of that and um
00:04:00
which is good. It's
00:04:02
you know, it's healing.
00:04:04
Um
00:04:05
and then came home and
00:04:09
it grief really hit. This has
00:04:13
been a very interesting
00:04:15
um
00:04:17
experience
00:04:19
um
00:04:20
with grief. Uh I've lost all four of my
00:04:23
grandparents now and I lost my first
00:04:26
grandparent when I was 17
00:04:28
um and I'm 29 now. Uh
00:04:32
each one hits so vastly different um
00:04:35
from a grief perspective and I can't
00:04:38
even like
00:04:39
begin to describe uh the emotions
00:04:42
surrounding it. And if you've lost loved
00:04:44
ones, you probably know what I'm talking
00:04:46
about how it's different
00:04:48
uh every single time.
00:04:51
This is both the most emotionally
00:04:53
healthy I felt um losing a grandparent
00:04:55
and also like
00:04:57
the worst experience because I'm just
00:05:00
insanely emotional uh around everything
00:05:04
now. So, if you can't tell by me
00:05:07
describing this, it's a little bit
00:05:09
touchy still and overwhelming. Um
00:05:13
and it's just been tough. And so, the
00:05:14
whole month of April
00:05:16
basically became a wash um and I decided
00:05:19
I'm just going to put the show on pause.
00:05:22
I kept telling myself, you need to like
00:05:23
make an announcement. You need to you
00:05:25
know, tell people and I just was like I
00:05:27
couldn't even do that. Um
00:05:30
And so, um yeah. So, April was basically
00:05:34
a wash um
00:05:36
for both good and bad reasons.
00:05:38
Um
00:05:39
But where does that put us today? Is the
00:05:41
show canceled? No, absolutely not. Uh
00:05:43
we're not going anywhere.
00:05:45
Um in fact,
00:05:47
very much the opposite. The show has
00:05:49
been doing incredible things even while
00:05:52
we've been on break and just seeing uh
00:05:56
numbers continue like go up and I know
00:05:59
not everything is numbers, but it is
00:06:00
nice to know that people are listening
00:06:02
um to back catalog stuff and um I've
00:06:06
received messages and people wanting to
00:06:08
be on the show and opportunities and the
00:06:10
and things that I am just very excited
00:06:12
for uh the future of where the show is
00:06:15
going. So,
00:06:16
that being said, when is it actually
00:06:17
coming back? Well, it's coming back this
00:06:18
Friday. Um, I've got an interview with
00:06:22
RB. If you guys don't remember RB, he
00:06:24
was on previously. He's back. We're
00:06:26
going to talk about some very cool
00:06:28
things, but I'll let you find out on
00:06:29
Friday uh all of those things. So,
00:06:33
So, we're back. We're coming back. Um,
00:06:35
and not only are we coming back, but I'm
00:06:38
also going to try to put out an episode
00:06:40
every week in the month of May and get
00:06:42
back on a weekly schedule. Uh
00:06:46
because I've got just a nice back
00:06:48
catalog right now of people and I got a
00:06:50
nice plethora of guests coming on. And
00:06:53
so,
00:06:54
there's that. We are headed in a good
00:06:56
direction, I guess, is what I'm trying
00:06:58
to say with the show. So, in addition to
00:07:00
the show coming back, I've also got some
00:07:02
special announcements. The first one
00:07:04
being something that's actually
00:07:05
happening this week, specifically on
00:07:08
April 30th. And um that is that April
00:07:11
30th is day of the homeschool kid, the
00:07:14
homeschool child. And um
00:07:16
did you know that? I didn't know that
00:07:18
until
00:07:19
last month uh
00:07:21
sometime, but the Coalition for
00:07:23
Responsible Home uh Education is putting
00:07:26
on a great conversation with um Steven
00:07:29
Merrill Block. And if you're not
00:07:31
familiar with Steven, um he just wrote a
00:07:33
book called Homeschooled. If you haven't
00:07:36
read this, it's a great book. Um I
00:07:38
actually would love to reread it with
00:07:40
maybe some of you. More on that in a
00:07:42
minute.
00:07:43
Um
00:07:44
but yeah, he's going to be talking about
00:07:46
his homeschool experience. He's going to
00:07:47
talk about what the coalition does. It's
00:07:50
just going to be a really cool time. So,
00:07:52
that's happening on Thursday at 2:00
00:07:55
Eastern time. I'm going to put a link
00:07:57
down in the description um of how you
00:07:59
can sign up to attend um or you can just
00:08:02
go to crhe.org
00:08:04
{dot} org uh /dothc
00:08:08
day of the homeschooled child. Um again,
00:08:12
that's crhe.org
00:08:15
/dothc.
00:08:17
I know, a lot of letters. It's going to
00:08:19
be linked down below as well, but go get
00:08:21
on that list. They'll send you an
00:08:22
update. Get on their newsletter list,
00:08:24
too. If you're not familiar with the
00:08:25
Coalition for Responsible Home
00:08:26
Education, specifically a lot of what
00:08:28
they do is work with homeschool alumni
00:08:31
to help kind of shape uh
00:08:33
some of the direction that uh
00:08:36
legislation can can take to to help
00:08:38
homeschool kids down the line um and
00:08:40
protect homeschool kids. So, it's a lot
00:08:42
about giving homeschool kids rights um
00:08:45
and access to things and stuff like
00:08:47
that. So, very cool organization. She's
00:08:48
going to come back on at some point.
00:08:50
We've got potentially some other stuff
00:08:52
in the works with them, as well. But,
00:08:53
very cool organization. Again, go sign
00:08:55
up. Day of the Homeschool Kid. It's
00:08:57
going to be a lot of fun. Um you can ask
00:08:59
Stephen questions um as well as hear
00:09:02
more about his story and hopefully he'll
00:09:04
come on the show at some point. I would
00:09:06
love to have him on. So, here's a little
00:09:08
plug for that. Um
00:09:10
second special announcement, also kind
00:09:12
of just like an ask in general, is that
00:09:14
I want to do a
00:09:16
ex-homeschooler happy hour type of thing
00:09:19
and I want to hang out with a bunch of
00:09:21
you guys all at the same time.
00:09:23
Play games, be stupid, tell stories,
00:09:26
that kind of a thing. And so, I'm going
00:09:27
to post more about that on Instagram um
00:09:30
and get kind of some feedback on
00:09:32
potential days we could do it, as well
00:09:34
as like maybe things you guys would want
00:09:35
to do. but I'm thinking
00:09:37
play some games, maybe like bingo,
00:09:40
trivia, I I don't really know.
00:09:43
Um but hang out, have some conversation
00:09:45
around our home school experiences and
00:09:47
and how that shaped us maybe. And so,
00:09:50
anyway, so if you're interested in that,
00:09:51
let me know. Um I'm thinking somewhere
00:09:54
between May 11th and the 24th. I know
00:09:56
that's a big wide window, but if you are
00:09:59
interested in that and have some
00:10:00
feedback or something, you can drop a
00:10:02
comment down below or shoot me an email
00:10:04
00:10:06
And yeah, would love to like hear your
00:10:09
thoughts on it. But uh I'm also going to
00:10:10
be posting more about it, I think, on
00:10:12
Instagram, trying to pull you guys a
00:10:14
little bit and figure out some some good
00:10:16
info, hopefully. So, there's that.
00:10:19
Additionally, I kind of had mentioned
00:10:22
book club. I know in the past I had
00:10:24
brought up doing a book club and reading
00:10:26
a different book, and then I just
00:10:27
totally dropped the ball. It's something
00:10:29
I would like to do again, and I would
00:10:31
like to read Homeschooled, um Stuff and
00:10:33
Stuff's book. And I have read this
00:10:35
already, um but I would I would like to
00:10:38
reread it and maybe do some discussion
00:10:40
on it. And so, if that's something
00:10:41
you're interested in, also
00:10:44
leave a comment down below, send me an
00:10:46
email [email protected].
00:10:49
I'm thinking start it sometime in May,
00:10:52
mid-May, maybe around the 15th-ish,
00:10:55
maybe just call it right there, smack
00:10:56
dab in the middle. Um and so, I'm
00:10:58
currently working
00:11:00
on figuring out what that would look
00:11:02
like and then do some discussion around
00:11:04
that as well. And so, anyway, so if
00:11:07
you're interested in that and haven't
00:11:08
picked up this book,
00:11:09
gives you about 2 weeks to like grab a
00:11:11
copy, and gives me 2 weeks to figure out
00:11:15
how we split that up. Um
00:11:18
so yeah.
00:11:19
If that's something you're interested
00:11:20
in, shoot me an email, a DM, comment
00:11:22
down below, any of that kind of stuff.
00:11:25
Um next up,
00:11:27
I've gotten a lot of requests um for
00:11:29
guesting on the show. And so, if you
00:11:32
want to be a guest,
00:11:33
I want to talk about it. Uh
00:11:35
you can shoot me an email,
00:11:36
00:11:39
Uh how many times can I say that in this
00:11:41
in this uh episode? Um but, shoot me an
00:11:44
email. Let me know a little bit about
00:11:46
yourself, like just like a paragraph or
00:11:48
two about your homeschool experience.
00:11:51
Um
00:11:52
And maybe some topics you would be
00:11:54
interested in. If there's something
00:11:55
specific you've either heard on the show
00:11:57
that you want to expand on, something
00:11:58
you haven't heard on the show that you
00:12:00
would like to talk about. Um
00:12:02
specifically things that like I've been
00:12:04
very interested in lately, um aside from
00:12:07
just like hearing your experiences, is
00:12:09
talking about the role that religion has
00:12:11
played in homeschooling. Um I'm
00:12:13
interested in obviously talk about if
00:12:15
you have something like ADHD, if you're
00:12:18
autistic, um and maybe you got diagnosed
00:12:20
later in life, or if you got diagnosed
00:12:22
when you were a homeschool kid, or just
00:12:24
as a kid in general, um how that's kind
00:12:26
of shaped into your homeschool
00:12:28
experience, or you know, made you think
00:12:30
about those things.
00:12:32
Um
00:12:33
Obviously, we talk about big homeschool
00:12:35
family versus small homeschool family.
00:12:37
I'm one of two kids. Um so, small
00:12:40
homeschool family over here. Um I very
00:12:43
much I'm interested in that dynamic
00:12:45
along the religion aspect, like purity
00:12:47
culture played a huge role for me.
00:12:50
Um and just like unpacking the good, the
00:12:53
bad, and the ugly. Um right? We don't
00:12:55
necessarily want to just do If your
00:12:57
experience was bad, like that's okay. Um
00:13:00
I still believe that there's always good
00:13:02
things that can be pulled out of those
00:13:04
experiences. And so, hopefully, if you
00:13:07
want to come on the show and you want to
00:13:08
have a conversation, like I hope that
00:13:09
you can like view it the same way of
00:13:11
just like there are good things that we
00:13:13
can talk about mixed in with the bad and
00:13:16
the ugly. Um
00:13:17
it's about providing commentary around
00:13:19
homeschooling
00:13:21
and what the experience really was like,
00:13:22
right? And so, if it's all bad, it's all
00:13:24
bad. That's okay. Um if it's all good,
00:13:27
it's all good.
00:13:29
That's okay.
00:13:30
So, if you've got a story and you want
00:13:32
to share it, shoot me an email. Again,
00:13:34
00:13:36
I think that's the sixth time I've said
00:13:37
it now.
00:13:38
Um,
00:13:39
but yeah, what you can kind of expect
00:13:41
like following that email would be a
00:13:43
request to do like pre-interview call
00:13:45
with me. Typically, they're 30 minutes.
00:13:48
Sometimes they go up to an hour long if
00:13:49
we really
00:13:51
hit it off. Um, and it's just a chance
00:13:53
to like for me to kind of like further
00:13:55
vet you, get to know you a little bit,
00:13:57
um, and figure out
00:14:00
kind of what a show would look like. Um,
00:14:02
and also ease your mind if you're at all
00:14:04
nervous about coming on the show.
00:14:06
Um,
00:14:07
you know, I can answer questions around
00:14:09
those types of things. Um, what is kind
00:14:11
of like required of you? One, the
00:14:14
ability to share your story. Um,
00:14:16
but secondly, you need to be able to
00:14:18
record audio and video.
00:14:20
Um, if you've got a microphone, awesome.
00:14:22
If not, that's okay. We can work around
00:14:24
that. Um, and typically, it's best to be
00:14:27
able to record on a computer if you've
00:14:28
got it. Um, I have done stuff on phones
00:14:31
and iPads and things like that, but it
00:14:33
does change the dynamic. So,
00:14:35
you know, um, keep that in mind as well
00:14:38
if you want to do this. Like, it's best
00:14:40
if you've got like a laptop or a
00:14:41
computer with a webcam
00:14:43
and some kind of audio device, even just
00:14:45
headphones.
00:14:46
Um,
00:14:47
is is helpful. And so, um, yeah.
00:14:50
And then, last thing I want to touch on
00:14:52
is the newsletter, right? Um, I'm going
00:14:55
to put a link on the screen, also down
00:14:58
in the description below if you want to
00:14:59
get on the email newsletter.
00:15:01
I send it out basically whenever an
00:15:04
episode comes out. Um,
00:15:07
I know I was kind of doing every 2 weeks
00:15:09
uh, an episode comes out and then kind
00:15:10
of fill in the gaps with some other
00:15:12
stuff. We'll see. The newsletter might
00:15:13
be shifting a little bit, but it
00:15:15
typically comes out between one one time
00:15:17
a week to uh, every 2 weeks. And it's
00:15:21
just kind of updates like episodes that
00:15:23
came out, resources I found,
00:15:26
books I'm reading.
00:15:29
Who knows? There's been other stuff that
00:15:30
feeds in there as well.
00:15:32
Um, in addition to that, I'm also like
00:15:34
trying very hard to build a website on
00:15:37
the back of it uh where all of those
00:15:39
posts as well as like
00:15:41
stuff about books I read, resources,
00:15:45
that kind of thing is going to live as
00:15:46
well. And so, all that going to be
00:15:48
linked down below.
00:15:50
Um, and I would love for you to like get
00:15:52
on there. That's going to be ultimately
00:15:54
the best way to like stay connected with
00:15:56
the show would be through through email
00:15:59
um the email newsletter itself. So,
00:16:02
all that being said,
00:16:04
I'm okay.
00:16:06
Life sucks sometimes.
00:16:07
Uh, the show is coming back, which is a
00:16:09
great thing and um
00:16:12
I'm looking forward to seeing you guys
00:16:13
on Friday. Okay. I'm going to go.
00:16:17
I'll see you later. Peace.
