How the War on Christmas lost me

I used to wear one of those little buttons that the American Family Association (AFA) distributes every year, the ones that say something like “Keep Christ in Christmas” or “Jesus is the Reason for the Season.” Little old ladies greeting customers at Sam’s Club in Colorado Springs wore them, too. Back in high school andContinueContinue reading “How the War on Christmas lost me”

The darkest days of the year and the dark night of the soul

You know people who talk about the dark night of the soul? Yeah, that. It doesn’t just exist in fiction. I try not to complain. I’m naturally an optimist. But 2015 has been an incredibly difficult year. I’ve lost several people, not to death, but to change. I don’t know which is harder, honestly. IContinueContinue reading “The darkest days of the year and the dark night of the soul”

Philosophy and the Box: Thoughts at 3 a.m.

My friend Sam wrote this in her journal earlier this year. Like most college students, we both have existential epiphanies at 3 am during midterms. I talk about the Box a lot. It’s my term for fundamentalism and growing up homeschooled and isolated. My early school years were all in a converted storage closet withContinueContinue reading “Philosophy and the Box: Thoughts at 3 a.m.”

Isn’t this why we don’t send our homeschooled kids to public school?

I was four years old. We were visiting my dad’s childhood home in New York, and we went to the house of an elderly lady who used to be his neighbor. She had a caretaker, a single mom homeschooling her son, who was around my age. My favorite TV show was Barney the Dinosaur, myContinueContinue reading “Isn’t this why we don’t send our homeschooled kids to public school?”

How ‘The Village’ illustrates isolated, fear-based homeschooling

I grew up in the Village. The first time I watched M. Night Shyamalan’s 2004 film, my head hurt and one of my roommates asked me if I was okay. I didn’t have words. Sometimes I find those books, those films that resonate so strongly with my own experience, that the bittersweet rush of knowingContinueContinue reading “How ‘The Village’ illustrates isolated, fear-based homeschooling”