BEFORE I WRITE ANYTHING--OBAMA WON! I'm so pumped up right now, you have no idea. It's pretty entertaining to watch the conservatives grovel in their misery. No offense, I'm just sick of doing that myself.

Goodbye Bush. Goodbye warmongers. Goodbye conservatives. Goodbye horrible oratory. For the first time in 8 years, we get some fresh air. I am so glad McSame did NOT get into office. This is going to be a GREAT four years.

The whole thing actually caught me kind of off guard, I was expecting to know around 10pm, and then at 7 it was like BAM, CNN declares Obama the winner, and then Fox right after that. I was kind of stunned, even though I've said he'll win from the beggining. It's so awesome though. I'm really, really excited.

ANYWAY-other than that, Regions was this last weekend. That was really awesome. I did a 1:04.3 on my 100 fly which is 4 seconds better than my top time. And then a 107.3 on my 100 back which is 2 seconds faster than my top time. And to top it all off... the guys team WON. For the first time in the history of WHS, we won Regions. People were freaking out, crying, etc. It was a really cool moment. This next year I'm going to train long and hard, because it's going to be Jeff, Christian, me, and Dylan on the relays. And if we want a chance at winning again I'm going to have to get pretty serious for a while. Next year it is possible for us to win, and that would be pretty cool. Especially since my senior year is going to fail pretty hardcore.

Some highlights over the weekend: We're in the locker room, and this douche from Kodiak is smacking Pavle's ass and saying "Yeeeaaah Pavle, yeeeaaaaah" and a really stupid voice, so after a while Pavle looks him straight in the face and says (completely straight faced and serious) "You stop that now.". Everyone just kind of stopped what they were doing expecting him kill the kid. It was pretty funny.

And then Christian, after Wasilla stomped Kodiak in one of the relays, mimick's the guys annoying "yeeaaaah" and yells it right in his face. It was funny, but pretty bad. I'm surprised the officials didn't do anything about it.

That's the summary of regions.

The past few days I've also been volunteering with the Alaskan Democratic campaign for Begich/Berkowitz/Obama. Lots and lots of phone calls, and canvassing a couple times. It's been fun, but it's pretty disappointing because the main focus of that is obviously Begich/Berkowitz, and they're both currently behind. Begich and Stevens are really close though, so it could definitely turn in his favor. Hopefully. I've also met and talked to some really cool people over the last few days, that's a really plus factor to doing things like this. One older lady I talked to on the phone was so enthusiastic that when I told her I was calling to remind her to vote, she told me she would call me to remind me to vote, for Barack. And that she was going to pray that God would let her wake up so she could go vote the next day. Haha. Coolest old lady ever.

Good times, good times.

Haven't been on here in a while... comments to respond to.

ANYWAY.

I turn 16 tomorrow (today, technically). What?! Been counting down for two years, and then BAM. Crept up and smacked me in the face. Damn. I haven't planned anything either, except for going to Anchorage during the day. Guess I'll figure that out tomorrow, haha.

Today was pretty cool though. Washed cars for 3 hours, came home, chilled out, Sara came over, went to Pandemonium, Dylan left his lights on=dead car, had to jumpstart it, went to Carrs, Dylan and Jake went home, me+sara+hope+pat went to blockbuster and got candy, Debbie picked us up, stalled for 40 minutes to wait until midnight so we could celebrate my birthday=went to Wal-Mart, met up with Aja, played guitar hero, left wal-mart and proceeded to drive around town blasting the Hampsterdance, then went home.

Pretty awesome man. Now I'll just have to see what happens tomorrow.

(I thought I already posted here... did it get erased? Anyway, this was written on the 30th)

Alright. This is a slightly random story. To prefix this, iJustine is a mildy famous youtuber, and prominent on a lot of other networking sites.

http://www.youtube.com/ijustine
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justine_Ezarik

And she definitely doesn't live in Alaska. So last night me and Alex were walking around the fair, and I see these two girls in front of us. From the back, one of them kind of looks like iJustine. So in my head I'm like "haha, it's iJustine". But I figured I'd see who it actually was, just so I wouldn't be wondering later. I walked a head slightly so I could get a look at her face, and then it went a little something like this...

Me: "That IS iJustine!"

Alex: "Who the hell is iJustine?"

Me: "Shut up! Walk!"

*stalking ensues*

Me: *slightly worked up*

Alex: "Dude. I feel like a stalker. Are you going to talk to her or are we just going to be creepy?"

Me: "SHUT THE HELL UP!"

among lots of other hilarious dialogue...

And then after a while I yelled "iJustine!" and she turned around and called me over, and I talked to her for a little bit and got my picture. It was pretty cool, made my day. But I guess the reason she's up here is for an AT&T commercial, which is really random.

I think about ten minutes before that happened I was pissed off because I brought my camera and had to carry it around.

Epic.

That's all I really have to say.

During swimming today someone got into the locker room with bolt cutters, and fucking cut 5 people's locks and took their stuff. My wallet included. One lock was only half cut, so that's how we know.

I'm so pissed.

I just thought this was funny, because so many Christians say "that's a sin!", and they don't even realize how many "sins" they're committing as well. Good come-back material. Anyway, again, found this on yahoo answers:

Is it a sin to eat crab, shrimp, and lobster?

"The person who sins breaks God's law. Yes, sin is living against God's law." (1 John 3:4 NCV)

"'Of the animals that live in the sea or in a river, if the animal has fins and scales, you may eat it. But whatever lives in the sea or in a river and does not have fins and scales -- including the things that fill the water and all other things that live in it -- you should hate. You must not eat any meat from them or even touch their dead bodies, because you should hate them. You must hate any animal in the water that does not have fins and scales." (Leviticus 11:9-12 NCV)

I would say yes.

I also find it funny that Christians claim the laws pertaining to food were only for the Jews. Here is the first time food laws are given.

"Everything that moves, everything that is alive, is yours for food. Earlier I gave you the green plants, but now I give you everything for food. But you must not eat meat that still has blood in it, because blood gives life." (Genesis 9:3-4 NCV)

I have to ask, how may Jews were alive when Noah came off the ark? None, and that means this law had to be for everyone, not just Jews. In verse eight and nine, God says, "Then God said to Noah and his sons, "Now I am making my agreement with you and your people who will live after you." (Genesis 9:8-9 NCV) We are all descended from Noah, so this must be for all of us. But how many "Christians" go to Burger King or Wendy's and order a burger that was cooked with the blood still in it? It just shows how little many "Christians" read the Bible.

posted by dee

I put a copyright notice at the top of my blog, just as a precaution.

Thanks for the suggestion Aunt Ren.

This is my essay, edited/refined. There's still a few minor errors in this one mostly due to the layout of the whole thing, because I slightly messed that up when I first wrote it, but it's alright. I didn't want to completely maul it because it WAS the original. I just added/perfected a few things, fixed the grammar, etc.  Anyway, here it is:

All my life I have Unschooled. The only thing that could be remotely considered school [that I have attended] was pre-school. Of course, that's all fun and games. But that was just life, how things were. Regardless of how good life was, I always wondered in the back of my head what it was like to be in a school building all day. Is it really horrible? Do you sit there for hours on end being lectured by crazy teachers and doing hours of homework? Or is it fun, with lots of cool people, and what you really should be doing with your life?  Somewhere in between these thoughts and the influence of my public schooled friends, I got worried about "catching up", and being on par with the rest of society. For a while, around age twelve, I always wanted to be on-track with the kids at school. It was probably because I felt less intelligent than them, which really wasn't the case. They just knew more meaningless facts than I did. They knew more of what our SOCIETY deems as "common smarts". It took me until last year to fully understand that, and to truly understand the joys, and philosophy of Unschooling. The facts that make it so much better than public school, the key to genuine learning.

For as long as I can remember, the only friends that I have had went to public school. And if not, they were usually strict homeschoolers. The only true "Unschooling friends" have been my cousins, who live over 4,000 miles away. So in a sense, I've grown up with hybrid thinking. One side struggling to decide if public school is bad/good, and then one side completely supporting Unschooling. My parents have always told me the reasons why public school is not ideal (to say the least), (Not only that, but I've heard my Mom debate it numerous times.) but of course I couldn't understand it like they did. I hadn't had the same life experience as them. So inside, I just continually battled with myself. It was slightly bipolar, because I wouldn't care for a long time and then suddenly I'd have a small panic attack and decide I needed to catch up.

In my mind I always had horrible writing abilities. I had bad hand writing (still do!), and really the only people that ever read my writing were my parents, or close friends. Which didn't really help a lot because most of my close friends are really good writers as well, and my parents are my parents, you know? I guess because I had never been to school, I felt slightly inferior and probably had bad self esteem. It took me until I was fourteen to finally decide I needed to see into this unknown world, so I could figure everything out. Why is public school widely considered a necessity? Why do my parents and Unschoolers everywhere say it's so wrong? And why is Unschooling so much better? Can I REALLY survive 21st century America without it? I got all of my answers.

I would be lying if I said I went for one hundred percent personal reasons. I had one friend in particular who was pro-school completely and thought I was wasting my life. In a way, I wanted to prove to her that I could do it, and then be a reliable resource to say if School is bullshit or not. To be honest, up until I started writing this I forgot about that completely. I kind of kept the fact that this whole thing was an experiment in the back of my mind. I mean, while in school it does feel nice to be "normal". But is it best? For the sake of writing this I'm going to skip through the school year, and spare you the details of explaining the entire nine months. School was most of what I expected. Well, the whole face of it was anyway. It wasn't as close to as horrible as my parents said it was, the days went by fast most of the time, it wasn't intensely boring, and I got to see my friends. However, I noticed how little socialization time there is. I'd expected a lot more, because everybody always says "I get to hang out with my friends!!". Definitely not my definition of "hanging out", as it goes. It seemed like a stupid reason to want to be there.

After a few weeks of School, I quickly started to realize who I am. I wasn't stupid. Not even close. If anyone was stupid, it was the other ninety percent of the kids there. (I'll get into that later.) Everybody loved my writing, my Honors English teacher included. I did great in every class, despite NEVER having formal lessons. And that's when I realized the irony. The kid that an average adult would deem to be stupid due to "lack of education", is doing better [at the School game] than most of the students in the entire building. It's just funny how much weight is put on something so ridiculous. If I can get good grades without ever being "taught" something, SO CAN EVERY OTHER KID OUT THERE. They mean nothing, SCHOOL means nothing.

My favorite classes were Jazz choir, Japanese, and my English class. I looked forward to those every day. Though, something I really began to hate about the school day was waking up at 6:30, staying there for six hours, then swimming for another 2, before going home to do meaningless homework. A waste of life, time, and energy. If I had it my way, I would be there for 3 classes and swimming. So towards the end of the first semester I got pretty lazy, and ended with a 3.3 GPA. Still, better than most kids, but not MY best. If I was going to be at school all day long, for nine months, I was definitely going to prove to those damn school nazis that [on the Schooling scale] I am not any less intelligent than anybody else. Second semester I ended with a 3.8. Throughout the whole year I couldn't stand the fact that I was surrounded by unmotivated, stupid (Not the academic way, but the in the general manner they acted.) people. Another trend I noticed was "can't". EVERYBODY uses that one. The whole nine months all in all were good for me, negatives and positives. I learned that in Unschooling, you can learn MORE than most public schooled kids do. I learned that the things my parents have told are not complete heresy. I experienced something that I had never done before, the mystery was gone. And best of all, I can now defend the Unschooling philosophy without any doubt in my mind, while being credible in my accusations against the system. And I also learned the reason most kids there are unmotivated, immature/annoying/whatever. Most of it is due to loss of motivation.

I finally came to the realization that if I had to endure that shit for nine years, I probably wouldn't be the person I am today. Friends have told me: "you would have been a complete honors student!". I say no, I would've have been a lazy ass bum that wanted nothing more than a couch and TV in life. (Which, I might add I learned a lot from TV. But you get my point. ;P) The thing that has made me a responsible, smart, and motivated human being, IS due to my Unschooled life. And as stupid, annoying, unmotivated, whatever most of the public school kids are, you really can't blame them. There are some other people that can relate to me, a select few in School that get annoyed with the same stuff I do; but they don't completely understand either. You never really can, unless you have lived a free life. (Also, as a tidbit, I noticed that my friends were coincidentally some of the lesser annoying people in the building. Friends I made BEFORE School.) Some personalities are strong and can endure twelve years of School plus College, most cannot. Between teachers telling them they're not good enough, and wasting years of their life on something that doesn't really matter, they get fried. Most of the time it goes unnoticed too, you just kind of evaporate. I started to feel the same thing happening to me in just those short nine months. Every thought you have, dream you want to fulfill, inspiration that strikes you, it all goes on the back burner, and eventually you just forget how to live any other way altogether.

Would I recommend sending a kid to school their entire life? Absolutely not. It's much too easy to lose your way, too easy to become just another drone without that spark, dreaming of "success" and money. One thing I would advise though is to find fellow Unschoolers, because support is important. I'm a perfect example. Would I recommend a current Unschooler attend school? If it's going to do them good as it did me, sure. If they want to see what it's like, sure. Otherwise, it's going to be a shit hole. Plain and simple. It would be beneficial for everyone to see what it's like, but not everyone can go through it with the same view point. So like everything else in our Unschooled lives, it's up to us to make that decision.

I can't say I had a bad experience though. Probably the opposite. Like I said before, I learned a lot about myself, and the philosophies I'm submerged in. But it's also great to feel like you're a part of something. There's this building full of 1200 kids that will be there right alongside you, people to relate to. Interesting, amazing people as well, some you might never meet otherwise. It's fun occasionally, and there ARE opportunities. And the classic, my friends are there. At this point, I think it would just be easier if I moved so I could break all of my attachments. As ridiculous, unneeded, and meaningless school is, parts of it tend to grow on you. So now here I am, the year I thought would never end completed, and I have to decide what I want to do for the remaining three years. Over the last few days I've really been reflecting about what I truly want. Is it to finish high school, deal with everything I don't like, and benefit from the things I do? Or stop and go straight to college, and focus on what I want to get out of life? That's something I'll be thinking about for a while.

(Questions came from my Mom's blog, here.)

Thanks to everyone who posted a comment! I was really surprised by how many people have read this/been influenced/helped/etc. It's crazy. I really didn't expect the attention at all. As it stands, the essay is being put in a book (the revised version, which I'm working on), and I'm being asked to speak at the Life is Good conference.

So what I did here is compile a few of the comments that needed more answering/explanation than the rest, and of course answered them. If I didn't post a response to your question, don't be offended, I enjoyed reading them all.

To answer a question that came up frequently, I don't mind if anyone wants to re-post this on their blog. It's all fine by me.

So! Here they are:

I loved reading this! It's great to hear stories from unschooled teenagers, especially as I start to think about the options for our little guy while he's still a toddler. I think back to my high school experience (the honors student who was a lazy ass bum and wanted nothing more than a couch, and who did just enough work to get that A because there was no motivation to do any more than the bare minimum) and I wish I could've been unschooled. Thankfully there is still time and I can live a free unschooling live now even as an adult. But sometimes I do wish I could get back all of those years wasted in school. I wonder how far I'd be and what I'd be doing if I hadn't spent so many years not living up to my potential because I was bored out of my mind in the school system.

That was definitely me after the first 4ish months of school. It got so repetitive and boring I just kind of stopped caring. I did the bare minimum, and just kind of did my thing in the classes I enjoyed. I guess that's what baffled me when kids failed etc. because the whole school system really isn't hard, it's just a big game. It's all about which assignments you need to turn in, what you can let slide, how much extra credit you need to miss certain days of school, the number of absences you can obtain before getting suspension, etc. If you play it, it's easy to get by. But that's when I started analyzing the fact that they've been there for 9 years and most of them just don't care at all. Understandable. It's definitely a waste of life for the most part.


Your blog post/essay was so great Kevin! I read it to my son Devin who is almost 10. He learned so much from hearing your perspective.

When I asked him if he thought he would want to check out school someday he said, "Nah. I'll take the word of that guy. He seems cool and I trust him."

Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts. Very profound and like nothing else I have ever read about the Unschooled life.

Haha it's fun to hear that, glad it's helped so many people. When I wrote it I wasn't expecting 50 comments and probably even more reads. It's crazy.


Kevin, thanks so much for sharing your experiences. My son J (14 this fall) and I read this together this morning and he remarked "Wow, he's describing my life!" He has been exploring his thoughts/feelings about trying high school and really appreciated your words.

It's definitely an experience. I learned a lot, and in my situation it's really helped in a lot of areas. As much as public school sucks, is pointless, etc. (don't need to explain the reasons to fellow unschoolers, haha) it is cool to see the other side of hill. And it kind of gives you that once in-a-lifetime insight. If I ever had a chance to take back that year, I wouldn't.


This is so timely for me to read -- to share it with our 13 year-old, who just said to me the other day that she was worried she wouldn't be smart enough for college because she didn't know as much as other kids.

I remember that worry vividly. It's always hard to trust people continually (in terms of unschooling parents reassuring children) even if you know they're a trustworthy source, because it seems like you have one shot, and if you take a wrong leap it might end bad. So I definitely know where she's coming from. I'm just glad what my parents told me ended up being true, haha.


Oh my gosh, Kevin.. You just wrote out all my thoughts!

I just turned 13 and, I've always been afraid that I won't make it to college, I'm not smart enough, I'll never be good at anything. And than my mom told me to read your blog and I'm blown away.
I'm sending this to all my unschooling friends. Now I know for sure. You made me realize just how lucky I am to be able to wake up at 9 am, instead of 6. ;) And most of all I realized I'm as smart as I believe I am. So.. all I can say is thank you!

And the photo in the beginning is amazing. Who took it?

Yeah, don't be worried at all. I know it seems exasperating at times, thinking about your future/life/etc. but you'll definitely be okay. You just have to pursue your passions, live life, and you're on the right track. I'm glad I could help. :)

And that picture was taken by my Mom I think, on the butte.


Might I ask your forgiveness before I post this additional comment? I just couldn't help but sigh when you were writing about writing...

"Everyone raved about my writing, my honors English teacher included. I did good in all my classes despite NEVER having a formal lesson in anything. That's when I realized that me, an unschooler, never been "taught" anything that these kids have, is doing better at the game than they are."

There are so few grammatical errors in your ENTIRE post except when you write about writing!! That is a great irony to me.

Yes! That was kind of an oversight on my part. I didn't expect it to get rushed by a ton of people, so I actually didn't edit it at all... I looked over it for spelling corrections and that's it. I just thought it would go on my Mom's blog (that's who asked me to write it) and then maybe a few friends would comment on it or whatever. But now I'm being asked to speak at the Life is Good conference and it's going in a book or something. After I revise and edit it of course. Crazy.


My son was unschooled for 5th through 9th grades, and decided to go to public school last year for 10th, because he was bored at home, and he also wanted to be around lots of other kids every day. He had some of the same complaints as you about school, but over-all, liked it enough to want to go back this year. (And got very good grades, FWIW.)

Now my daughter, age 15, who, until recently, swore she never wanted to go back to school (she was in public school through 3rd grade, and still complains about it to this day), wants to try it too! I read her your article just now. She has had the same worry you had, that she will seem "stupid" to other people because of not having learned all the same trivia that they have had to learn during their years in school. I hope that going to school will make her feel better about herself too. She knows she's free to quit and come back home whenever she wants.

Yeah, I definitely understand the boredom. One thing I do have to say about school, is it kind of forces you to get out there and do things, and there ARE a lot of options. Now, not saying that's a good thing, but for a busy body or someone with that personality it can be fun. It's one thing that's iffy for me, I like having a lot to do but at the same time I don't like the stress of it. Also, it is cool to have hundreds of different kinds of people, all of which you can become friends with at any point in time. It's opens you up to a wide variety of cultures/lifestyles/etc. And it can be really fun, from time to time. One thing I'm really going to miss is my English class. There was a lot of really cool people there, and it was one part of the day I always looked forward to. I guess you could say I got attached, hah.


Lately I have been feeling a huge push to find social outlets for Karl (5 years old now). It's soooo important! Even for homebodies which Karl is and shy people which Karl isn't. Kelly Lovejoy posted about bringing social life into your home by inviting others regularly, and Karl says YES resoundingly.

Yeah definitely. One thing I will say, from personal experience, it helps to have some unschooling friends as well. Because I know I never had that, aside from cousins, and it can be tough. It's equivalent to a public school kid being plunged into a room full of unschoolers, and becoming friends with them. He/she would feel awkward, not sure how to argue their schooling opinion if it came into conversation, etc. That's kind of how it is as an unschooler with public schooled friends. It's nice to have that anchor of familiarity that you can relate to.


Kev, Could have been an even better story, had you left out the stupid cuss words...I guess home schooling taught you that? Make you look stupid, if you ask me!

I just can't help myself. I have to add the fact, that if anybody is making anyone look stupid, it definitely has to be you. You come on to this blog post, meant to be just an insightful essay of my experiences, and all you can do is patronize me for using all of TWO cuss words. I don't see how that affects the "story" OR is wrong in any way shape or form.

For other reasons which have already been explained, see Ren's comment:

Wow, where to begin with this? None of the cuss words Kevin used were aimed at a person nor intended to hurt another human being. Saying something like "make you look stupid" is not only grammatically incorrect, but is intended to hurt and therefore a lot worse than any cuss word.

I would rather hear someone say "oh fuck" than to call someone STUPID. That makes you look pretty lame actually.

If you're actually interested in the origins of words, not many of today's cuss word even originated as a "bad word". It's all how we use it. Study some etymology sometime, it's pretty interesting stuff.

You can read about a myth on the word shit and some of the actual etymology here: http://www.etymonline.com/baloney.php

Rather than act in a demeaning manner, hiding behind some "anon" label, why don't you open your mind and learn something new? Even cuss words lead to learning.

But as an unschooler, Kevin already knows that.

Thanks.


Hi Kevin. I'm very envious of unschooled people. Wish I'd been one (though my family was pretty dysfunctional, so not sure how it would have been!) My kids love being unschooled. I'd be quite interested to see if they decide to check out the institutions some day, but hope very much that they don't abandon their own educations to them!

PS: anyone who felt they should mention grammar or cussing was being pretty ageist in my opinion ... patronizing as I don't suppose they would be spell/grammar/vocab checking the posts of anyone they thought was nearer their own age! A bit pointless to go through checking stuff like that ... keep their concentration on the content and their spell/grammar checkers and cussing boxes in their own blogs!
Can't help themselves though! They were probably all schooled and need some deschooling still! LOL! Love them!

This comment is awesome in so many ways. The bits about abandoning education to go to school, and the deschooling are great. Haha, made me laugh.


Sometimes you read something that blazes through your brain like a zenith - this was one of those times. :)

I am torn between unschooling my 8 year old daughter (and staying in my horrendous marriage to do so) and ending my marriage, thus going out to work and sending her off to the local public school all day.

Man, I just can't let her languish there. What to do, what to do?!

Your blog inspires me to keep reaching for the best - to have her bloom and blossom out of the box. I guess where there is a will, there will be a way.

That definitely sounds rough, I'm sorry. Glad I could be of some help though. :) I hope you figure everything out for the best!


Kevin,
Nice post. It would be great if you could elaborate for the many people who have read your blog what "unschooling" means to you. What kinds of things do you do? What is a typical day like for you? It's obvious you can be motivated when you want to be, so what motivates you?
Incidentally, I think it's unfortunate that you imply your academic success in school is "proof" that unschooling works. Have you used grades in your unschooled life? Why use them now?
Keep on learning and enjoying life.

Oh I think there was a little bit of a mix up, haha. I was not referring to my "academic success" as proof that unschooling "works", because I think grades and such are irrelevant to begin with. My point was that I can do anything a public schooled kid can, and I've never had any experience with that sort of setting in the past. In other words, I was meaning to say that I am not any less intelligent (on the public school scale) due to my unschooling lifestyle, rather than to say unschooling equals academic success. If that makes sense? :) I guess when I wrote that paragraph I was aiming towards pro-public school individuals, and didn't really give it a lot of thought.

But anyway, to the other questions, those are really good. I'll have to include those in my edited version of the post for the book.


Why look at your life and decisions as "the next three years"?

Perhaps exploring a classic canon (aka "college") will take more time, less time, etc.

Perhaps a college credential is necessary for what you want to accomplish, and if it is, seems you are aware enough that you will know it's your next step and can trust yourself to go get it, perhaps in three years, one, now or at any other time in your life.

I think we absorb all things more deeply than we think we do, I would so enjoy reading more of your public school experiences as they want to be told:)

Well, the one thing to me anyway, is that the next 3 years are going to be a big turning point in my life. I don't see these decisions as making OR breaking my life, as most kids my age do, I see it as more of a time where I have a lot of choices to make and options to pursue. It has little to do with the success factor for me, I just realize that being my age I can do a lot of things, and I have a lot of opportunities. I know I have the rest of my life (and I'm definitely not stressing), but I am only this age once. I suppose that's the main thing.

Thanks to everyone!

Alright... so, that Unschooling post I did a few days (was it a week?) ago has gotten a lot more attention than I expected. It's up to around 50 comments (on my mom's blog) and probably more views. I dunno, I find that really crazy. Haha. I have to revise/edit the thing tonight, so it can be published in an Unschooling book. To top that off, I'm also being asked to speak at the Life is Good conference in May! A speech and then a Q&A panel with my Mom and whoever else.

I do feel bad though because, to be honest, I did NOT spend a lot of time on it in the first place. I wrote it in well under an hour, and revised it once for spelling mistakes. My Mom wanted me to write it for her blog, so I expected maybe five comments or something, from a few of her friends. But no. It caught like wildfire, haha.

Some people actually pointed out some grammar mistakes, which I will definitely have to correct if it's going into a book... but yeah. That is what's happening right now.

I'm going to post some Q&A right after this.

Alright, so, this question was asked on yahoo answers:

Do you believe animals have souls?
I believe we're all on a level playing field. Every living creature. I'm not going to put words to it, because I don't think anybody should. I don't believe that labeling things, just so that the human mind is able to understand it, is right. I accept there is something more, but I don't need to understand every little piece. No human word can describe what it truly is. And I'm not going to waste my time questing for it. For whatever reason, I was given life, and I'm going to do my best with it. That's the bottom line.

I believe the part that makes us truly alive is not our body, that it's something deeper. What many people would call a soul, I call nothing more than 'me', or 'you'. I see this in animals as well. If you've ever owned an animal as a pet, you see that light, that life force that goes deeper than anyone can comprehend. Something that you will never understand.

I don't deny a heaven and a hell, but I don't accept one either. Humans make everything much too organized, much too cookie cutter, and much too.. simple. The idea of heaven and hell is a juvenile concept of good and evil, and it really doesn't take a lot to see that. If there is anything beyond this life, which I believe there is, it will definitely not be anything that the human mind can comprehend in this state. Most religion is much too simple to be the truth. And if you take a look around you, at every detail of life, the earth, the universe, and at the very structure of the human body, you will find that simplicity is a man-made concept.

Anyway, that's just kind of my take on things. I really don't want to offend anyone by my statements, but that's how I see life. I actually gave a much more detailed answer than I had expected... haha.