Old Fashioned Lifestyle

Feel like a trip down memory lane?

Head on over and check it out!  When I first started thinking about writing of a memory, my mind first wandered to memories of my children.  I could write of a birth, a first step, a first word or first swim.  I could write about the first time my babies ate lemons and puckered up or all that sand they shoveled into their mouths at the beach.  I could write about the amazing way my capacity to love expanded with each child that came into my life.  I could write of the funny, crazy, wacky things that have come out of their mouths.  But how could I possibly choose just one memory of all that swims in my head?  Then I thought of Christmas memories…  but there were too many to choose from.  No.  I better go with something else.

With no clear answer, I put this writing project onto the back burner of my mind and left it to simmer.  I went about my day – when it hit me.  A memory from nearly 15 years ago.

This memory appeals to me because it was a day that ignited a passion that deeply rooted itself in my soul.  Sometimes with the business of life I become disconnected with and even (shudder) forget the passions I feel.  This is a timely memory for me.  It is nice to reconnect with how I felt on that day.

It was January 13, 1994.   I was a freshman in college and had heard of someone coming to the school to speak about “unschooling.”  At the time, I was considering a career in education, so I decided to attend the Saturday afternoon talk.

I walked into the lecture hall and found a seat – amongst the 50 other students.  I spent the next 2 hours listening to a young woman talk about the experience of life without school.  She pointed out some of the un-intended effects of a school day that can have lasting negative implications on children.  As she spoke, my heart began to beat faster…  she was speaking to a “truth” in me that I had not yet been able to put into words.  She opened a door of possibilities for life that I had never seen before.

When the lecture finished, I was so excited about what I heard I rushed back to the dorm and sat down at my computer to write to my parents.  Several hours and 7 pages later I emerged from my room with a new passion for life, learning, and education. 

I mailed that letter to my parents – and they kept it for me.   It is long – but it was the beginning of a major part of my life – so it is an important keepsake for me.  I think I will type it up one of these days and post it here… just so that I know I have another ’safe’ record of that letter somewhere.

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