I was, in many ways, a strange child | Day 104 of my 2023 Journal

I was, in many ways, a strange child. I did not have many friends, and I was not well-adjusted in kindergarten, in school, or high school. Lucky for me, there would always be one or two people I connected with, but I grew up feeling different, not understanding the social field of others: the dynamics, the logic, the values. I did not share any of it, and I did not want to participate. I did not understand the joy of social life.

It is funny, though, because I am probably the most social person I know as in highly social. I did not have anyone to play it out with.

When I was a teenager, I was blessed by coincidence when my uncle sublet his part of our family home, and a group of young freethinkers came to live in the same house as me.

But the real revolution happened when we started homeschooling. When I met the community of homeschoolers, it was like walking through the closet in the first Narnia book (the darkness and Insecurity of the radical choice) to find myself in a sparking and beautiful social world of what I today call Real People.

Ever since my social life has flourished, it has been amazing to meet all of the other freethinkers, joining a group that takes responsibility for their own life, thinks things through, questions everything, and are colorful and different and open-hearted and overall wonderful.

That is why it is not even strange to text a friend before seven in the morning and invite me over for showers, a washing machine, and dinner. My friend canceled her day plan and opened her house to us, and we joined together after about six months (since the last time in Catalonia).

Kids played games, we cleared the van, everyone washed their hair, I cooked a lovely meal, and we talked and talked.

Love and light

Cecilie Conrad

# 104 of my 2023 writing challenge - Read them all here