Can you tell me about your parents involvement with you during those teen years? Did they find ways to expose you to other things? My parent’s involvement was somewhat minimal during my teen years. For one, my Dad worked full-time plus Saturdays, so he wasn’t there most days. During the day my mom was mostly absorbed in her spirituality studies, but for the most part I found them boring. They did expose me to a lot of different beliefs though, and we ventured out unto many different churches on Sundays before settling on a Unitarian Universalist church for a year or so. Whenever I wanted help obtaining the resources to learn something, they usually helped; if it was in their financial means. For instance my mom bought me my first guitar, and brought me to a NC unschooler camping meet-up called “Families learning together” twice a year. She brought me to practice with my first rock band, where I discovered I could sing. My parents and I butted heads on a lot of matters though, not unlike any normal teenager. I ventured out into downtown Winston-Salem a lot to explore, biking to the city bus stop at age 14, and I remember my parents not liking that. But they couldn’t stop me and I demonstrated I had the responsibility to handle it so they relented. So for the most part it was my job to expose myself to things, but they certainly helped a lot in those first few years to get the mind rolling. Can you tell me a little about what the internship was like… had you traveled on your own before? What did you do/learn there with Jerry? I had never traveled alone before I started coming up to NY, but I remember I wasn’t nervous. I started out doing mostly video editing, since AERO has a huge video archive that needed to be converted to DVD/digital. It was tedious work, but I really liked living on my own so I gave it my all. Also I started doing some basic web work, and learning office skills like answering phones, working with a database, that kind of stuff. Sometimes we took trips to schools and I got to see what free schools were like. One day we both got invited to speak in Moscow, Russia. So I got a passport and visa, and Jerry and I flew to visit the Summerhill school in the UK on the way. I had never been out of the country, and I think it really opened my horizons. Summerhill was an incredible experience, and then we flew straight to Moscow. I was a very nervous 16 year old on that stage; since there were almost 1,000 Russian teachers there! I broke the ice by speaking a little Russian, and they kind of fell in love with me at that point. Also when I ran out of Russian, I had to wait for the English to be translated, so that gave me very necessary breathing room to think about what I wanted to say about unschooling. How long did the internship last? Have you been there since then? What did that path look like? After the UK/Russia trip I decided to focus more on my band and girlfriend in North Carolina for a couple years. When I was 18 I said, “I want to see what this country has to offer! I’m going to drive all the way across it!” So I starting going west on I-40 from NC, stopping at every city along the way to try out this new website I discover called “Couch surfing”. I got to Memphis, TN and I felt goose bumps. It had so much music history that I felt was so underappreciated! My couch surf there turning into a free living situation, because a few other people my age had just rented this huge house with intentions of making it a co-op community house. So I learned a lot there and formed a band that toured the country and recorded an album, it’s where I cut my teeth as a musician. I also had a job as a singing tour guide for a while which was incredibly exciting. I stayed in touch with AERO through out all of this, and it led to being offered a job with AERO in 2011 when I needed it most. I still live basically the same traveling lifestyle, only now I make a small salary when I am here in NY and work with my computer by the hour when I’m on the road. I don’t rely on my parents financially at all, and have good relationships with both of them. I talk to them on the phone at least a few times a week. Thanks so much. I think a lot of readers will be able to relate to your story. Im on the road right now, so there might be little lapses in my communication. But Im still very interested!! Thanks again for writing it all out!
Posted on: Fri, 14 Mar 2014 00:57:02 +0000
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