2) My time is my own.
I learned really early on that I just can’t live on someone else’s watch. Maybe other people think that’s entitlement, but I think it’s normal. Feeling like I *had* to do something or *had* to be somewhere I didn’t really want to be always sucked the life out of me, especially if I was doing it on a regular basis. I have never kept a job where someone else was my boss for longer than 9 months, maybe. And it isn’t because the jobs are “bad” or even hard. It just completely takes away my freedom. My freedom to travel, my freedom to go do something fun with friends, my freedom to learn something new. If I was doing something really fun, but then realize I had to be at work in a couple hours, it would totally kill my mood.
I don’t adhere to the common belief that whoever busts the most ass and sacrifices the most time is more deserving of resources.
Most of us create our lives around the schedules that are already mapped out for us. For example, we wait until summer to go on vacation when the kids are out of school. Or we wait until Christmas to take that class we want when we can use our sick days from work.
I aim to do the opposite. I look at what I want to do, and I schedule things that need to be done, around that. For example, I want to go to an herbal conference in May. So I will spend the weeks before I go doing whatever I need to do to bring in income for the month (whatever that is at the time, only the future will tell!).
Basically, I am not happy working for someone else when I wanted to be creating something of my own. Speaking of…
3) I get to be creative.
Being an adult unschooler doesn’t take away from the fact that I still have to do adult things, like…pay my bills. So how does one pay the bills by having as much fun as possible? This is where my creativity comes in. I have multiple streams of income and I am always thinking of ways to make money. To some people, this might sound a little frightening or even irresponsible (and I won’t lie, I have had more difficult months in the past), but for me it’s a challenge that forces me to stretch and grow my business and entrepreneurial skills. Right now I make some money blogging, coaching, teaching gynecology at colleges on contract work (1-4 days a month), and selling courses online. I was recently working 1-2 shifts a week at a local health drink/food shop (because I am totally into that stuff) but I quickly remembered how I simply can’t be someone who clocks in when I am told to, even if it’s only once or twice a week. I am now using that time I spent working those shifts focusing on making money through things that inspire me and that I enjoy (what I was already doing…just more of it).
I love that I get to choose the hours I “work” (which often doesn’t feel like work because I like what I do). I get to take time off when I want and I can even travel because most of my work can be done remotely. I have purposely freed up my life to look this way because things like travel, exploration, and leisure time with friends and family is important to me. AND I get paid to talk and write about things I having been talking and writing about for years. Things that I would be talking about anyway because I am so passionate about it. I believe the world needs more people doing exactly what they want with their time. I think that type of world would be much more fun and interesting.
I know some people think that is wishful thinking and I understand why, but I will say that adopting that philosophy that I mentioned above does require a lot of trust on your end. Trust that what the world needs most are people who love what they do.
4) My learning never ends.
I love learning. I have realized that I have always loved learning, I just didn’t always like what school was trying to teach me. Like now, I would never care to learn about math or computers (but hey I am glad there are people who do!), but I love learning about women’s health and physiological childbirth. I love learning about the menstrual cycle and how ancient groups of people lived. I love learning about food and what foods support health. I love learning about child development and how a child’s brain works. I love learning about natural living and how to cure our own bodies. I am fascinated by our society that is based around a lot of trauma and the effects some of our cultural ideals and practices has on our society as a whole. I love using my own body and my own life as one big experiment to discover what works for me and what doesn’t. As of late I have been interested in learning more about gardening, herbalism, homesteading, researching my ancestry and re-humanizing death. And to be honest, so much of my learning is actually unlearning and deschooling myself from things I was taught and shown growing up.
Even living life as an unschooler has required me to let go many of my ideas about what one’s life “should” look like. Everyone’s journey is so different from one another and that is what makes it so interesting to me. What I want to learn about might not look anything at all what you want to learn about and pursue, but that’s the beauty of unschooling.
From there we can use one another as teachers and resources for things we aren’t as privy to.
Speaking of learning, I love that my sources never come from one place! As a life learner, I don’t get all my information on a topic from one textbook and one person. I have the internet, I have books (oh so many books), I have videos, I can seek out multiple teachers until I find one that is a good fit for me…you get the idea.
See next page for more…
I was researching adult unschooling. Grateful for the opportunity to read about your experience. Unfortunately, public school was a big part of my developmental years. But fortunately, I did not let it stifle my zest for learning. After doing the minimum required to skate through the public programming each day, I would spend my evenings and weekends unschooling. Not knowing that it was unschooling, I pursued learning on my own with a passion. Skating by with the minimal input required to keep the system off my back, I did acquire the aspired BS degree. But I have found that by learning to learn on my own. I have been able to acquire valuable skills and knowledge that are not readily available in traditional school programming. For instance, over the past 15 years, my main source of income is from being a self-taught piano tuner. Because several tuners in my area had either died or retired, there was a huge demand not being met. I emailed a couple of piano tuners in other markets. They recommended a couple of how-to books and some good sources for tools and parts. This is one of many examples in my life, where being self-taught and teaching myself how to learn to learn. Rather than the what-to-learn programming we call education. Where I have been able to train myself to have special skill sets that are in high demand, limited supply, pay well, and allow me to pick who I want to work with, what I want to charge them, and when I want to do the work.
Although most of my life, I did not know what unschooling was or that it even existed. I was able to learn how to learn how to unschool myself. The freedom this approach to life offers is unbelievable. I am not a morning person and have not set an appointment before 11:00 a.m. since August 2004.
Side comment: Remember the instructions we are told to follow, are just another person’s opinion on how to do something. Don’t be afraid to figure it out on your own. Because the ability to figure it out is a valuable skill to acquire.