Do you still feel as though you are \u201cdifferent\u201d or that your past experiences emotionally isolate you from society?<\/strong><\/p>\n Joe<\/a>:<\/p>\n Coming soon.<\/p>\n Latebloomer<\/a>:<\/p>\n I definitely feel the effects of my past even today. \u00a0Because I was isolated from my peers in my formative years, social interaction takes a lot more concentration for me than for others. \u00a0In a way, it\u2019s kind of like I\u2019m operating in a foreign culture with different rules about what is acceptable and offensive. \u00a0\u00a0Additionally, conversations in this \u201cforeign culture\u201d are full of cultural references and assumptions that confuse me and remind me how different I am inside. \u00a0And in some ways the situation is worse than the foreign culture analogy suggests: I don\u2019t have a \u201chome culture\u201d to return to. \u00a0That means I\u2019m stuck with this feeling of being slightly disconnected from society. \u00a0I hope that this feeling will continue to fade with time and practice.<\/p>\n Libby Anne<\/a>:<\/p>\n This is actually getting better for me. The feeling of cultural disconnection, of not fitting in, of being unable to understand my peers hasn\u2019t completely disappeared, but it has decreased with time. So too has my fear of those who are different and my fear of being in large group or crowd situations. I still sometimes feel like I don\u2019t know what to say in a situation, or how to act, and I still sometimes feel extremely awkward and out of place, but I now have hope that those feelings will go away with time as well. Maybe in another ten or fifteen years I won\u2019t feel like I\u2019m different at all.<\/p>\n Lisa<\/a>:<\/p>\n Yes, a lot. I can\u2019t really explain. I learned to camouflage myself as \u201cone of them\u201c, but I still feel an outsider. I feel like people look at me and they can tell I\u2019m somehow different. A lot of times, people can\u2019t understand my reactions to certain things. Only my close friends know about it and try to help me when I get into weird situations.<\/p>\n Mattie<\/a>:<\/p>\n I think I\u2019ve caught up and adjusted all right, thanks to a thorough pop culture education from my fantastically patient friends at college, and my husband\u2019s great sense of humor. My coworkers are occasionally weirded out by the random information I know, but I don\u2019t think I come across as homeschooled anymore.<\/p>\n Melissa<\/a>:<\/p>\n Yes. I definitely feel different. I can hardly mention anything from my childhood without getting strange looks, whether it is number of siblings or the fact that I wasn\u2019t allowed to go to college. I don\u2019t have movies or songs I liked at different stages of my life, I didn\u2019t go to school. I didn\u2019t date, I didn\u2019t have friends. Much of what people talk about doesn\u2019t apply to me.<\/p>\n Sarah<\/a>:<\/p>\n I think my LACK of experiences is what isolates me from society. I do not have \u201chighschool friends.\u201d I have never crossed a stage in cap and gown. I didn\u2019t watch \u201cThunder Cats\u201d or \u201cFull House\u201d like my peers did. I didn\u2019t play video games or eat Fruit by the Foot or listen to the Backstreet Boys. I have no ties to the culture of my childhood, and that often leaves me alone and left out. It seems silly that such unimportant things would make such a big difference, but it\u2019s amazing how many times I have been unable to participate in a conversation with my peers because I have no idea what they are talking about.<\/p>\n Sierra<\/a>:<\/p>\n I feel like I\u2019ve finally achieved normalcy. I don\u2019t feel slighted or deficient for my upbringing. I\u2019m grateful for what I learned and trying to use it by speaking out and by incorporating my understanding of religion in my academic work. I feel totally integrated in society now, and I\u2019m having a ton of fun doing all the things I could never do: blaring rock music, wearing bikinis, playing with makeup, driving my own car to my own job, and studying and speaking what I think. I love being a teacher, too, because it\u2019s so nice to express my thoughts and cultivate a respectful discussion where I can advise younger people and hear their thoughts.<\/p>\n Tricia:<\/p>\n Oh yes. Very few people can relate to the things I still struggle with almost daily, and it\u2019s hard to try and make them understand without seeming to villianize my family, which generally brings me pain rather than making me feel better. It\u2019s hard to let new people I meet really get to know me for these reasons. I hope that as time passes and life takes on new shapes, I won\u2019t feel so much defined by my past and making connections will be easier.<\/p>\n <<<\u00a0Previous Question<\/a> \u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u00a0Next Question<\/a> >>><\/p>\n Raised Quiverfull Introduction<\/a> \u2014\u00a0Adjusting Summary<\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Do you still feel as though you are \u201cdifferent\u201d or that your past experiences emotionally isolate you from society? Joe: Coming soon. Latebloomer: I definitely feel the effects of my past even today. \u00a0Because I was isolated from my peers in my formative years, social interaction takes a lot more concentration for me than for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":845,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[188,228],"class_list":["post-4616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-cultural-disconnection","tag-raised-quiverfull-panel"],"yoast_head":"\n