“I understood that it was this fact, more than any other, that made my family different: we didn’t go to school.” -Tara Westover Reading stories about those different than me was a major goal of my summer reading program. This book proved to be a fascinating story of a life that I cannot imagine--one without education being an enduring value of your family.
Tara Westover tells the story of growing up on Buck Peak Idaho in a family of fundamentalist mormons who were preparing for the end of times. Rather than going to school, the children in Tara's family worked the family farm, scrapped metal, and learned about holistic medicine in their mother's kitchen. Some days they "homeschooled" which mainly consisted of reading scriptures and famous speeches/writings from church elders. Math, science and history were given minimal attention. As she grew up, she new she was an outsider from the other girls in church. As she reached her teen years, she yearned to more freedom and sought a job in town. Soon Tara started her education with music and dance lessons in town which lead to acting in local musicals. She struggled to balance these new loves with her role in her family--particularly at the hands of an abusive older brother. Eventually, another of her brothers returned home from BYU and she decided that she too wanted to be educated. She used every spare moment of time to study for the ACT--knowing that if she earned a score of 27 she could go to the university. After her first attempt (and a score of 22), she pushed on and soon had earned the required score for entry into the school. Once at BYU, Tara soon realized just how sheltered her upbringing had truly been. In an early lecture, she raised her hand to ask what the holocaust was to the utter terror of her classmates. Over time, she learned that that history she had been taught had a very distinctive bias from her father. After taking a psychology course, she suspected that her father was bipolar which explained his epic highs and violent lows. After the first year of school, she returns to the mountain and realizes that her brother is still abusive and that she doesn't fit anymore. She returns to school and finds success studying history. She eventually does an interaction study (on scholarship) to Cambridge where she lands to compete her graduate work. She then moves on to a stint at Harvard--where her parents come to try and "save" her from her evil ways. She refuses to admit she is lying about abuse at her brothers hands and is soon disowned from most of her family. (She is supported by the other siblings who had left to go to college and their wives--what a blessing they are to her). As the book closes, you realize that we all are a sum of our choices. This quote captures the feeling for me beautifully: “Choices, numberless as grains of sand, had layered and compressed, coalescing into sediment, then into rock, until all was set in stone.” I highly recommend this book! I can't wait to see what she writes next!
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AuthorAlmost 40 and tired of the treadmill, I am going to LIVE each day as a new adventure while finishing todo items on my life list. Mom, wife, teacher, geek! Archives
May 2020
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