Rene' Schooler

I was an awkward child. I knew from a very young age that I didn’t grow up the same way a lot of other people did. Anyone who has followed my story for any length of time already knows my childhood was a little unusual. I didn’t officially start school until third grade. I was homeschooled back when homeschooling wasn’t really a thing. My parents had a gold claim in the Sierra Nevadas, and much of my childhood was spent outdoors, disconnected from what most people would have considered normal life.

If I could give every follower and reader one piece of advice for July, it would be this: Stop pretending you’re okay when you’re not. Not because you’re weak. Not because your life is falling apart. Simply because pretending has become so normal for many of us that we no longer recognize we’re doing it. Somewhere along the way, we’ve confused being strong with being silent, and we’ve mistaken survival for healing.

Nobody warned me how much of life would be spent building. Somewhere along the way, I think I assumed there would come a point when I would finally arrive. By this stage of life, I imagined I would be standing on the mountaintop, taking in the view, admiring everything that had been created through years of effort. Instead, here I am, still building. The strange part is that I genuinely love creating things. God blessed me with a mind that sees possibilities everywhere.