Throwaway1of16kids

Honestly, a lot. The more I go to therapy and learn about dysfunction, the more there is to unpack. Being homeschooled and limited to friends who had similar families meant I didn't have much to compare with. Parentification (where a child learns to take on the parents' role) was common for me. Educational neglect was a big one, because it was so severe that I didn't even recognize until pretty recently how little I know compared to my peers. We were told we were being educated better than "public schoolers," while our parents hardly managed to teach us how to read. My mom mostly gave birth at home with little medical support. Also, while I didn't think everything was TOTALLY normal...whatever wasn't normal was considered in a self-righteous way something that made us better than the "heathens" in the rest of "the world."

So many things. The first was that people generally just say "religion" instead of what we would say on the inside, like "Christian" or "believer" or "Christ-follower." A lot of Christians even distance themselves from it by saying "It's not a religion, it's a relationship." I was also surprised by how little people generally know about religion. On the other hand I also was surprised to learn how much of mainstream culture still clings to religious mindsets, like with homophobia and transphobia.

I don't think I'd learn new information from it, and it would just make me angry.

Thank you! Honestly one of the most difficult things has been finding things I like, because there was such an emphasis on being productive. One thing I really appreciate is having the ability/time to really bond with my cats. We had animals growing up but I never felt very attached to them and it's been awesome to see my cats' personalities develop because I take good care of them.

I went through a ton of names and none of them seemed to really fit me except Artemis. As for Stardust, I like the concept of literally being made of the stuff of dead stars, because I was taught young-earth creationism and learned as an adult that certain elements wouldn't exist without the life cycle of stars. I didn't learn about Ziggy until I mentioned my name choice to someone older than me lol.