soul sister

Of the dozens of books I read last year, "Educated," by Tara Westover has had the most profound impact on me. She writes of growing up homeschooled and uber-religious in rural America, with a paranoid, reckless father and mystical, enabling mother, amid violence and mindfuckery and enduring feelings of guilt and shame.
It could have been my life, minus the abusive sibling.
I had to read slowly, overcome at times with sadness or panic.
I bought it secondhand a few weeks ago and finally dug up my teen-aged journals.
Seeded in among the chirpy prayer requests and musings about My Future are kernels of truth I'd forgotten about.
Westover's work makes me see a way to write my own story.
More to come.