We all made tantrums and got upset at our parents & siblings for the dumbest things when we were kids, right? And it’s ok, because deep down they’re still our family and we learn to accept and love our family for who they are, knowing that at the end of the day, they’re the only ones who really have our backs, support us, and love us unconditionally.
Well, in “Educated” – Tara Westover tells us her story, and how it doesn’t fit the mold most of us grew up with. This book is equal parts horrifying, inspiring, stressful, and hopeful. Westover’s childhood was marked by her survivalist parents, always preparing for an upcoming apocalypse (or the government raiding their home), they didn’t believe in the government, much less on relying on public services. That means no medicine, much less hospitals or even doctors. Whenever Westover or any other member of her family got sick or hurt, they’d be tended to by her mother, a midwife who also dove into herbal medicine.
The book continues the story of the horrible things Westover lived through, violent, abusive siblings and equally abusive parents (though more psychological abuse rather than physical). All the way to her decision to quit that life and get a formal education by applying to college at BYU, and the path she took that eventually led to her earning a PhD from the University of Cambridge.
I come from a family of educators, so the subject matter of the book immediately appealed to me. I’ve always been very pro-education, and see ignorance as an opportunity to learn more rather than as a negative trait to have. But I wasn’t ready for the first half of this book, it honestly read more like a horror story than a memoir. It’s hard to believe the hardships Westover went through in her life and still end up a better person, free from the shackles her family put her in for so many years.
Then the second half hits us with her story of her struggles with going to an actual school, and how she had to learn how to learn, I found it truly fascinating how resilient Westover is and how no matter how much she herself doubted she was able to move forward, she constantly did, it made my problems feel like child’s play.
There’s not much I can say that others haven’t said already, I really liked it, it is a hard read, abuse is not and easy subject matter to read, much less to have lived it and write about it for everyone to learn about. At the end of the day, this is a story about a woman who against all odds, managed to take the hardest road before her – letting go of her past (and family) for a better life, for her, and, as is usually the case, those hard roads are usually the best decisions we can make.
Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐☆