“Get Out” – Too Real for Comfort

(Warning – May contain spoilers)

Last Friday I watched the new movie by Jordan Peele and I have to say it was much realer than I had thought it would be going in. A little on my background, I am a black male on my college basketball team…oh and I also have a girlfriend who is white. I absolutely love movies and I love to find movies that can make me feel some sort of discomfort because it means the movie was executed well enough to appeal to my emotions. This movie did so tenfold.
The movie was able to appeal with a fear that many black men have: falling for a white woman with a racist family. Me personally I have dealt with racism before so I’m not new to it, however this movie was different in that Chris (the star of the film) was more alone than he thought he was. Nothing is scarier than believing you have someone in your corner, the person who has the power to hurt you more than anyone else…actually do it.
The movie was able to hit a primal fear of mine and I commend Jordan Peele for his exemplary work with this film. He was able to get people out of their comfort zone and into fear without the use of a bunch of jump scares or your average horror movie tricks. I recommend it to everyone no matter if you’re black, white, green, orange, or blue. The movie was masterfully executed with a little something for everyone who watches.

Homeschooler in the Real World

Emma Folts, a sophomore at Wheaton College, shares her experience about her transition into college and how homeschool has both helped and hindered her.
How has your homeschool experience benefitted you, especially in your transition into college?
I think the one thing that homeschooling did that was really helpful as I entered college was that it taught me time management. As a homeschooler I had the same freedom as a college student has to put things off during the day and go see a friend instead. Since I had that experience, I knew the cost of that.
Also, personal responsibility and accountability with assignments. I feel like a lot of the other students had more expectations for gentler grading and that the professor would give them retakes or extensions, but that wasn’t something that ever happened to me in school. That learning curve wasn’t added because I never had it the other way. I think another thing was that because I was homeschooled, I was familiar with the format of teaching and then studying on my own.
Did you see any issues with your transition socially?
I think that homeschooling had two ramifications for me socially. One was helpful, one was hurtful.
It was really helpful because as a homeschooler, I had spent a lot of time realizing and developing who I was as a person and learning to recognize people who were being themselves, and those were the people I sought out as friends. Friendship as a homeschooler takes a lot more investment. I knew I was choosier with my friends which made me a lot less anxious and a lot more content.
The only real negative impact of the social bit was that I was really used to getting to choose the time I got to spend with people. As a homeschooler I spent a lot of time with people, but that time was controlled by me. As a college student, I found that you can’t really control the time you spend with people and alone time is not really available. Learning to deal with that was a lot harder than anticipated.
Any last comments on homeschool and how it has affected your college experience?
I think homeschooling is really helpful, however it does take a slightly increased amount of advocacy with your peers when you’re entering into college. I think a lot of people come in with certain assumptions about homeschool, especially students. You’re going to get a lot of, ‘oh my gosh, you don’t seem like a homeschooled person!’ [You can’t] take that too personally and explain your experience so that friends can understand it’s an important piece of you, though it might not look like the homeschooling that they’ve seen.
My encouragement to anyone who is a homeschooler transitioning into college is to realize the benefit that you have having been homeschooled, and to realize that the bit of advocacy and explaining that you need to do with your peers is totally normal and that it’s not a big deal. Once they understand your experience, it’s not something I’ve experienced being looked down on for.