When a person grows up in a sheltered environment like the Amish, you have lots to learn no matter how old you are when you leave. Of course, my childhood was not to prepare me to live in the unsheltered world but rather purposely so I don't know how to survive in the unsheltered world.

Here are just a couple of the hard lessons I had to learn to survive:

-No money smarts at all (didn't know how to handle money wisely)

-Too trusting of people

-Did not care for myself

Can you imagine your own child going out into the world with the things I listed above?

It gives me the shivers to think of my own children leaving high school without any of the knowledge that is needed to survive.

Of course, I am doing everything I can to make sure children get the knowledge and experience they will need.

But I also realize how much of the simple life (unsheltered life) I still use today and I know I am living "The Best of Both Cultures". You will be hearing a lot more about this in the coming months, but let me give you an example.

Background noises: At home we had very little background noises. Other than peoples voices there was very little noise. Check out my comparison chart below:

-Non Amish vs Amish

-Radio vs not

-TV vs not

-traffic (in town or highway) vs not (we lived in the country)

-noisy children toys vs not (we did not have any toys that made noises)

-Bicycle or scooter vs not (we only had a little red wagon)

-Kitchen Appliances vs not (no electricity)

-Power tools vs not

-sprinkler in yard other than new seedlings we did not water our lawn

-milking machines vs yes the gas engine to cool the milk was noisy during chore time

-water pump vs not

This is only a partial list, some the top things I can think of at the moment.

There are many times when I will pay extra attention to keep the background noises to a minimum. I sincerely enjoy the quietness most of the time. You should try it sometime. I truly think my brain is much more active when everything is quiet.

Like I said earlier, you will be hearing much more about how you too can live "The Best of Both Cultures" in the coming months so stay tuned.

Anna Dee Olson has built an on-line and off-line following. Many people want to know how she has overcome many obstacles to live the happy life she does today. Anna did change her life through small amounts of effort, faith in herself, and apply some action each day. Today Anna is an author and CEO of her on-line business. For questions or comments go to http://www.growingupamish.com

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