Chloé Hayden

And so they pulled me out of school that day.

And both of my parents will tell you that that next morning, they saw a spark that I hadn't had since I entered the school system when I was five.

Of your first day of being homeschooled?

I loved it.

Being homeschooled meant that I could...

learn in ways that made sense to my brain, that I could exist in ways that made sense to my brain, that I could explore the world in ways that made sense to my brain.

I would get all of the curriculum work done and get that out of the way.

And then my dad would take me on road trips and we'd go surfing together.

And I was volunteering and I was going to photography courses and I was learning to interact with people that I never would have interacted with inside the school system and learning activities and hobbies and

and ways of communicating and independence and responsibility that I never would have learned in the school system.

I loved it.

I knew my entire life that I was different, but I didn't know that that difference was necessarily a bad thing until I left the four walls of my own home because my parents always embraced and encouraged my difference with everything they have.

They've recently found out that they're both neurodivergent too, so that makes a lot of sense.

But it wasn't until...

I was in the school system and I was surrounded by other people and other people's ideas of what you're supposed to be, other people's parents' ideas of what you're supposed to be, that I learned that my difference wasn't a good thing and that it wasn't wanted and that it wasn't valued.

And so for a really long time, I was really, really terrified of my mind and I was terrified of the idea of being different.

And I was taught that I wasn't supposed to be here.

I was told that my version of difference was wrong, that it was a glitch, that it was a mistake.

And when you're 13 years old, particularly growing up as a 13 year old girl, particularly growing up as a 13 year old girl in a very tiny country town, being different is just about the worst possible thing you could be.

And so I, I spent so much of my life.