The Highway and Me and My Earl Grey Tea

by Emily Smucker

When Emily Smucker decided to spend a year traveling around the United States, living in a different Mennonite community every month, the world seemed exciting and limitless. She was ready to find her place in the world and begin her career as a freelance writer and editor. Emily’s trip took many surprising twists and visiting an Amish church in Ohio, swapping travel stories with homeless people in Delaware, and attending far more funerals than she expected. But through the adventure and excitement as well as loss and loneliness, Emily clung to her faith, experiencing a deep connection with her Heavenly Father. The Highway and Me and My Earl Grey Tea is a story of adventure, exploration, identity, heritage, community, faith, and loss. Follow Emily’s story as she embarks on the road trip of a lifetime, haphazardly finding her way through community after community in an attempt to figure out where she truly belongs.

Genres: Nonfiction, Travel, Memoir

273 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 16, 2020

About the author

Hello there! I’m Emily Smucker: Full-time student, part-time writer, and every-once-in-a-while adventurer. I blog at emilysmucker.com about traveling, books, culture, and my life as a Mennonite girl in college. Basically, whatever kindles my interest at the moment.

Reviews

[Sarah Rhomberg]

I stumbled across this book a while ago and as bought it as soon as the digital version was out. I had high expectations for it. Although it turned out to be nothing like I expected it to be, I was not let down. I loved it!

This is the memoir of a twenty-something-year-old who decided to travel across the US, living in a different Mennonite community every month, supporting herself by being a freelance writer and editor. Just like this book was not what I expected to be, this year is not what Emily Sara Smucker expected it to be.

I loved all the little stories inside this book and the way they all wound together to one big one. Throughout the book the author gives a raw look at what happened. A raw version of mixed emotions, grief, depression. I really appreciate that.

Definitely a book I can recommend.


Quotes:

“I’m convinced that most of the truly amazing, the ones who make the biggest impact on the world, are the ones you’ve never heard about.”

“If you’re smart enough to see the odd and ridiculous in everyone, you’re also smart enough to perceive why they are the way they are. You can choose to e gracious toward them.”

“I’m not talking about being friendly to every single Mennonite you see. I’m talking about being friendly to the one Mennonite stranger beside you that might be lonely. I don’t care how many Mennonites there are, you can always be friendly to the person beside you that doesn’t have anyone to talk to.”

“Grief can’t be explained, or categorized, or rationalized away. Grief can only be felt.”

[Janae Byler · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed Emily's witty stories and her insights on community as she traveled. A light, enjoyable read

[Avonlea Gal · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is the first book I read in a looong time that I read in one day. (It was a reread though🙂)
I honestly loved The Highway and Me And My Earl Grey Tea. It’s raw and honest, and I love it for that. Now I kinda wanna go to different places every month… for awhile. 😌

[Brianna Petersheim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved the book! Great job, Emily! Would definitely recommend 😊

[Stennett Eberly · Rating 4 out of 5]

An honest heart-warming story about an Oregon girl exploring a number of Mennonite communities in search of ... well, a number of things. Adventure, connection, finding herself. I think the story does well at showing the complex emotions of life and how privileged at least some youth are to have the time and opportunity to explore them across multiple communities.

[Abby Helmuth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I struggled to finish this book - mostly just skimmed through the last half. Emily’s writing is solid and engaging, but this genre is just not what I’m in to. (Plus, my brain was spinning with all the names bouncing around.)

[Jodi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved following Emily in her travels and reading her perspectives of many different Mennonite areas and their own unique cultures! Highly recommend!

[Liralen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A few years ago, Smucker set off on an adventure: in an effort to figure out if where she was raised was where she wanted to stay, she took to the road, planning to spend a month at a time in different Mennonite communities.

It's an experience that I suspect a lot of people would benefit from—trying out different places without pressure to stay, seeing what works and what doesn't. Smucker used the time to work on building a freelance writing career, so she wasn't tied to anywhere in particular; she picked her locations partly based on places she was curious about and partly based on where she could find contacts who had a room to rent out. It was also a year to think (for various reasons) about grief and how to process it, and about what it means for bad things to happen (or, for people to do bad things) within a religious community, and about what being a Mennonite meant to her:

But the truth is, most of my Memmonite experience came from one specific church, with one specific group of people who respected me and valued my ideas. I didn't actually have a wide understanding of the Mennonite world as a whole. At least, not as it stands today. And part of the reason I wanted to take this trip was to explore what a modern "Mennonite" identity really entails. (24)

It makes for a fairly quiet book, but a layered one. Smucker is also one of few writers I've read who are not Amish but have a comfortable 'in' to that culture, as her mother was raised Amish and of course there are more general connections too. Smucker spent the year in areas with strong Mennonite connections, not in Amish communities, but she visited with some Amish folks and talks a bit about the differences and what surprised her, and I get the impression that the Amish folks she talked to connected with her far more readily than they might have a total outsider because, well, she wasn't a total outsider. As someone who is perpetually curious about cultures that seem so far from my own, I found it to be an interesting perspective. I'll note that Smucker's religion is a big part of her identity, but there's absolutely no preachiness about it—just part and parcel of the experience.

[Abram Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just finished this book. I couldn't help but order her grandpa's book.
I really liked the ending. The whole book felt like a long blog post. I really did enjoy it.
The theme of connection was heartwarming. As I've had other mennonite friends tell me , " you really can't find a group of people as connected and that have as strong communities as the Amish and mennonites.
But I do really also ponder the same things she does sometimes. "What about the people that don't have a group? " what about the people in our circles who don't have close friends and are very lonely?

I take this book partly as a challenge to find those people and shine a little light in their world. To appreciate the culture while at the same time acknowledging our flaws and searching for ways to improve.
All in all I think it's some heartwarming mennonite propaganda that helps us see the how privileged we really are. And how many of us can have completely different experiences in the same culture and the same churches , and even completely different experiences in the same families.

[Lilly Wiscaver · Rating 4 out of 5]

Memoirs aren’t usually my cup of tea, but this is one I really enjoyed. I really like Emily’s writing style, and she kept me interested throughout the whole book. It was really fun to read about Emily’s travels, and some of the accounts were bittersweet. It was fun to read about the people she met, the places she traveled, and the struggles she faced.

I really enjoyed reading about Emily’s expectations for certain places, and how sometimes they weren’t exactly what she had imagined. It was also interesting to see how she supported herself financially on this journey. Freelance writing/editing sounds like an easy way to support yourself for a trip like this, but life doesn’t always go like you want it to.

Emily is Mennonite, and this book is about her finding where she belongs. The book talks about some of her questions she has as a Mennonite, as well as bits of Mennonite beliefs. However, I don’t think any of these things would pose a problem to someone who wasn’t Mennonite. (As a Bible believing Christian, everything I remember was backed up by scripture.)

A few things I didn't care for (due to personal convictions) include: Mentions Emily being good “luck” to her friends because some of them started relationships after her visit. Mentions someone’s neighbor drinking beer. Mentions her and a friend drinking a non-alcoholic rose. ‘What the bunnyslipper’ seems to be her exasperation phrase. Her brother goes ring shopping for with his girlfriend. She talks about a s*xual abuse case. An Easter egg hunt is mentioned. Her and her siblings “gossip”. During her trip, she attends and Anglican church. She talks about her cousin’s suicide (nothing inappropriate). Women do wear coveralls, and it does mention them watching Netflix. Some movie names are also mentioned. The words chance, luck, hate, and I’ll bet are used.

[Char · Rating 2 out of 5]

Perhaps by chance, my expectations were higher, or maybe I didn't know what to expect. The book held my interest in how the author, a single Mennonite girl, traveled on a budget, meeting people she had not known, and experiencing a culture within a culture with no commitment attached to time or places.

The book reads more like a timeline diary of one's travels along with current events, although some feel disjointed. Towards the end, randomly thrown in, is a story of a scandal.

This book is written in a simple fashion and does contain some misprints. It isn't one I would pick up and read over.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an amazing book, and I highly recommend!

[Violet James · Rating 5 out of 5]

Emily Smucker does a brilliant job at giving the reader a glimpse into the soul of America. She puts herself into the world to see what makes us tick, who we are, and why we gravitate to certain geographic locations. In the end though, it does not matter where one actually ends up, it turns out, it matters whom we share our life with. A beautiful story about self-discovery and the meeting of others. I hope Emily Smucker continues to write and continues to share her passion for travel with the rest of us. I look forward to reading her next book.

[Thelma · Rating 4 out of 5]

A memoir of an intentional year of transcience. Emily writes some good "slice of life" making for easy reading, much like a series of blogs. A thread of foray into the mysteries of grief beckoned to me. As a Mennonite myself, I could understand the seemingly ever present search for connection and the Mennonite networking that exists. It never before occurred to me that this was a Mennonite thing, now I've paused to wonder. A candidly written easy read.