Educated

by Tara Westover

We had no idea it was a medical term. Raccoon eyes. A sign of serious brain injury.

They believed in modesty; we practiced it. They believed in God’s power to heal; we left our injuries in God’s hands. They believed in preparing for the Second Coming; we were actually prepared.

I had read that slaves in colonial times were happier and more free than their masters, because the masters were burdened with the cost of their care. That had made sense to me.

Curiosity is a luxury reserved for the financially secure:

I began to experience the most powerful advantage of money: the ability to think of things besides money.

My future was motherhood; his, fatherhood. They sounded similar but they were not.

To call the family to order. To be the other was to be among those called.

I felt she had torn me from one world, one life, where I was happy, and dragged me back into another.