6.

Q : "How could you keep yourself afloat by yourself at the age of 18? Do you think you are an exception, or can an average Amish person financially sustain themselves at that age if they leave their community? How hard was that?"

A : "Well… Honestly, I think I made the right decisions to keep myself afloat. Barely, but I did. Joining the military at 18 was what did it. It gave me a platform to stand on, a place to learn, clothes to wear, food to eat, and a roof over my head.

Was it easy? No. What made it even harder was my initial inability to understand technology because I had no experience with it. And I joined as an aviation electronics technician. I had to learn an entire new world at 18 years old. You have no idea how stupid and out of place I felt at that technical school after boot camp. They put me through three years of school. I mastered my job. I did exceptionally well considering how technologically illiterate I was growing up.…