On this special episode of Serenbe Stories, we’re passing the mic to Serenbe’s youngest residents to talk all about life in Serenbe from their perspective: from school and friendships to adventures in the woods and everything in between. Reese, a middle schooler living in Serenbe with her family, takes the reins from Monica and Steve and sits down with Maddy, who has lived in Serenbe since 2018. Maddy and Reese chat all about their love for Acton Academy where they both go to school, the major differences between life in Serenbe and life in the city, and the one business we’re missing (hint: it’s pizza related).
Show Notes
On this special episode of Serenbe Stories, we’re passing the mic to Serenbe’s youngest residents to talk all about life in Serenbe from their perspective: from school and friendships to adventures in the woods and everything in between. Reese, a middle schooler living in Serenbe with her family, takes the reins from Monica and Steve and sits down with Maddy, who has lived in Serenbe since 2018. Maddy and Reese chat all about their love for Acton Academy where they both go to school, the major differences between life in Serenbe and life in the city, and the one business we’re missing (hint: it’s pizza related).
Show Notes
1 (13s):
If you've been listening to Serenbe stories for awhile, you know that one of the things that makes us truly special is the kids who can run free and enjoy nature. You'll hear Steve call them free range kids. So to that end, we're very excited to bring you a special edition of the podcast, Serenbe kids today. I'm handing the mic over to Reese who lives in salmonberry with her family and is a middle schooler at act and academy that is located within the community. Reese actually approached us with a great idea to interview Sarah bee's youngest residents, and find out about their ceremony, stories all about their life here from a kid's perspective, from adventures in the woods to school and everything in between.
1 (54s):
So without further ado, here's Reese and her very first guest, Maddie,
2 (1m 1s):
I just got to experienced riding a horse around my neighborhood at the age of seven. And you kind of realized, whoa, wait, that's just happened. Let me take that in for a second. Hi, my name is breeze and today here's my very first podcast of the Serenbe kids podcast with me. I have Maddie Leedom, she's a friend from school she's 12 years old. And today we're just here to kind of ask her a couple of questions about her view of Serenbe. Why we both love it so much, Maddie, how are you doing today? Good.
3 (1m 34s):
How are you?
2 (1m 35s):
Good. I'm so happy to have you here and again, thank you for coming today. I just would like to ask a couple of questions about why you just think this community of ceremony is so unique and special, especially from a kid's point of view, because if you're in so many adults say what they love. And honestly, I would just say, it's fun to hear from another kid my age, see what they think of the community and how maybe you could expand what they'd like to see and what their favorite parts of that are just generally, what are some of your favorite memories of living here as someone who's only lived here for about one and a half years? I know you've lived here a little bit longer. Like what's maybe something that people don't realize is just so fun to experience in Serenbe.
3 (2m 13s):
So a couple things I've lived here for 40 years. This is a very hard question because I've had so many good times here because this place is amazing. One of my all time, favorite times is when my best friend came over to my house and we went to the waterfall cause that's right by my house. And we walked the Creek. We like grabbed her shoes. We took the dogs, took them off the leash and we just walk the Creek. We would follow the river and the Creek. And it was amazing. We had the best time.
2 (2m 44s):
Yes. I love how all of a sudden you realize these beautiful things that you can do just right behind your house, that you can't really experience anywhere else. Normally you could want to go do something like that. It would be a little bit of a drive or you might even have to fly somewhere. Yeah. Is there anything else that really sparks your interest when you talk to other people about Serenbe?
3 (3m 3s):
Well, how it happened, the, of us moving to Serenbe amaze, my mom and dad, they went on a trip for their anniversary here and then they wanted to bring us here. Cause it was amazing. They saw like kids just roaming free and having the best time of their lives. They saw trampolines. And so I feel like right when we came here, it brought out a different side of us.
2 (3m 23s):
Yes. A lot of people, my friends here, we used to live in the city and it's kind of funny how honestly, most people here are from Atlanta, I'm from Missouri, but just how they realize that this is something that you could experience as a kid. And they, how they've been missing out for most of their life. I came here when I was 10 years old and I wish I would have been here as a kid from other friends who have been here. It just sounds amazing. So what a lucky childhood for someone to have?
3 (3m 48s):
My mom, she always tells me how lucky we are to have this childhood and how she wished she had it because we get to ride our bikes to school. Cause they're so close. Like I live in Modo. I know you live in Grange, yourself, born
2 (4m 2s):
Grange. So yes, I know how it's just some here you realize that just happen automatically and you don't really realize, wow, wait, I just got to experience riding a horse around my neighborhood at the age of seven and you kind of realized, whoa, wait, that's just happened. Let me take that in for a second. So one of the things that I love about this community here is acting as I know you go to school with me. So like, what is one of your favorite parts about acting? Cause I have many that are my favorite, but honestly I would really like to hear your side at this point.
3 (4m 34s):
Well, one of my favorite things about acting is that it's learner led. I know that we have town council where it's, if we want something to be improved in our school, we can improve it by announcing it to our class. And then we take a vote. It's kind of like democracy. And I also like the Socratic discussions because everybody is open to studying their own personal opinions. And I know you love doing that race.
2 (5m 7s):
Yes. Honestly, for the part you said about the democracy, it does kind of make sense. Now we are basically creating a mini democracy and I know a lot of kids who are in primary right now who are going to get to maybe experience a full K through 12 you're enacting. Eventually that sounds amazing to be able to experience being able to grow up and being able to be so independent. And I would watch some kids and I would see how much they learn in Montessori than I did at their age. And it's kind of funny to look back and see, wow, I didn't learn how to properly use motor skills at the age of a kid. It's very cool to look back and see how much they are learning and how quickly they do it.
2 (5m 47s):
Based off the model of acting and again, how independent they are becoming so quickly.
3 (5m 52s):
Another thing that I really like about acting is our exhibition to show what we've done for the past seven sessions, which is a whole school year. Each session is six weeks because at the exhibition everybody's so scared at the first part, but we get to plan out our whole expo. Last session was one of the best because we keep improving on the session. So the first session we were like just running around like chickens with their heads cut off, and we had no idea what we're doing, but you could see the big increase of improvement.
3 (6m 34s):
That last session, those debates were on point. You can re amazing and not debate.
2 (6m 40s):
We
3 (6m 41s):
Looked at the crowd and said, because at the beginning of the year we were more shy and we weren't as social and you can see it just improving.
2 (6m 52s):
Yes. I completely agree with that. So basically to catch up anybody who does not go to act, and as she said, we have explanations every six weeks, which just be able to show our parents what we've been doing and guests who want to come. So first session we showed your awards, which is showed about ourselves. Second session was about behavioral economics and third session. The one that we just had was on debating. And so again, bringing back to the independence that we're learning so quickly, if I were back to where I would originally be, if we didn't move here at some random public school, I would have no idea how to create a debate and have no idea what behavioral economics is. So it's just another reason why honestly, this community is so great because it gives you these opportunities that you never knew existed.
3 (7m 36s):
Yeah. And acting it's like, if you are in a public school, you would have bathrooms that are like a hallway down and you'd be like, excuse me, can I use the bathroom? But here are acting. You can just get up and go and use the restroom. You don't have to wait for somebody to tell you what to do. And it's not like this, this and this it's student led. You get to do what you want, but with like boundaries so that, and we have a bunch of things on the computer. We have calm. That is our math program. We have typing and we have grammar, which is no, Inc. I act in, you can go at your own pace.
3 (8m 19s):
If you're ahead in con, which is math, then you can do grammar because you're behind in that. But in math class, you can have some people that are ahead in you behind. But those people that are ahead, you just have to keep building on that. So you'll have a lot of work that you need to catch up on acting. You have a computer, you don't get these tardies put into your college applications because you have the computer and you can work from wherever and whenever. So if your parents have to pull you out of school to go on a trip, because you just lost a family, you can go and work there. But at a public school, you have books, you have classes you're gonna miss a lot and be very behind.
3 (9m 4s):
You can not just take your teacher everywhere, but at acting, we have our computers that can hook up anywhere.
2 (9m 13s):
Yeah, honestly, that's just one more thing that a lot of schools around here have their own benefits. I know kids who go to Woodward Bedford, one of those heritage is another big one and all schools should have amazing benefits. And it's honestly amazing to bring in all kids from different schools and see what they've learned and kind of compare it in a way and see what's better for each kid. And I know some kids who like more independence may thrive better here and some kids need more of a normal school model would thrive better out of heritage sales school. That's just another benefit of therapy. All the options that they give you, it's kind of like easy research in a way. So you talked about how much we've loved Serenbe.
2 (9m 53s):
So I'm just going to ask you, do you picture yourself living here in the future? And if so, would you want to stay where you live in your Hamlet of motto or would you want to maybe branch out to different Hamlet?
3 (10m 3s):
I love Serenbe. If I could, I would live here for my whole life because it's like, it's never ending. Semi just keeps building off and it's still makes me want to say it because I mean, modo is expanding so much and they're making so many more new things. Like I know they have these new houses, townhomes, they just built some new businesses. Like there's a vet. And at first I probably would have said, no, I'm probably going to travel the world. But now that we've expanded on the businesses, I can see myself working here and just living here for the rest of my life.
3 (10m 45s):
Because to be honest, Serenbe is like so many different places combined. Like you have so many different architectural differences in like you can go to Swan Ridge, there'll be these certain types of houses, Modo. And then there will be like the farm assets. They have really nice houses. And if I did stay here in my future years, which I can definitely see myself living here, the hammer I would probably live in, in the formats. I honestly love the farmettes.. The farmettes are beautiful. They have so much nature and they're right by the waterfall anywhere in certain ways.
3 (11m 27s):
Amazing. But in the woods and it's just breathtaking and beautiful. I love Serenbe and me because you can just walk anywhere in, turn me from your house. And that's just absolutely amazing.
2 (11m 43s):
Yes. I completely agree. You were talking about how much ceremonies standing and I wanted to get back on you with that. So what businesses would you like to see, or maybe what restaurants, businesses, anything really would you like to see come to ceremony in the later future
3 (11m 59s):
And the later future? Hmm. That's a tough question because we have some really good businesses. I personally think that seeing a pizza restaurant here would be awesome because we do have some food restaurants and we have the sushi restaurant. I don't know if it's open or not, but sushi is my all time. Favorite food, including pizza. And I think that just having, cause send me so far away from like dominoes and all that stuff in dominoes lately has been not delivering for some reason. And it's been like, oh, we won't deliver. And then an hour later, yes, we'll deliver after you cancel it.
3 (12m 41s):
So if we had a pizza rush on that, it takes like five minutes to drive to that. Won't take up all of our time or even better. They do a drive to your house. That would be absolutely amazing. Cause I know a lot of parents go to like some events on Friday or Thursday and the parents are gone and they need something fast that they can have.
2 (13m 6s):
Yes. I love the business pitch. So my next question to you as with these businesses come, we have a bunch of super kind employees who work there. And as I know personally, the Daisy, I have a couple ladies there that are just so kind in that you kind of see every day, you don't really realize it. And then all of a sudden they ask you your name and you can, you kind of connect on a level. That's kind of like, whoa, I've basically known you for seven months. I've seen you almost three times a week to get a cup of coffee and I've never really met you, it's you? So they get these relationships. So like what were some residents in serenbe or employees or really anyone that you just truly look up to this point or you just have a great relationship with,
3 (13m 49s):
Oh, that's a really hard question. Basically, everybody in and me, I look up to a couple of them are we have Gail foster, her husband is Tom. I believe Tom wants to win. And you can see there are around in the art gallery. And so Ms. Scale, she's just one of the best artists I know. And then we have Ms. Gigi. I personally love Ms. Gigi and Mr. Reggie, they're so nice. And Ms. Gigi, she just has this beautiful artwork that just personally describes her in her family. And I think that's one of the most amazing things that you can have in a piece of artwork.
2 (14m 32s):
Yes. I think yesterday we had a guest artists come in, who taught us all about their name was Noah. And honestly you just sometimes go into school. And that's one more thing out of the millions that I love about acting is you can we have a guest singer actually that's outside right now, singing
3 (14m 50s):
Artists actually,
2 (14m 52s):
Yes, six artists are outside singing right now for elementary and middle school. And so in Serenbe, there's just these people that come in who are truly dedicated to passion and just call me and say, Hey, you guys look at what I've done. I've been invited here to show you guys. And then all of a sudden that's like their bottom of their career. And then they just build up from that. And so this community has helped them create who they are as a person in a way. It helped people know them. And honestly, if you look at that, that sounds pretty amazing. Cause you just come into a nice little town wanting to show what you've made with your art skills. And then you build your career from that. They say, we want you to come here. We want you to work with us and you just realize, wow. I went to a small little town that I thought was amazing from what I wrote off of.
2 (15m 35s):
And I've created my career from that.
3 (15m 37s):
I love it. It's amazing. So acting, we use our resources, we use local people. So Ms. Gigi, the artist, she used to be our art teacher and she was one of the best art teachers I've ever had. And it was just so fun because we would go outside, find leaves and make really cool art projects. And we would find rocks. We would paint the rocks. And I just think that was amazing. And like you said earlier, the resources we use, like we're doing an upcoming play for this session. We are able to use people in the society that are local.
3 (16m 18s):
We have amazing people here. We have some really good professional makeup artists that are willing to help us with this. And I think that's just amazing that we're able to have these people come.
2 (16m 32s):
It's kind of amazing to see if you were to compare yourself where you would be back here, where you used to live and see how much you know, and how much you would have known and kind of compare and contrast saying, wow, back in this town, I learned ABC and D and now in Serenbe, I've learned how to do this, this and that. And you're kind of realizing you weigh the benefits. And you're like, I'm so happy that my parents looked this up online, went here for their anniversary, as you said, and did all these things that led up to such an amazing life that we have. Now, we've talked about our favorite residents here, businesses, schools. So what are some of your favorite holidays celebrate year and Jeremy?
3 (17m 13s):
Oh, that's a good question. We have these cute little nicknames, like modo wheen. We have modo Gras and the tree lighting. And that was amazing because I know Reese, me and Bella, our classmate and we were in the choir and we got deep, even though I was like standing so high up from the crowd and everybody could see my face sticking out. It was just an amazing spirit that somebody can just like post something on Facebook. And you can experience like once in a lifetime thing, like I was asked to be in this choir with a bunch of grownups.
3 (17m 53s):
And I just think that being asked for once in a lifetime experience is amazing. And when you said, what are you? Favorite holidays? We celebrate basically all the holidays here. So at the tree lighting, we didn't just celebrate Christmas. We talked about Hanukkah and Christmas and I think that's amazing for everybody to share their differences and share what they celebrate. And monitoring is one of my favorite because we do this big party and we celebrate Halloween and everybody dresses up in that. Probably you have to be my favorite. And I know, cause I invited you for <inaudible> and it's just so fun.
2 (18m 37s):
Yes. Honestly, they celebrate here, not in a bad way, but like so much fun. You're like, wow, okay. I've been invited to some potluck and then you show up in like half the neighborhoods there and you meet like seven new families that just moved here that could need your help around serenbe in getting around. And you're like, wow, I'm so happy. I came all these amazing people.
3 (18m 59s):
Serenbe and me is like very special to me because I remember when I was little, we used to live in Decatur, Georgia in Pangborn. My parents would not even let me walk down to the driveway to just get some mail because they were scared that I might get hurt because the streets right there, their cars zooming really fast. But then when I look in, I'm realizing that this life in Serenbe is the best thing that's ever happened to me. I can go anywhere. There was a significant difference where when I could not get the mail at all and I could not go to my friend's house because they were across the street and my parents had to work.
3 (19m 44s):
Now you can just text your parents or tap on their shoulder and be like, Hey, can I go over to reach house or Ryan's house and go do some work. And they're like, yeah, because they're not as worried because they know that we have so many local neighbors are here for you in Washington back. If anything happens.
2 (20m 4s):
Yeah. When you look at it and you're like, wait, did I even tell my parents setting here? And you get home? And I'm like, sorry, I didn't tell you that. Like you were gone. I was like, yeah. So, and you just, I know our class specifically, we have a whole group chat on messages and we'll be like, I'm heading up to the green for the food truck who wants to meet up with me. And before you know it, you've texted your friends 20 minutes ago and you all met up on your bikes and you go, especially for the electric ones, it's a really fun. And you go meet up with the green, you grab something from the food truck on Fridays and you go zoom around the entire neighborhood and you have fun until you realize that it is nine o'clock at night. And it somehow got it gets dark. Yeah.
3 (20m 46s):
My parents, they are not worried like the boys who are only five from four to six can just roam around freely in my parents. Won't have to be worried. Or most parents won't have to be worried that their kids are gone. Cause like my brother has, we couldn't not find him. And so many of our neighbors looked for us because they were so nice and they just wanted to help out because everybody is so kind and considerate and wants to help out in a community. And so even though my brother, we found him, he was under the bed asleep.
3 (21m 29s):
He wrote out under the red, the sleep, but the neighbors, they just jumped to it. They love friendly. They wanted to help out because they were worried about him. It's because we have such a great community, but off relationships and friendships.
2 (21m 46s):
Yes. Honestly, it can. I agree with that anymore. That's amazing. I've never heard that story. And that's quite funny. Yeah. It's, there's just so many small things that you don't realize that your neighbors, friends, family, and just community in general, be willing to help you with I've seen on Facebook. Does anybody have a screwdriver? We just moved here. We don't have one. Can someone help us light bulbs? You don't have any in our houses, dark. And then you look in the comments and it's like, we can, we can. And it's just honestly, just kind of heartwarming to think. Wow. So many neighbors want to help.
3 (22m 17s):
I know so many neighbors, cause it's really funny. We have a serenbe, neighbors, Facebook, and I know a bunch of neighbors who are like, oh shoot, I forgot to check this area. Neighbors just in case there's anything up that I can grab. We just got a bed for my brother. I wanted a new bed so bad. And the neighbors like, oh, we have a new bed. And then when we went over their house, we were like, but where are you in negative bed? And they're like, oh, the neighbors are getting, give me a bed. I was like, okay. And every day my mom just checks to see on Facebook and we get so many new things and we give so many new things. So it's basically like we're trading and then we get it back.
3 (22m 57s):
And it's just so funny because I just love it.
2 (23m 1s):
Yes. I totally agree. Again. I hear you. Sometimes I'll kind of steal my mom's phone. I'll check Facebook and I'll be like, mom, there's this free dresser. And it's so cute. Can we go grab and she'll be like, grab the keys and we'll just hop on the golf cart. And we'll like, scoot over system house. You'd grab a bunch of books before we've actually given them do the elementary below babysitter's club. One of my favorites. Yes. And I definitely, as you said, it's a giving you get like, sometimes you'll just say, yep, I got the sweatshirt up for grabs. I remember we gave Freddy and actions t- shirt, he put it up there and you realize one of your friend's brothers just wants one. And you're like, okay, here you go. And then all of a sudden, the next day you see some things on there for you.
2 (23m 41s):
And it's kind of like good car right away. You give and you get,
3 (23m 45s):
Serenbe is such a great community. And it's amazing to just see your life compared to what it was in the city. And see it now because Serenbe may seem a little hidden town because you wouldn't look Serenbe up and find where it is. You wouldn't have to go on like an adventure to find it. And when you do find it, you'd be so happy because the first time my brother came here, we went out on one of Steve's migrants talk walks, where he just introduces all the neighborhoods in. Right? When we walked like past into Modo, we found our dream home in to get the opportunity to build our home and leave our life being who we are in learning new things that then influences, like you said, who we want to be when we grow up.
3 (24m 41s):
And I think that Serenbe has done that to so many people and it's been such an amazing and life changing thing.
2 (24m 48s):
Yeah, of course. Life-changing is a great word to describe Serenbe when my mom has gone into coffee talk before, and it was about the new real estate in Modo, those new houses that are being built. It's kind of funny to see just how they're like, let's show everybody and you go on a walk, you get a nice cup of coffee and you go and you just listen. And sometimes it's all you kind of need to realize and take in. What's going around. You, you just listen.
3 (25m 13s):
And I wish that everybody had the opportunity to live here because I know I love it. And I know you love it in so many kids would love to live here. And I know my parents would love to have grown up here. My family likes to call it being Serenbe, where when you're walking and then somebody just distracts you and you just go into this like hour long conversation. And I know that's happened to my family. Many times we've gone to the mail, came back two hours later and we're like, oh, that was a really deep conversation. That was nice. And these people will buy your house and they'll have their kids on my welfare.
3 (25m 56s):
And my mom will talk with them and then would be like, oh God kids, it's time to go. Then they'll keep talking. And we're hanging out for like five hours and it gets dark. You just don't realize it because all you focus on Serenbe is having a blast because that's what it does to you. You have the best time of your life in Serenbe.
2 (26m 16s):
Yes. It's you basically living on Serenbe every time that you decide how long you spend on certain things. And now that, like you said, how you just, sometimes the community will do stuff for you. I've had friends bring dinner over for us during some tough times, but yeah, honestly, I feel like we've covered mainly everything that I wanted to ask you. So again, just thank you for coming on here, Maddie. And I love talking to you today about everything that we love about succession and that people may not know the hidden things in general, that people don't really realize and take for granted sometimes. So yeah. Thank you for coming on. Thank you for inviting me.