Amish diary

  Thursday 7th July 2002     I'm getting to the end of my rumspringa. I have thought a lot in the past month, and I  still don't know what I'm going to do. I haven't been home lately, I have been out with  a couple of friends. We have been camping all summer long, and bathing in the ocean  to the sunset. My mom has tried to convince me to stay in the Amish community, but I  also wanna try to live a normal life, where I can go traveling together with my friends  and family if I get one someday. Just like my one sister, she just got married to this  perfect man, she chose not to continue in the Amish community. I spoke to her the  other day, she said that to leave the Amish was the best decision she ever made. She's  actually pregnant, I haven't told my parents and I don't think I ever gonna do it. It's  best for them not to know it.    I also got a boyfriend, but he's not an Amish. Of course, he is trying to convince me to  leave the Amish, he said that I could have my own family. I don't know yet, I m only  18 years. My mom and dad got me when they were 25 years. They have known each  other since 2nd grade. I don't see my dad so much, only for dinner and in the church.  He's working a lot, when I was a child my mom told me he was out catching monsters  so I could sleep well.     I have four brothers and one sister and I'm the youngest, all my brothers are in the  Amish community except my sister. My closest brother Nico believes that I wanna  leave the Amish and actually he is supporting me. I don't know but I think he's right,  now I have been living in the Amish for 18 years I really wanna try something new. I  know it's for the rest of my life but I can feel that this is right. Most of my classmates  will continue in the Amish, but that s okay I don't fit in. I think I got my answer, now I  just need to tell my parents.     - Ida Krum 9.T