School, 1952, was a piv­otal year in Kya Clark’s life, as she faced the daunt­ing real­i­ty of being thrust into a world far removed from the one she had known in the swamp. Her life, up until then, had been one of iso­la­tion and soli­tude, with only the occa­sion­al fleet­ing vis­it from her father and min­i­mal social inter­ac­tion with any­one oth­er than the crea­tures and nat­ur­al won­ders around her. One day, her world was shak­en when an unex­pect­ed car arrived, bring­ing with it the tru­ant offi­cer, Mrs. Culpep­per, and an unnamed man who told her they were there to take her to school. This moment marked the begin­ning of her expo­sure to the out­side world, a world that felt for­eign, intim­i­dat­ing, and dis­con­nect­ed from the com­fort of the marsh she called home. Despite her fear and reluc­tance to leave the only life she had known, Kya was lured by the promise of a warm, hearty meal—chicken pie—which per­suad­ed her to fol­low them.

With her father absent on his trip to Asheville, Kya reluc­tant­ly put on her best dress, the only one she had, and ven­tured into a world she could not ful­ly under­stand. Upon arriv­ing at the school, Kya was placed in the sec­ond grade, not because of any prop­er aca­d­e­m­ic assess­ment, but due to the lack of for­mal records and the over­crowd­ed nature of the school. She was sur­round­ed by strangers, all of whom seemed to be famil­iar with the rou­tines, expec­ta­tions, and the social norms she had nev­er learned. The sight of the class­room was over­whelm­ing to Kya, and her anx­i­ety was only height­ened when she made a mis­take while spelling “dog,” writ­ing it as “G‑o-d.” The class­mates’ laugh­ter and whis­pers made her feel fur­ther alien­at­ed, and the rejec­tion of her peers under­scored the deep divide between her and the world she was now a part of, ampli­fy­ing her lone­li­ness and rein­forc­ing the belief that she didn’t belong.

Yet, despite the sting of humil­i­a­tion, Kya’s nat­ur­al curios­i­ty and desire to learn per­sist­ed. Dur­ing lunch, she tried to find some com­fort in the food, but the iso­la­tion she felt only grew. She sat alone, the oth­er chil­dren either ignor­ing her or gos­sip­ing about her behind her back, height­en­ing her sense of being an out­sider. As the school day con­tin­ued, Kya’s sense of alien­ation deep­ened, and the weight of her iso­la­tion became unbear­able. The casu­al cru­el­ty of her peers left an indeli­ble mark, and she made the painful deci­sion not to return. Kya was left with the strong, unspo­ken knowl­edge that school, and the soci­ety it rep­re­sent­ed, were not places where she could thrive. Instead, she retreat­ed to the swamp, where she could once again immerse her­self in the famil­iar and com­fort­ing world of nature that had always pro­vid­ed solace.

Kya’s long­ing for edu­ca­tion did not fade, how­ev­er, despite her rejec­tion of the school sys­tem. The marsh had always been her true teacher, and it was in the soli­tude of the nat­ur­al world that she con­tin­ued to learn. Soon after her brief for­ay into for­mal school­ing, Kya found her­self injured, suf­fer­ing a wound from a rusty nail. Fear­ful of the poten­tial dan­gers, such as tetanus, and with no med­ical help avail­able to her, Kya relied on the knowl­edge passed down to her through gen­er­a­tions, using tra­di­tion­al reme­dies and the heal­ing pow­er of the marsh. This expe­ri­ence was a reminder of the harsh real­i­ty of Kya’s life—one that con­stant­ly pushed her to rely on her­self, while the world around her remained indif­fer­ent to her exis­tence. Despite these chal­lenges, Kya’s resilience shone through, and the strength she derived from the nat­ur­al world only deep­ened her resolve. She learned from the earth and its crea­tures, becom­ing more attuned to the rhythms of life around her. The chap­ter cap­tures Kya’s pro­found iso­la­tion but also her self-reliance, her inner strength, and the qui­et beau­ty of the world she inhab­its, one that she con­tin­ues to nav­i­gate on her own terms. Through this expe­ri­ence, the read­ers are shown not just her vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty but also her indomitable will to sur­vive and learn, a tes­ta­ment to her resilience in the face of adver­si­ty.