The essay is based on a conversation with Daniel Baylor, 33, a paramedic and first aid volunteer who grew up in a traditional Amish community in Pennsylvania.
The following has been edited for length and clarity.
I was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, one of the major Old Order Amish settlements in the U.S. I grew up on a small farm in a small community surrounded by mountains and valleys, and I was always hunting, swimming, and riding horses.
They had no television or video games. They had no air conditioning or electric heating. They used wood or coal stoves. They traveled by horse-drawn carriage and hired taxis if they needed to travel long distances.
Our family had some pretty intense relationships, but overall, the environment I grew up in was really great.
Go to 10 different Amish communities and there are 10 different ways of doing things. In our community, there was no rumspringa where Amish youth went out and indulged in debauchery: drugs, alcohol, sex.
While that is a reality in some communities, it was never like that where I grew up.
An Amish farmer rides a horse-drawn tiller in Pennsylvania. Ted Shaffrey via AP Photo
Business-wise, the community is changing. By the time we left, many businesses were using smart phones and computers. Some homes had electricity.
The Amish realized that if they wanted to keep up with where business was going in today’s world and succeed, they had to embrace some things.
I wanted answers but I didn't get them.
I've always been a round peg in a square hole.
As a child, I had a strong desire to see the world. I would hike mountains. When I reached the top, I wanted to conquer the next one.
I grew up with a strong desire to achieve great things, but being Amish, I couldn't even get on a plane.
Baylor just wanted to get from one mountain peak to the next in Pennsylvania. Posnoff via Getty Images
In my opinion, the typical Amish way is that we are taught to blindly believe what our elders tell us, and I ask, “Why do we believe this way?
They will say, “Our grandparents said so, that's why we believe it.”
Ah, too bad. I wanted answers.
I was curious, the outside world was vast, yet I felt disconnected from it.
60 Seconds Before Death
When I was 14, we went on a sleigh ride in the snow, and I tried to hitch the horse to the sleigh, but he wouldn't. He reared up on his hind legs and hit me right in the temple.
I had a fractured skull and a brain bleed, and when I was rushed to hospital for emergency surgery, the doctors said I could die within 60 seconds.
Then I suffered from ADHD, OCD and depression. I also had back pain, problems concentrating and seizures. I became depressed and suicidal.
An Amish family walking through a field. William Thomas Cain/Getty Images
I took loads of medication, saw psychiatrists and psychologists, and managed to get through my teenage years.
One day I talked to a Mennonite counselor — the Mennonites are like the Amish, but they have cars and are a little more modern — and that day my life changed.
He showed me that there were other Amish people who questioned things, and that ultimately the Amish system had lost control over us.
We could either leave or be excommunicated, but in the community we come from, they don't do it as strongly or harshly as many others.
I was 23 and we were planning to get married, and the bishop didn't excommunicate us until three days after the wedding so that our families wouldn't have to boycott the ceremony. It was a way of saying goodbye.
I have a great relationship with the community now, I still visit and talk to them, and for the most part it's no big deal.
The open road
Life opened up a lot after we left here.
The whole universe was unfolding before us. We were married and trying to imagine what life would be like without the constraints of the Amish system.
When I started driving, it was such an amazing moment for me. I felt liberated. Sitting in my driveway in my car, I felt so liberated.
I remember thinking, “Hey, I have a car. I'm free to go.”
It was an event bigger than all other aspects of modern life, including electricity and other technologies.
We didn't have much time to dive into modern America, as 10 weeks after we left we were off to Iraq to be aid volunteers.
The Baylor family in Dnipro, Ukraine, in 2022. Jessica Melancon
I had never been on a plane before flying from Philadelphia to northern Iraq, where ISIS was rampant.
I was a little scared on the plane that it was going to explode, I know most planes don't, but I had to get over the fear I'd had since 9/11.
Over the next decade, we traveled from country to country helping with crises in Ukraine, Syria, Bolivia and more, while our family grew to five children.
We are currently moving to Idaho where I will be working as a paramedic for firefighters battling major wildfires.
Life on the Grid
We still identify as Amish, but now we're on the power grid, we have electricity, we have cars, etc.
And I'm still trying. When a storm comes and the power goes out, life slows down a little, and I don't like that feeling.
Living off the grid actually felt freeing before we had to rely on electricity and were self-sufficient for much of our food. Who cares if there's a three-day snowstorm? It was no problem at all.
I still miss that feeling.
I believe that connecting with nature is something that is lacking in modern society and has a huge impact on people.
I'm not saying you have to be in nature all the time, but I think if all you have is concrete and video games, you become disconnected from the living, organic things that God created.
My family is not technologically restricted now, but we're not so steeped in trash culture. But I love my phone. Social media is a guilty pleasure.
The funny thing is, at one point I was obsessed with watching Tom and Jerry for months at a time, and I'm not sure why.
We don't have a TV in our house because we don't want it to influence our kids, but we do go to the movies and let them watch YouTube.
We've noticed that the more time kids spend watching screens, the more they tend to become meaner.
On days like that, I tell my kids, “Why don't you go outside and play with the dog or go for a run in the woods?”
