Growing up homeschooled, I’ve heard all the stereotypes and seen all the reactions to me telling people I don’t attend public school. A lot of people would start telling me about their neighbor’s friend’s cousin who was homeschooled, or just straight up ask if I had any friends. They would tell me I was lucky I didn’t have to be stuck in school all day, and say they were jealous of me and all my free time. Ironically, I would read books and watch movies about kids going to school and secretly wish I were them. I’d wonder if public school was really like what I’d seen. My average day consisted of reading books, working on projects with my mom or dad, helping my mom around the house, going for a walk and doing random science experiments. On a good day, I would leave the house for a field trip to a museum, historical site or arboretum.
When I was young, my mom couldn’t just pause her life because she had to stay home and watch me, so I ended up going everywhere my mom went, whether that was meeting with her investment broker or going to the dentist for a root canal. I used to get embarrassed because I was painfully younger than anyone else at any given place my mother took me to, but now that I reflect back, I’m thankful for my mother giving me a taste of the real world. I got to interact with people of all ages and learn from those younger and older than me.
life lessons
Homeschooling gave me the freedom to learn beyond what was typically taught in school. I taught myself how to sew clothes, juggle, bake, write scripts, do American Sign Language and balance my own finances (which was really just money stored in a peanut butter jar piggy banks). When I was 7, I joined a homeschool co-op, and it changed the way I lived my life. I met twice a month with other homeschooled kids to have classes together. For the first time in my seven years of living, I felt ordinary. I got to create presentations for more than just my parents, pick out my own backpack for the first time and develop crushes. I experienced the horrors of elementary school dodgeball, social cliques and picture day, and loved every second of it because it was everything I’d read about in my books.
My mother wanted to make sure I was well-rounded, so I was enrolled in the most random sports throughout middle and high school. From gymnastics to American Ninja Warrior training to figure skating, I tried it all. I dabbled in piano, but my fingers and brain could not keep up with each other, so I ended up finding my love for music through choir. I found a new homeschool co-op in fifth grade and joined the choir there that was made up of 100-plus students. We sang every single genre of song you could think of, with five and six-part harmonies — we sang in various languages, too — and I got a taste of what it’s like to be a part of something bigger than just me.
Life in college
Going from that flexible, non-traditional environment to Mizzou, where over 30,000 undergrad students are enrolled, was a culture shock to say the least. I felt both overprepared and underprepared for college life. I felt like I had basic life skills that my peers might not have been taught in school, but I also had no idea how to fit in. What a cliche, I know. I had eventually learned to mimic people’s behavior and pick up on trends and slang throughout my years in high school, but college showed me just how vastly different my experience was from others. I kept getting told by everyone I met that I didn’t seem homeschooled, but small things like getting food from a cafeteria were exciting to me and sitting in a classroom with my own desk was so novel. Not knowing everyone in every class was so weird to me and in-person exams in giant lecture halls stressed me out. I couldn’t get over being able to go to massive football games that were shown on TV, having a recreation center so close and living with my friends just a few feet away.
Looking back a year and a half later, I can’t imagine how I lived before Mizzou and the constant busyness and activity of campus life. I’d been looking forward to the traditional college experience all throughout high school, and Mizzou gave me everything I expected and more. Being able to work for actual published news stations during college and help people gain confidence in their writing at the Writing Center were things that I dreamed about my whole life and never thought someone from my homeschooled background could ever experience. M-I-Z!