“Oh, I was homeschooled.” I’m only in my fourth week of college, and I feel like I’ve said this a million times (this is a conservative estimate, of course).
When you’re getting to know someone new, you run through all of the standard questions: where are you from? What’s your major? What dorm are you living in? Maybe someone asks me a question about my graduating class, or if they’re familiar with my hometown – either way, I find myself explaining that I graduated at the very top of my graduating class of one person, and I had zero investment in the local football rivalry. Reactions to this fun fact vary from complete disinterest to utter astonishment – “but you’re so normal!” is a popular response – but truly, it’s not that big of a deal.
Homeschooling may not be a mainstream choice yet, but the ranks who choose to teach their children at home are steadily growing: there are an estimated 2.3 million homeschooling students in America. My K-12 education may not be trendy yet, but it is becoming more and more accepted and understood as more and more people explore the many options and nuances. While I feel prepared and ready to tackle the next four years of ups and downs, I can definitely acknowledge the potential issues and concerns that can arise from this big transition.
So without further ado, here are the three biggest challenges that I have faced during these first weeks of my freshman year (and how I’ve approached them!)
People are everywhere, always.
In stereotypical homeschooler fashion, I lean towards the introverted side of the personality spectrum. This wasn’t a big issue in high school, but now that I’m in college, there are always people around. Like, always. It has it’s upsides, definitely, but when you want to be alone, the constant barrage of faces and voices can get beyond frustrating. Living in a suite-style dorm alleviates this a lot, but I’ve also found it necessary to carve out time that is absolutely off-limits to other people. Laying in bed watching Netflix or walking around campus with my earbuds in does wonders for a stressful day. Sometimes I even sit alone for 10 minutes and I decide that I want to be around my friends, and that’s the beauty of campus life: they’re 10 minutes away! But other times, I decide I need to stay alone and decompress, and that’s a beautiful thing too. No one is telling you what to do with your free time, so it’s easy to get sucked in to a cycle. Avoid this and take time to evaluate what you really feel like doing!
Time management skills are actually a thing.
Everyone always talks about good time management skills as being necessary for college, but I never really sweated it – shouldn’t someone who had a primarily student-driven education be able to manage her time in a college environment? Actually, not necessarily. While I don’t have that much trouble knowing when I should work on my homework (actually working on my homework is another issue, but I digress…) there is still a learning curve to making sure I get to my classes, meetings, and other responsibilities on time. Homeschooling means that you’re actually…you know, at home most of the time, so finding the best routes to my classes has been a small struggle.
Also, in my experience with homeschooling, my schedule was extremely loose and based on when I determined I wanted to complete things. With very few set class times, I didn’t have to worry about getting work done between classes or the night before an 8:00 am. Now, I have to look at my schedule as a whole and figure out how to utilize my free time and gaps between classes wisely. The temptation to spend that 45 minute break in Starbucks scrolling through my Instagram feed is real — too real on some days — but learning how to use that time to actually accomplish work has been one of the toughest and most valuable lessons.
The stereotypes are so real.
I’ve gotten pretty much every reaction you might expect to get when you tell someone you were homeschooled. I know that for some people, this is a bizarre concept and I’m so happy to talk about my experiences, but telling me that you’re surprised I’m normal or blatantly asking me how I got into college is not the way to go about learning more. There are a lot of preconcieved notions that people have about homeschooling, and most of them aren’t positive.
Homeschooling has been an amazing experience for me and I’m so thankful for the opportunity, but it doesn’t overshadow what I am currently doing and the direction I’m headed in with my education. I’m grateful for my friends: the absolutely amazing group of girls who didn’t over-dramatize a small element of my life, and instead decided that their lives needed someone to sing musicals at unholy hours and cry about dogs with (a.k.a me). My advice to any incoming college students with a background in homeschooling is to own it. The stereotypes are irrelevant but they’re not going away anytime soon, so forget the pointless judgement and go forth and dazzle people with your shockingly well-developed social skills!
There have been minor bumps in the road, definitely – to name a few, opening my combination locker in the post office has been a major struggle, and the cafeteria-style dining hall has caused many small breakdowns. Like, I’m not that stressed over the classes, but figuring out where to put my fork after lunch? That’s the kind of thing I’ve been worrying about.
Overall, the transition to college has been frustrating at times and hilarious at others, but never has it been the insurmountable struggle that I feared. This is the most stressful, awkward, beautiful, tiring, exhilirating time of my life so far, and I feel like homeschooling hasn’t hindered me at all. If anything, it’s helped prepare me for the level of indepent initiative required for college-level work. So for any homeschooled students out there thinking about college, take heed: reserve some time for yourself, plan your schedule out wisely, and represent the rest of the “unsocialized weirdos” well as you transition into college life!
Disclaimer: My experience with homeschooling is just one of many, and not everyone is fortunate to have had such a fulfilling and successful homeschool career as I have. Please keep in mind that many alternative education methods may fall under the term ‘homeschooling’, and I don’t speak with authority regarding the quality of homeschooling in relation to anything but my personal experience!