#HowISurvivedHighSchool Part 1: 7 Myths About Homeschoolers
May 15, 2019
Hi there, welcome back to the blog!
Today I am coming at you with a very
special post/announcement: there is going to be a new series on this blog and
guess what? It starts TODAY. My apologies for the short notice but I
wasn’t sure if this was going to be a thing or not. I had this idea awhile back when I was
contemplating on what kind of post I wanted to do in spirit of me graduating
this year. I came up with a couple ideas
and finally decided that there were too many things I wanted to talk about and
it just wouldn’t all fit in one blog post (or it’d be so long that you all
would be sleeping by halfway through it.)
So thus was born the
#HowISurvivedHighSchool series. And yes,
the dramatic title was indeed my own original creation. I'm super excited and also very nervous to
share these next few posts with you. I
feel like for the last year or so I’ve been a very private person and just
haven’t shared much with you guys so I’m really going to try to be as much as
an open book as possible which sounds totally scary if I’m being honest.
Before I get started with part one,
I want to make a few general points about this particular series:
1. This
is a 6 week series and a new part will be posted each Wednesday (so mark your calendars.)
2. I am NOT here to call anyone out or
speak poorly of anyone I’ve encountered throughout my High School career. That’s not my vibe and my intentions of
writing these posts are to encourage; not to bring anyone down.
3. I
will be talking about certain people I’ve encountered and things I’ve
experienced, but please know that NO NAMES will be mentioned; if a name has to
be used it will be changed.
4. All the things I am going to tell you are true and are my stories that I have a right to tell.
5. Please
read/listen with open ears and hearts.
6. Some
of the topics I will be discussing are mature and very series at times so if
you can’t handle the intensity, please feel free to click out at any time.
Okay so with all that out of the way,
I want to jump straight in to part one.
I want to spend this first part telling you guys exactly what I do all
day: aka “Behind the Scenes of a Homeschooler.”
I feel like there are a lot of misconceptions of homeschooling in
general and I want to take some time to tell you guys exactly what is and isn’t
true about us “weird kids.”
1. Homeschoolers don’t actually study, we just sit around and watch Netflix in our pjs
1. Homeschoolers don’t actually study, we just sit around and watch Netflix in our pjs
This is definitely not true in my
case. I can only speak for myself, of
course, so there may be kids out there that do this but I try to be as
productive as possible each day. Now
there are definitely some days where I’m just lazy but for the most part I like
to wake up and get things done. As you
know, I do have a part time job along with blogging and doing YouTube as
hobbies so I definitely try to balance all of that throughout my week.
Being homeschooled definitely
teaches you a lot about time management.
There’s no bell to signal the start and end of the school day or the
pressure to complete assignments by a certain time. You have to decide all this for yourself;
which is good and bad for some cases. It
took me almost my whole High School career to finally develop a good routine
that works for me.
2. You
don’t have a social life
This is one of the biggest myths of
homeschooling. People automatically
assume that because we stay at home for school that we never leave the
house. If only. No, for me it’s been quite the opposite: I
have too much of a social life. Okay so
I have to admit, I’m not a very social person to begin with. At events you can usually catch me in the
corner, probably eating. So having a
social life has never been an issue for me but again, it could be different for
others.
I’ve had people my age who aren’t
homeschooled tell me “I would love to be homeschooled but I would miss the
social part of school.” People who
attend public school definitely have the advantage when it comes to
extracurricular activities. Most school
districts won’t allow homeschoolers to be on their football team, join Latin
club, etc. I would like to see that
change but that’s a whole other blog post.
I really think there are plenty of
opportunities out there for homeschoolers.
I’ve been an active 4-H member for 6 years; I’ve been a part of several
Youth Groups, as well as activities at my local library. So for me, socializing has never been an
issue. There are many activities to get
involved in; it just may require looking a little harder.
3. You
don’t have friends
This goes along with the previous
assumption but I wanted to quickly address this on its own. I’m going to talk about friendship in an
upcoming part to this series, but as far as making friends as a homeschooler I
really don’t think it’s that hard. As
long as you put yourself out there (ex. Youth Groups, 4-H, book clubs), it’s
not much different than how everyone else makes friends. The only difference is you don’t go to school
with them every day and sometimes I think that’s a good thing.
4. There’s
no drama
FALSE.
I literally have to restrain myself from laughing whenever people say
they think there’s no drama when you’re homeschooled. We live in a drama-prone world where no
matter where you are there’s going to be some type of drama- unless of course
you live under a rock.
I remember when I was younger and I
had just started middle school. I had
such high hopes and I thought once you got to middle school that life would be
so much fun and it would be like in the movies where I’d hang out with friends
all the time, go on fun trips together, etc.
I really can’t explain what my expectations were but I never thought it
would actually be completely different than my vision.
Looking back, I have a lot of
regrets of things I wish I hadn’t done, people I wish I never would have spoken
to, and all the different ways things could have gone better. Every day I think about how I wish people
from middle school could see me now and see how far I’ve come. If there’s one thing I’ve learned, though,
it’s that the best thing to do is let go and move on. It’s a hard principle to learn but you’ll
gain so much if you apply it to your life.
5. You
never leave the house
Once there was a week where it felt
like I was only home to sleep. However,
people seem to think that we don’t have any kind of life outside of school
which is not true at all. Honestly your
life is what you make out of it so there’s always the option to never leave the
house but I would probably lose my sanity if I stayed home all the time. I think it’s important to put yourself out
there in the outside world because there will definitely come a day where you
absolutely can’t be in your room all day long.
6. People
are homeschooled because they got expelled
This assumption comes straight from
what someone said to me just the other day.
We were talking and they said “I think some people are homeschooled
because they got expelled from school.”
What?!?! I have yet to meet
anyone who is homeschooled due to that reason but I suppose it’s always
possible. I had never even thought of
that before, which is why I wanted to include it. So now I’m going to be insecure when I tell
people I was homeschooled because what if people assume that?
7. That
homeschoolers don’t get to go to college
Again this is something someone said
to me awhile back but I’ll never forget it.
If homeschoolers didn’t go to college, how would they get jobs? Our economy would literally be failing if for instance everyone was homeschooled but we couldn't go to college. Surprisingly, homeschoolers are more often
accepted into colleges than schooled applicants. Why?
Because homeschooled students spend more time studying what they are
interested in rather than being forced to study the same things as everyone
else.
So
yes, we do get to go to college.
Well that wraps up this post! I hope maybe this provides you with a better
understanding of what being homeschooled is like and that we’re not all the
weirdos some people make us out to be.
Make sure to stay tuned for next Wednesday for part 2 of
#HowISurvivedHighSchool.
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