A lot of people told me before I left for college that I didn't have to tell people my age, which is entirely true. Technically I never had to tell anyone, but they do wonder why you said no to the voting recruiters or didn't have certain life experiences. It was going to come up in conversation sometime.
I live in a suite with five other students, and they knew within the first week. Then a rumor got started that there was a sixteen-year-old freshman on campus and a lot more people found out. It's hard to keep it under wraps when you have to explain why you aren't going to be a good citizen and register to vote. A good amount of people know at this point so I guess I'm just going to come out and say it.
I'm a freshman, I'm sixteen, and it's really not that big of a deal.
No, really.
All that happened was I took extra classes in high school. I'm really not that different, I promise. I keep hearing things like "when I was your age, I never would've been able to handle college!" And maybe you wouldn't have. You probably also had a lot more going on in your life than when I was in tenth grade. I was cyberschooled and both of my parents worked, so pretty much my entire life was school, church, and sneaking some daytime television if Mom went out to the store. I don't have any experience with a physical classroom setting, but in a cyberschool, you're often on your own. The one I attended had two tracks, synchronous and asynchronous. Synch was anyone under a certain grade point average, and they were required to attend all classed and have meetings with advisors a certain number of times per year. Asynch? They handed you your books, a laptop, due dates, and told you to get it done. So, college, basically. I'm used to motivating myself and making sure assignments are in on time. What I'm not used to is socializing. Every. Single. Day.
You really can't get alone time in college unless you're lucky enough to have a single room, and for someone who isn't used to interacting with friends on a daily basis, it's hard to adjust to. This isn't to say I didn't have friends in grade school; I just didn't see them as often. Once or twice a week, maybe. Seeing so many people in such a small amount of time can be kind of overwhelming, but I think I'm getting the hang of it (not!), and I'm sure a lot of other introverts had the same freakout moment I did.
Maybe it's seems kind of weird or "child prodigy"-like, but even though I'm a bit younger, I'm not all that different. I have my strengths, but I have my weaknesses too (I might be a Creative Writing major, but iambic pentameter eludes me). There are certainly disadvantages (I can't vote, so you better!) to go along with the obvious positives. I'm going to stumble and have to pick myself up just like everyone else. It's not a walk in the park, I promise, and if there's one thing I'm learning from this, it's that there are no excuses. I'm judged on the same criterion as any other student, and honestly, it's a huge relief. I don't want special treatment for something that I find hard to see as special. I do want to be seen like anyone else is, and thank you for seeing me as another person and not just my age.
