After attending kindergarten, my parents made the decision to homeschool me. Many events lead them to choose this lifestyle for my siblings and I. Having a little brother who was often in the hospital and certain situations at school, such as physical encounters and shootings nearby, made homeschooling the best option for us.

I'll be honest, my education was far from the 7 or so hours in some classroom 5 days a week. Most of my school books were brought along with me and finished in the car on the way to field trips, volunteer events, and seeing family. Yes, my handwriting was awful due to being in a car.

During the time I was homeschooled, I slightly despised it because I felt like I was missing so many of the things other kids were experiencing; however, after shadowing a student at a private school for only a day I realized sitting in a classroom and working on their schedule would be miserable for me.

I've had many adventures through this lifestyle that I wouldn't have gotten from a public/private school. By the age of 12, I was teaching entire school groups about science at a local camp which I volunteered at for 6 years. My love for people has been sparked by being around all age groups, instead of just my own age. It was my fault for never feeling a belonging with other homeschoolers and tearing myself down about my education. I consider myself to be motivated and hard hardworking because that was my best option for being homeschooled. If I wasn't fitting my school work into my schedule (if you can even call it a schedule) every day was immensely different from the day before.

The main struggles were the treatment received from other people. It's baffling how you can immediately be judged based on where you were educated. Even adults would make snarky comments about it. I remember going to a career expo for 8th graders with my homeschool group while tons of other public-school groups were there also. Each career table had freebies for everyone except one table, who after finding out we were homeschooled put her supplies under the table, critiqued us for being homeschooled, and said her stuff was for school groups only.

It was moments like these when the blood rushed to my face as I had to take a deep breath and fight off tears because adults were making me feel inferior and dumb compared to others.

Despite the few negatives about homeschooling, I can at least say I've had numerous life experiences from it. Wherever you were educated let the story be yours and never let anyone make you feel ashamed of where you come from. Although I'm done with homeschooling and attend a university, it's still a big part of what shaped my personality.