When I was ten years old, I could not read. My father was a professional golf caddy for the P.G.A. Tour, so my family traveled state to state for nine months of each year, following the golf tournaments in a R.V. This meant that my parents had no choice but to homeschool me and my two younger brothers. Yet my inability to read was not a result of incompetence, but rather a belief in an extreme interpretation of the Waldorf Education approach to learning. My schooling, up to that point, was primarily play, art, and field trips throughout the country. My parents believed that a child would learn to read naturally in the same way a child learns to talk: that through exposure and time they would read when ready. This childhood was euphoric, and
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Compared to my public school friends, I knew very little, which convinced me that my education up to that point was inadequate. I was scared about what would happen if I stayed home schooled and curious about how I would do if I changed environments, so I made the very difficult decision to go to public high school for the first time as a freshman. I was determined to prove that I was as capable as those around me, and with the support of wonderful teachers, I was able to adjust to the expectations. After some dramatic, and even comical struggles, I slowly began to excel. I gradually decrypted the requirements to be successful in regular classes, and after adapting, I soon found myself moving into honors. In four years I went from a struggling freshman (the school considered holding me back a year), to excelling in Advanced Placement classes my senior year. I felt disappointed in spite of my success; while a lot of my friends were satisfied with a high school diploma, I was upset I did not receive the yellow ribbon that signified graduating with above a 3.5 GPA. My fellow honor students were all accepted to excellent four year universities, yet I was left with very few options. Again, I chose the more challenging path, and began at the nearby junior college which allowed me to transfer into a four year that would be otherwise
Compared to my public school friends, I knew very little, which convinced me that my education up to that point was inadequate. I was scared about what would happen if I stayed home schooled and curious about how I would do if I changed environments, so I made the very difficult decision to go to public high school for the first time as a freshman. I was determined to prove that I was as capable as those around me, and with the support of wonderful teachers, I was able to adjust to the expectations. After some dramatic, and even comical struggles, I slowly began to excel. I gradually decrypted the requirements to be successful in regular classes, and after adapting, I soon found myself moving into honors. In four years I went from a struggling freshman (the school considered holding me back a year), to excelling in Advanced Placement classes my senior year. I felt disappointed in spite of my success; while a lot of my friends were satisfied with a high school diploma, I was upset I did not receive the yellow ribbon that signified graduating with above a 3.5 GPA. My fellow honor students were all accepted to excellent four year universities, yet I was left with very few options. Again, I chose the more challenging path, and began at the nearby junior college which allowed me to transfer into a four year that would be otherwise