Homeschooling: The Best Or Worst Idea Ever

In the early days of my writing career I developed many skills that have helped mold me into the writer that I am today. Being homeschooled, I never went through a formal language arts class so none of my papers were ever edited by other kids in my class or a teacher, which leaves me guessing about what important skills I didn’t get to pick up. Over the past four years of being out of k-12, I’ve gone through a lot of struggles and trials and left intellectual development at a standstill, so to say the least, I’m out of practice when it comes to writing. Even during my homeschooling, though, writing wasn’t my favorite form of communication, I would much rather give a speech or presentation to tell my story or make my case. Writing has always been something that I have struggled at where speaking is something that comes naturally, my words aren’t staring at me from an editable page, giving me time to take them back or change them.

Being homeschooled, my mother was my only teacher, for all subjects. I can remember countless hours of sitting down to write long, boring papers when I’d rather be outside playing or swimming. It wasn’t always completely terrible though, she would let me write about whatever topic I wanted… The problem was, even though I could write about whatever I wanted, it wasn’t like I wanted to write in the first place, that just made it bearable. It also helped that I could find topics that I really was interested in and wanted to learn about, so I was learning a lot, just not getting too much better at writing or grammar. Even so, I still have a desire to learn and being more mature than I was during my k-12 years, I have the discipline and drive to become a better writer. Who knows? I may even start to enjoy writing.

I would love to see writing become one of my strengths throughout my time here at OCU, it’s a skill that I will need from here on out, for the rest of my life, and I need to be able to communicate effectively and professionally through writing. I know that becoming a better writer won’t just happen overnight, so I must be patient and persistent in my practicing. Over time, I will mold and shape my skills to eventually become a good writer, maybe even a great one.