When I was fourteen years old, my mother gave me the choice of being homeschooled or attending a public high school. My older brother had shuddered at the thought of being associated with the stereotype of socially awkward, unfashionable “homeschool kids.” However, I saw the idea of spending my days at home as a challenge and an opportunity.

I liked the ability to follow my curiosity. Each morning, my mother taught me Spanish, French, and English. In the afternoons, I practiced piano and violin and studied math. In addition, I took science, history, and Latin through the Florida Virtual School. When I became particularly interested in medieval history, I read Dante’s Inferno, wrote an essay on the bubonic plague, and learned how to make stained glass windows.

Most of all, I loved being an independent learner. Because my mother worked part-time as a French teacher, oftentimes there was no one around to explain my mistakes to me. Instead, I would work backwards, step by step, to find my mistake in a math equation or track down an explanation for a French grammar rule. Even though I didn’t go to school, as captain of the local high school swim team and a member of the Tampa Bay Youth Orchestra, I felt like I had the best of both worlds. I socialized with people my own age without giving up the freedom to control my education.

However, homeschooling also had its drawbacks. My mother disliked math and the hard sciences, leaving those subjects for me to puzzle out on my own. I had enjoyed learning algebra by myself, but struggled to get through science classes. When I was sixteen and enrolled in a chemistry course at the local community college, I found myself utterly unprepared. Taking online classes had been completely different, and I had never set foot in a lab before. After countless visits to the tutoring center and late nights poring over the periodic table, I felt an enormous sense of accomplishment when I passed the class with a C.

I’ll never know what I missed by not having attended high school. But I do know that the unconventional education I received was integral in shaping my character. I learned how to be my own teacher and to identify my strengths and weaknesses. Homeschooling also helped me be creative and analytical in ways that a more traditional education might not have.