We’re only weeks away from Jeremy’s graduation, which both unbelievable and a relief. When we decided to homeschool eleven years ago, I couldn’t picture what graduation would even look like. It was light years away from the simplicity of second grade. Plus, we took the decision to homeschool year by year, giving us time and space to look at other options and make sure we weren’t missing something. There were a few times when we seriously considered the traditional school route, but, obviously, we stayed the course.
And now, the finish line is RIGHT THERE. Similar to passing mile 25 in a marathon, I am excited, tired, and a little weepy.
Jeremy is a menagerie of emotions too. He wants to grow up and move out, but he equally does not want high school soccer to end, nor lose the comforts of having all of your financial and nutritional needs met by parents. Crossing this threshold is both exhilarating and terrifying for a young person, but we’ve continued to encourage him and do whatever we can to get him ready for life after high school.
He is still in the throes of making up his mind about college, which is fine and normal. Between you and me, when that first college acceptance letter rolled in, I was thrilled — not just for him, but also for myself. A university looked his high school transcripts and accepted them as valid. What this meant — for me, anyway — is that homeschooling worked.
Even though I’ve been diligent about their education all this time, there has always been a small part of me that feared I’d done something wrong or disenfranchised my kids in some way that I couldn’t foresee.
And yet, an outside academic organization affirmed that homeschooling was indeed a success.
I checked in with another homeschool mom about this feeling of personal achievement, wondering if her kid’s college acceptance felt like a win for her too. Sure enough, it did.
By golly, it worked.
Graduation is May 14. Perhaps by then we’ll know what Jeremy wants to do in his next stage of life. We live in a great state for higher education, for which we are so grateful. It’s likely he’ll start his freshman year in August somewhere nearby, but whether or not he’ll sleep here or in a dorm room has yet to be determined.
We got Jeremy’s graduation photo back last week, the one that will run in the ceremony program. Hells bells, I wasn’t ready for that one. It was already exciting to have the cap and gown arrive by mail, but to actually see it on his body was a whole other level of realization. It is true that time waits for no one.
