A Letter Home From College After Homeschooling
Dear Mom,
You were my only teacher in high school, but I couldn’t have asked for a better one.
You taught me more than you’ll ever know and much more than I could ever ask for. By homeschooling me, you changed the very core of my being from a lost and bewildered little girl into the strong woman I am proud to be.
It was through your example and growth that I have become the only thing I have ever wanted to be – I have become me. I remember my reaction to your telling me you were homeschooling me (and my brother and sisters). I remember that I fought you tooth and nail with every breath in my thirteen-year-old body.
I simply couldn’t see how removing me from mainstream society was good for me in any way. I saw only my isolation and loneliness, and I saw myself unable to ever regain any semblance of normalcy. It makes me laugh now to think about just how ridiculous I actually was.
Your brave decision to homeschool all of us changed my life forever. You removed us from the grips of public opinion, peer pressure and high school drama. I remember initially wanting to be a part of the drama instead of just looking at it from the very distant outside, and then I remember shaking my head as I watched my friends slowly go downhill.
Without the distractions of peers and appearance and the ”drama” I had wanted so badly, I was able to truly become the person that I was meant to be, instead of a carbon copy of a typical high school student. You gave me the gift of individuality and a freedom from peer pressure. I was able to grow and learn and apply the morals and virtues and characteristics that you instilled in me. But most importantly, I was able to learn more about you.
I had loved you my whole life as my mother, but it was not really until we began homeschooling that you became my best friend. I learned more about your opinions, and it was then I began to fully realize just how alike we are. I learned that I was able to talk to you about almost anything, and you were always there when I needed you.
Perhaps no one can ever truly understand how much you have taught me, but to say that you taught me how to be me through your love and example is probably the simplest explanation. You gave me the gift of myself and the gift of the greatest friend anyone could ask for.
And for those gifts I will perhaps never truly be able to find the words to thank you enough.
