You ask me why I am homeschooled. You ask me how I socialize. You tell me that I need to go to school to be in the real world. You think I'm sheltered. You think I will grow up not knowing the "facts of life." You think whatever you want to think. I know.

I don't bother anyone. They don't bother me. I'm as friendly as possible to everyone I meet, and it's their fault if they choose not to accept my friendliness. I like it that way. I wear the clothes I choose to wear, talk without raising my hand, and usually spend a few hours out of my day writing and reading, just because I want to. My parents are two of my best friends. I'm more than blessed that they actually care that I exist. I don't boast of the fact, but I can't deny that I am blessed to have them. I take classes, and have taken classes since I was thirteen, at a community college. I get to talk to a variety of interesting people there. Sometimes, when I'm in the computer lab, this old lady who takes computer classes all the time comes in and sits next to me. She's a real character. She smokes, like, two packs a day, is probably at least 65 years old, and has a horrible hacking coughing session nearly every time she's in there. The coughing usually lasts at least 25 minutes, or until someone leads her out to the drinking fountain. She's a character because you usually don't see too many slightly mentally-muddled old ladies puffing away outside the campus building, hacking away, and yukking it up with the blue-haired highschool drop-outs. It's quite the scene. That's one of the reasons I like going to Middlesex Community College. The other reason I enjoy it is because I like learning. Really, I do. The only reason it couldn't be even the least bit fun is because people make it no fun. Of course, algebra isn't always the world's most exciting pastime, but you don't necessarily have to dread it. Everyone is born with the love to learn. It is the thing that makes us listen to our parents speak. It helps us imitate them when we are yet a year old. It is was makes us learn to speak our native languages. To say we did not, at one time or another, enjoy learning is a lie. There is, for those of us who have not had the love of learning taken away from us, the satisfaction that you know something new. And yet, after all this, I'm told I should go to highschool.

I should go to highschool because I need to learn how to socialize. There, I'll be able to interact, on a daily basis, with lots of people who I will attempt to be friends with and who will either ignore me or hate me, because I have zits, don't wear makeup, wear the clothes I want, and/or like to answer questions in class. I will then be dubbed the loser, and be expected to be picked on every day of my life, without fighting back. I will also be expected to just sit back and take every punch someone throws at me, mentally, verbally, or physically. Then, before school, I'll spend the only time I have to myself worrying whether I'll bump into that one person who hates me.

I should go to highschool because I need to learn that I am my own person, that I am an individual who has his or her own part in society. I think it would be fun to go to lots of classes where they look down on me as a teenager, since I, by right, am 'supposed' to hate my parents, minorities, and the world in general, and therefore must be treated like an animal. I want teachers to dictate my life, teaching me what the state feeds them, instead of my parents, because the government knows how to raise children better than my parents do. I'd rather like having to raise my hand to use the bathroom, to offer an opinion, or say something that needs to be said. I think, instead of just finishing my school work and being done with it, I'd rather wait around half the time in study halls, throwing spitballs. It's a good way to waste time, since I obviously have nothing better to do than sit around picking at my toenails, pretending to study.

I should go to school because I need to learn how to be culturally diverse, since there are many people who I don't know about, out in the big world. There are people from different ethnicities, different cultures, and different religions, and I need to learn to be tolerant of them. There, I will be told repeatedly to be my own person, to be an individual, and that whatever I choose to say and believe and stand up for is a just and honorable cause that I should be proud of. Then, the rest of the school will turn on me and single me out because I do not wear the same clothes, talk, and think the way they do. The teachers will call me a freak because I don't fit in with my 'peers.' I can spend time in classes, being told that I need to love everyone, that I should appreciate everyone and be everyone's friend, and that every culture and belief is GOOD. Then, I will stand and take insults from teachers and students alike, the same students and teachers that say that not being tolerant is a horrible thing that they will never do, because I am a Christian, and I believe in God.

I need to go to highschool because I need to go out in the 'Real World.' The Real World is full of such things as the ever-exciting Quest for Popularity and Acceptance. This involves having a naturally beautiful outside, but does not necessarily involve a beautiful personality. There, I will spend all my waking hours trying to mold myself into the current trends, personalities, and dreams. I will try my best to be a beautiful person, to be with the best crowd. I will not engage in such heinous activities such as the following: thinking; attempting to mature and figure out my future; using common sense with matters like drugs and alcohol; and choosing carefully the people I date. I will be as outgoing as I can, as flirty as I can, lest I be ridiculed for being the quiet kid. In the Real World, I will need to know how to get into petty fights with people. More than anything else, I'll need to learn how to date lots of egotistical, yet handsome, "Scums of the Earth" who will not only cause me a lot of trouble and worry, but will also undoubtably take up too much of my time. Another useful skill is stealing other people's boyfriends. I will, no doubt, need this to advance on the corporate ladder of the future.

Maybe I'll be a miserable wretch for the twelve years I spend in school, but I most definitely will be able to play sports, be selectively tolerant, know how to not be multicultural, be whoever everyone else is, be an individual, be rebellious, and, hopefully, make scars into my life that may never fade. The only thing I will not be able to do is LEARN. Minor technicality.

Hi. My name is Cassie, and I'm a homeschooler. Thank you.