A Sheltered Life

Being homeschooled and all there are a lot of times where people ask how on earth I'm able to be social with other people, because, you know, homeschoolers are so sheltered and all.  There have also been people who talk about how much it must have sucked and tell me all the things I missed out on by not being public school.  For the most part, I just smile and nod and say that I really enjoyed being homeschooled.  Most of them just shake their heads like I'm crazy.

The thing is though, I'm really grateful that I was homeschooled.  I was in public school through 6th grade and quite honestly, it was hell.  I hated it, mostly because I was always that one kid who was the loser.  Being homeschooled, I didn't have to deal with that.  And even in middle school I had a lot of exposure to the cussing, sexual talk, and other inappropriate things that I shouldn't have heard about, much less know about at that age.

Being homeschooled sheltered me from most of that stuff.  I'd never really thought about myself as being sheltered per se until recently.  Not until I began meeting more girls close to my age who had gotten pregnant in high school and were now caring for two to three year old kids.  I was sheltered from that.  I didn't really have to worry about getting pregnant in high school, the thought of having sex during that time never even crossed my mind.  And I can't help but be thankful that my parents did make that choice to homeschool me.  Yes, I was sheltered in a way, but not in a social or otherwise negative way.  I was sheltered from things I didn't need to be thinking about, that I shouldn't have been thinking about.  And I think that made me a better person.

That doesn't mean that people who are public schooled are horrible, awful people or anything like that.  I've met awesome people who went to public school and were surrounded by all that and it didn't affect them.  That kind of environment just wouldn't have worked for me.  So if you're homeschooled, the next time someone makes a comment about how sheltered you must have been or are, just figure that maybe that's not such a bad thing.