The Past

Let's take a small trip down memory lane...

2 years ago my daughter was depressed. Seriously depressed. She begged us each day to not have to go back to school. In fact, at this time 2 years ago she probably didn't even go this last week. I was exhausted from trying to help her navigate her unhappiness and she was overweight and miserable, self medicating with food. I had spent an entire year calling, emailing, fighting the school trying to get her into the right classes since they had mistakenly put her into the wrong classes. Her English teacher, who I had written notes and called for a whole year finally got in touch with me. So she could accuse my daughter of cheating and lying.

Anyone who knows my daughter knows how ludicrous an accusation that was.

She graduated on Saturday. From The Learning Community International, a home schooling, consultant based program. She stood up on the podium, confident and beautiful, giving a speech that showed her appreciation for TLCI; her wonderful consultant, Astrid; and her wonderful parents who supported and helped her :). She showed her amazement and excitement about being accepted into college, which she never thought would happen based on her grades 2 years ago. She stood with her diploma and just grinned from ear to ear.

No matter what your opinion is of home schooling, I'm here to tell you: For some kids, it's a life saver. Taking all that stress off of her made all the difference in the world. We were blessed to have this program drop into our laps and blessed to have the sense to take the 'road less traveled'. I was amazed at the eloquence and wisdom of the graduates. They were not just a bunch of weirdo, geeky, religious freaks....which I am ashamed to say I occasionally labeled home schoolers as..... They were funny, and very well spoken and extremely confident. One is an Olympic skater, another a national archery champion, yet another gave his speech in Japanese since he got to spend 4 years there, another had just gotten back from Bolivia... it went on and on. Just amazing stories. Just brilliant kids. Wow.

Congratulations Rhia! And thank you for showing us the way.... and to Astrid, thank you from the bottom of our hearts for helping Rhia show us the way. You are amazing.