Why I Chose Not to Go to High School
Opting out of the institutional teen years to start life early.
When I was 14, my peers were preparing for high school orientation. I was preparing to build my first sustainable garden and learning how to code in Ruby on Rails. I decided right then that I didn't have four years to waste.
The standard narrative says that high school is necessary for "socialization" and "preparation for college." But as someone who was already self-directing their education, those four years looked like an unnecessary detour.
Instead of sitting in a desk for 35 hours a week, I spent my teen years in the real world. I volunteered at a local non-profit, took community college classes at 15, and started a freelance design business by 16. By the time my friends were graduating high school, I already had three years of work experience and a professional portfolio.
High school teaches you how to be a student. Life teaches you how to be a human. I preferred the latter.
People often ask if I missed the "prom" or the "football games." I usually tell them that I didn't miss anything I couldn't find in the larger community—without the bells and the hallway passes.