A brief introduction

Sitting down to write the first sentence of a first post is, to say the least, a daunting task. Formal introductions always seem awkward to me, especially when I want this blog to be a laid-back and from-the-heart sort of place. So I'll keep the obligatory 'compiling myself into a list of traits and interests' brief. My name is Lucia Luna (Lucia being my first name, Luna being my middle. Although I go by both),  and I have been 'homeschooled'- more specifically, 'unschooled', since kindergarten. Oh and I'm going into my sophomore year of high school in 1 week. Also I just had to double-check myself on how to spell sophomore... that should give you a good idea of the situation.

These are the first few things I bring up because my main plan for this blog is to be a journal of my experiences going into public school for the first time, both for me personally and for anyone who may find it informative, interesting, or helpful. 

When I first started listening to the little voice in my head musing that "hey, wouldn't it be interesting to try out high school?" I did a little research online, hoping to come across someone who had done what I was tempted to do and could give me some insight on what the transition is like. I could find absolutely nothing out there. 

So, being the person that I am, my next instinct was to be crazy and spontaneous and use myself as the guinea pig. Every day I both regret and admire that decision. And school hasn't even started yet. 

Now that you know the basis of this blogging endeavor I feel the need to go into a bit more detail on what unschooling has been for me. Because wow are there a lot of people doing it in such totally different ways. 

I don't unschool for religious reasons, or to have an only academic focused agenda and learn calculus in 7th grade, or as an excuse to just sit around playing video games. 

I unschool to be able to choose what I want to do and propel myself forward with my own motivation, to have a deeper connection and more time with my family, to escape bureaucracy and tackle learning with a hands on approach, to travel, to spend as much time as possible in nature, and something very important to me personally- to gain a strong sense of self, absent from any obligation to conform to social standards. 

But unschooling has also given me more curiosity than I know what to do with... which I suppose sooner or later was going to wonder about school. 

The process of switching to a public school life hasn't been easy- and it's not over yet. I haven't exactly done things in the "correct order", according to school curriculum, and finding a place and way to stick me into their extremely detailed system isn't easy. (More on that in a future post), but I'm hoping that with a bit of luck I'll be able to do- more or less- the classes I want. I'm sure I'll gain something valuable from this experiment, even if it's just the knowledge that I reallyyyyy wasn't made for the school environment. 

-Lucia