You're Going to College at 14?

Ah, yes. The classic statement when I told people of my goal. I wanted to get to college at 14. Since I live in America, our school system dictates that we spend 5 years in elementary school, 3 years in middle school, and 4 years in high school. If you differ from this predestined path, then you're automatically going to stand out. However, I differed from this path early.

Firstly, I was home-schooled. And I know you've probably heard lots of things about homeschoolers but unfortunately, I can only speak from my experience. I was born in South Florida but I bounced around a bit before ending up in Michigan at the age of 6. This is where the best part of my homeschooling experience was. Up until this point, my mom had been homeschooling my sister and I. She bought me workbooks in English and math and made sure we went to the science and art museums. I still have a little jug from an art class I took there. But back to Michigan. In my county, the government paid for several free courses for homeschoolers through a partnership. So I could register for classes and take anything they offered at no charge. I took home ec, architecture, swimming, gymnastics, art, Japanese, and economics. We also got to go on field trips. Having all of these resources greatly enriched my learning experience. My mom continued to teach us core subjects like math, history, science, and English. But then, we moved back to Florida. This time to the central area and I went to school for the first time. It was a tiny private school and it was definitely an interesting experience for me. It was quite a culture shock because up until this point, I had only lived on college campuses, so my views on education were quite different than the people around me although I didn't know it yet. It took some adjusting to and I was quite bored. I was only there for one year until after I completed the 4th grade. Then it was back to homeschooling. It was more difficult because there wasn't a program like I was used to in Michigan, but we made the best of it. It was during this time however that I set my goal of getting to college at 14.

A year or two after I left school, my dad called me over to see a news article he was reading. It was about a boy named Tanishq Abraham who had three degrees at the age of 12. I was amazed and I thought it was really cool until my dad suggested something crazy. He told me that I could do that too. I was shocked. How could I at 11, catch up to a boy who already had 3 degrees? He then clarified and said my goal didn't have to be exactly what he had. I could set a goal to get to college early. Suddenly I realized this was something I could actually do. I wasn't sure how yet, but getting to college early seemed possible. I wanted to go early but I wasn't sure how early. Both of my parents are from Barbados and the age of graduation there is 16 so I wanted to go even younger than that. I don't know why but for some reason I chose 14. And just like that, I'd set my goal. Now we had to see about actually achieving it. I don't quite remember what I did for the next two years but I did work hard and try to get ahead (grades are kinda hard to determine when you're homeschooled). Then when I was 12, I went back to school. This time to a bigger but still small private school. There I was blessed to have a teacher who understood my goal and gave me the opportunity to take high school courses through a virtual school during class time. I was able to get a few credits so that by the time I graduated the 8th grade, I was more than halfway done with my freshman year. Now hang on second, here is where it will all make sense. The winter after I graduated, I applied to my community college to take dual enrollment courses. I filled out the paperwork, took the test and I got accepted and I enrolled in College Composition I.

And that was it. I was officially in college. I had a student ID and everything. So for all intents and purposes, I had gone to college at 14. Now don't get me wrong, it was not easy. It took a lot of hard work and determination. However, it was not as hard as most people expect it to be. I believe that anyone can do it if they are determined and responsible enough to handle the challenge. I'm currently working on my next step in becoming a doctor, but I want to encourage people to go ahead and explore dual enrollment options if they are interested in it. You can do it!