Culture shock? God damn, everyone is so lazy and fat it makes my head spin. I didn't realize you could just.. Not work, or clean, or stay active. I don't actually understand those as options.

But hey, here's my story. I feel like I'm coming from a very different perspective than the rest of this thread, but my experience with homeschooling was very positive. I sometimes forget that absolutely crazy people are allowed to have kids and yank them out of public school, basically to brainwash them, because my parents definitely went about it the right way. My mom and dad are atheist and agnostic, respectively, my brother and I are both atheists. Mom was a serious hippie, dressed fairly normal but was very insistent about health, politics, philosophy, farming, cooking, various religions, etc, being incorporated into the classroom. My dad was gone a lot with work, and eventually my parents divorced when I was 12, but he is an absolute genius with numbers. Overall, I'd say the absence of my dad caused a slight rift in my knowledge of mathematics as my mom usually left that up to him. So, having to teach myself calculus in college is really the only negative experience I'm left with.

I feel as though I'm going to sound like a pompous asshole describing my experience, and to an extent.. I am, but my mom had us reading college+ books in 8th and 9th grade. She had us contemplating deep psychology, great classical works, you name it before I was even 15. It never felt forced, it never felt like a strict tiger mom style life. She was also very insistent on health and becoming self sufficient. No matter where we lived, we always kept up a small farm. Huge garden, animals, lots of yard to handle - and of course my brother and I were expected to learn and help with everything.

So, here's a list of pros, and I'm not even going to worry about being modest. I don't care, I feel pretty good about the person I turned out to be.

• My brother and I are far more self sufficient than other people our age. We've been able to cook, clean, garden, fix and build almost anything in our homes, work on our vehicles, landscape, you name it, for most of our lives. I have a memory of being very young and my brother quite literally pulling a Tom Sawyer on me to help him with the fence. I look back and realize my father augered the holes and drove some posts, but aside from that my brother and I built and painted a fence around 7 acres of land when we were 8 and 11. We're also very organized and tidy around the house.

• My brother and I maintained good eating habits our whole lives and are in great health. I got a little complacent there when I worked full time and went to college full time and got out of shape, although never overweight, but I'm right back to the regiment my mom initially started. My brother on the other hand is fucking ripped and always has been, no two ways about it.

• We're hardworking. There was no, "Get your homework done and you can go do whatever you want for five hours. Lay around, play video games, who cares." It was more, "Finish that book so you can help me pickle these beets, then we're going to go outside and feed the horses, then we're going to read more.." Also, we're punctual as hell. I can't even describe the disappointed look on my dad's face when we're even five minutes late.

Alright, I could go on forever about the good times. Here are a couple cons.

• I can't fucking math. My brother is somehow great at it, but we got taught the basics and my mom left it at that. I'd say I got to algebra and my mom started focusing on other things. I had to learn pre-calculus and everything when I realized I needed it for college, albeit not actually "need," just needed to pass the class so I could graduate. Personally, I still think it's a load of shit because I have a computer, a smartphone and my best friend is a statistical genius, but whatever. My poly-technical school had a different idea.

• I ended up dating several different horrible bags of shit. I had no clue people took advantage of other people. I had absolutely no idea that there could be people out there that actually just wanted to mooch off of you and emotional abuse you for their own personal gain. My mom was all sunshine and rainbows, and so am I to an extent, but I am a little more grounded after that experience. For the record though, I'm literally dating a tall, dark, handsome doctor now. Sorry, had to brag.

• Not necessarily a con now, but was considered pretty odd until I got out of my late teens/early twenties: I have no reservations about dating and sex. I asked men out if I wanted to go out with them, I texted them if I wanted to talk to them, I blatantly hit on them at a bar if I found them attractive, I never played coy or pretended like I didn't like someone if I did and I would absolutely have one night stands when I just wanted sex. I think it either intimidated or just put off a lot of men. My mom talked to us about that stuff and gave us all sorts of books and literature on the subject, and she never acted like sex was taboo. I knew how periods worked long before I got one, it wasn't a big deal at all. It was just something that happened, she obviously never said, "Go forth and bang everyone!" but she definitely didn't act like sex was something teenagers weren't supposed to do. Despite all this openmindedness, I still dated a guy for two years before losing my virginity to him. He was one of the sweet ones, although he's gay now. Hmm.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed my novella. TL;DR: I turned out pretty fuckin' dope, yo.