Graduates

My little brother has just graduated from college, with an engineering major and a math minor. Another homeschool success story. He's a special case, too, because he almost qualifies as a homeschool drop out - basically he was one of those teens who just wouldn't cooperate with plans to school, and the struggle between him and my mom ended with him just quitting homeschooling when he was 17. She refused to issue him a high school diploma (in our state parents can issue legal diplomas to homeschooled students), so he went off and took the GED.

He worked at the Post Office for awhile, he went to bartending school but never worked as a bartender, and he was a stay-at-home dad for his step-son for a little while. Then he decided to go to college, in his late twenties, and went into the Engineering Transfer program at the local community college. Admission wasn't a problem, even though he had a GED and no SAT scores. He did well at the community college - well enough that a professor recommended him for a job at a aerospace company.

So, already working as a junior engineer at an aerospace company, his employer now paid his college tuition. He finished the last two years at the university, working a full 40 hours a week and going to school full time at the same time - but having it all 100% (books too) paid for by his employer.

I think it goes to show that sometimes going to college a little bit later, when you are more mature and ready for it, can be a great idea. So he's thirty now, with a degree, a good job, and more free time than he's had in those grueling years - he says he plans to catch up on home improvement and yard projects. :)

I hope this is reassuring to anyone homeschooling high school and worrying about what might happen next.