I turn 30 this month. I thought I graduated high school when I was almost 19, over a decade ago. It would take nearly all of those years to realize that my homeschooling experience was not merely insufficient, it was indoctrinating. My parents often laughed as they sang the Pink Floyd lyrics, “We don’t need no education, we don’t need no thought control.” To them, sending their kids to school was opening the door to indoctrination. After all, school was where their sheltered kids might be educated about science, history, and sex. It is common for abusers to project their own actions onto others. It’s a method of distraction and gaslighting.

I’m on break between quarters right now. School starts up again for the Summer quarter on July 11th. While I know I’m simply taking a short route to recap what most high school students spend four years learning, I’m amazed at how much I didn’t know. I don’t know exactly how long it will take me to graduate high school with this program because I’m working at my own pace to digest the information. Between January and March (Winter Quarter 2022), I went through my employment history and wrote an essay detailing how my experience could apply to as many credits as possible. Between the March and June (Spring Quarter 2022), I started getting into the meat of my coursework.

This Spring Quarter, I began by biting off more than I could chew. I thought I could work on three subjects at once, but this turned out to be too much. I saved Science for later on, but I finished my credit requirements in two subjects, US History and Art. There is so much to say about the history I didn’t know. I think I will write an entire post about that soon. It made me depressed and angry, and I knew I was just getting an overview.

For the Art credit, I took a series of photos showing my progress on a painting I’ve been working on for the past six months. I usually save these for the behind-the-scenes segment of my Patreon-only posts, but I have decided to share that album here. I’m very proud of how it turned out, and I sent this painting to one of my sponsors who’s been incredibly generous in supporting my work over the years.