John C’s NSA Story
By John C.
Over the years, my school life/situation has encountered many changes. Maybe my school situation had to change more than the average person’s, but maybe not. Whatever it is, I think it’s been great that my life has changed so much and given me some odd experiences.
When I was five, I started kindergarten in the US. I don’t know if that actually counts as school, but I’ll include it anyway. After that year of kindergarten, when I was six, my family and I moved halfway across the world, which meant my school life would change tremendously.
My family, along with two other families in a similar situation as us, decided to have a group homeschool of sorts. In total, there were 11 boys that needed teaching. Since all of our parents were pretty busy, they found one teacher for all of us. It was a little weird to have 11 boys ranging from four to twelve years old learning together in one classroom, but it all worked out. For two years, we completed our schoolwork this way. At the end of those two years, our teacher left, which meant something had to change again.
My two oldest brothers ended up doing their school through NorthStar, while six of the other boys went along with whatever their parents decided for them. That just left me, along with one of my older brothers as well as my best friend, to be homeschooled together. The three of us were homeschooled by my mom for a few years. All we did was work through our textbooks at home, and sometimes do our work through programs like Teaching Textbooks. My mom homeschooled the three of us for four years until my parents finally decided that my brother and I should do our school at NSA.
I started at NorthStar in 2019. This was when I was in 7th grade and 12 years old. At this time, my oldest brother had just graduated from high school, which meant he no longer attended NSA. However, I still had two other siblings who were doing classes with NorthStar.
It was a big change for me to go from homeschool to online school; however, I quickly figured everything out. Once I started high school I noticed another big change. Instead of four classes at NSA, I had to work through six NSA classes plus a language class from another online school. The change from four to seven classes was really difficult for me at first, and I felt pretty discouraged for a while. After getting used to the workload and figuring out how to keep on pace with my work, I felt more comfortable and confident.
I have been attending NorthStar for four years now and I plan to continue here at NSA for the next few years as I finish high school. Thankfully, I decided to join the Navigator, which has helped me feel more active in the NSA community as well as build friendships with classmates.
Though my school situation has changed quite a bit over the years, I am thankful that God always provided a way for me to work on my education. I am also extremely grateful for all the teachers I have had over the years, especially my mom, who was willing to spend so much of her free time helping me with my work.
If you are interested in reading about how I decided to join the Navigator, go to this link to read that whole story: https://www.navigator.northstar-academy.org/articles/my-experience-at-the-northstar-navigator
Columns: 🗞️Staff Stories
John C. has been at Northstar for three years. He lives in the Middle East and is the youngest in his family. He likes to play sports, listen to music, and play video games. He has just recently started writing with the Navigator, and this is his first time working with a newspaper.