The School For Me

By Lydia N.

A lot of people hate school. I… am not one of those people. Now, I don't like EVERYTHING about school… *ahem* quadratic equations… but I do find information, and learning in general, fascinating!

This does NOT mean that I get my homework done in a, shall we say, particularly timely manner. I often get stuck playing Angry Birds 2 on my phone, looking at Teams and YouTube videos, and watching Netflix for hours upon hours. I then find myself going, “Hey! Wasn’t I supposed to be doing school work?”

One of the other problems I have is that sometimes I want to do TOO much. For example, I want to take a theatre class I bought online, and draw, and read my Bible, and be on Teams, and watch one more YouTube video, and read that book I got, and go for a walk, and… and now I’ve forgotten about my math homework that’s due tomorrow.

Point being, I needed a school that could not only share my interest in learning, but also bend and twist in a way that could fit who I am. Being a busy (and, let’s face it, somewhat scattered) person, I wanted a school that could be rigid enough to keep me on track, but also let me shift how strict that “track” is. I want to do theatre, which can take up a LOT of time, going to rehearsal every day, and doing plays in the middle of a school day. I also wanted to go to a school where I could find friends that believed in the same values that I did. My family really wanted to travel as well. We planned to travel across the country, and even outside of it, so I needed a school that allowed me to do that. On top of all this, I didn’t want to just go to a school and “learn” things, but not really be LEARNING them.

Enter: NorthStar Academy! Cue the angelical music and bright heavenly lights!

But seriously, NorthStar is everything I needed as a school! If I wanted to have a more structured curriculum, I could do that with EVP classes. However, I could miss an EVP class every once in a while if I had to. If I started falling behind in the EVP course, I could transition to a VRP course, allowing me to do homework on my own time, (which is a blessing and a curse as all NSAers know.) Plus, I could do school from anywhere, whether that be at my house in Kansas City, Missouri, or at my local theatre during a break, or in New York getting back from a Broadway musical, or even in England! Most importantly, NSA shared my love of learning. They were determined to not only teach me normal math, science, and social studies, but also helping me to grow as a human! Not only that, but Teams is helping me to connect with Christian peers, and be my best self.

So yeah, maybe playing Angry Birds 2 isn’t the greatest way that I could spend a Wednesday afternoon, but NSA gives me the opportunity to make the horrible, horrible mistake of forsaking time management. By letting me make that mistake (sometimes over and over again,) NSA allows me to get back on track without my grade suffering from late work, while teaching me how important those two little words of “time management” really are.

NSA has helped me in every aspect of who I am, and who I want to be. I can work toward my goal later in life, while also enjoying myself now. And of course, at the end of the day, if I really REALLY want to stop working at 3:00 instead of 4:00, NSA allows me to get in that extra hour of Angry Birds 2, as long as I do that science experiment tomorrow!

Lydia N. is in 9th grade this year and this is her first year at NSA! She loves to sing, act in local and professional theatre productions, and read when she isn't doing schoolwork. She lives in Kansas City, Missouri, with her mom and step-dad. She has no siblings, but she does have a dog named Pippin (after Peregrin Took from the Lord of the Rings book series).

🗞️Staff StoriesEIC NSAMay 2021 Issue, 2020-2021