How to be a Badass Teen Homeschooler

You're a teen homeschooler. Congratulations. You've probably spent a lot of time following your interests and curiosities, and great. That's how it should be. Do you ever get this nagging feeling though that maybe you're not making the best use of your time as you get older? That's what this video is all about. Hey, I'm Blake! I've spent over a decade working with homeschooled, unschooled, and self-directed teenagers and in this video I'm going to tell you how to become a badass teenage homeschooler. There are three main ways of accomplishing this. The first is by moving towards producing more stuff in your learning instead of just consuming it. The second is by leaving the home environment and going out to the world where stuff is actually happening. and third is by centering your learning around other people's needs and interests and doing stuff that's useful and valuable to others instead of just useful and valuable to yourself. Do these three things and you are well on your way to becoming a badass homeschooler So what does this look like in the real world? Let me show you...

Okay, so the first thing you can do is travel, whether you're staying with family friends, you're doing a language exchange, you're doing a homestay, there are many ways to skin this cat. Sorry cats. It's about the most direct way you can get out into the world and recreate yourself and grow rapidly. Also consider traveling within your own country to go to gatherings where stuff is happening like conferences, or camps, or competitions, where the most interesting people are sharing their ideas about the stuff that you want to learn more about.

Here's one of my favorite ones: email strangers. Find the people who are doing what you might want to do as an adult and directly reach out to them, and say something like, I'm a 16 year-old homeschooler, and I want to just talk to you for 30 minutes about your profession. Can I please please please arrange a Skype date?, and almost always they will say yes. You'd be surprised at how much of the benefit of the doubt you get as a young, passionate person who has some free time. I know 14-, 15-, 16-year olds who have reached out and gotten permission to sit in on Ivy League classes, gotten direct interviews with really big-name professionals, just because they asked. Just do it! Get involved with college. You might not feel like it's the right fit for you, but you can dabble a little bit by going to community college classes which are usually cheap and available almost anywhere in the United States. You can sit in on college classes either officially or unofficially. Create stuff, build stuff, whether it's a business, a game, a garden, a tree house, a trebuchet, I don't care! Let's say you love reading: try your hand at writing.

Let's say you love listening to podcasts: try making a podcast. (It's not that hard.) If you love watching videos... try making one yourself! charming sparkle sound You will deepen your skills, and you will feel like you are contributing to a body of knowledge instead of just always taking from it. Create a volunteer or internship position for yourself. A lot of times these don't exist, you just need to look for an opportunity than seize it.

I know many homeschoolers who have gone into vets offices and then ended up becoming a volunteer there, and within a number of weeks all the sudden they're shadowing operations, or helping descent skunks, or making appointments for the vet. I don't know what's going on with vets, they just let teens do whatever they want! The point is: If your dream position doesn't exist, go create it.

Next, go outside. GO OUT SIDE Think of all those poor high schoolers stuck in the classroom, looking out the window on a beautiful day. You are not one of them. Take advantage of this fact. I grew up in Southern California where the perfect time to go hiking is in September, but I was stuck in school. Do it for me, kids, do it for Blake! Finally, find other badass homeschoolers. This famous guy in Silicon Valley, Paul Graham, said that there's only two things you need to do as a teenager: Find smart people and work on hard problems with them. So go do that, they're out there! You can find them. The best place that I found to meet other badass teen homeschoolers and unschoolers is Not Back to School Camp—check it out. All of this stuff will push you out of your comfort zone and give you skills for adult life and help you grow and it'll also look really good on college admissions portfolios and in job interviews. But don't do it just for those reasons, do it because it's fun and challenging and meaningful, and because it will make you feel like a badass.

Now go do it! Life is more fun when shared. Isn't that that quote from Into the Wild? Life only meaningful when shared? Before you go die in a bus in Alaska make sure you make some friends. .

As found on Youtube