Well. ‘Twasn’t your usual bio. Homeschooled all her life, Carolyn just hasn’t done the things they want to see. No started-ballet-at-the-age-of-two, no acceptance into a company, no awards or scholarships. Does this sound familiar at all? We homeschool grads often sound like ne’er do wells when we try to list our achievements. Nope, no honour roll, no scholarships… didn’t go to school, actually. No, I don’t have a degree. Applied to Harvard? No, I haven’t. Leader of the Drama Club, class president, Chess Club champ, high school quarterback… ummm, no. Sorry. And you want to know about my what? My love life? You mean the journal I’ve been keeping since I was seventeen with thoughts on becoming a better wife and the regular breakfasts I take with my dad to discuss courtship? (That’s not what they meant.)

“So,” I asked Carolyn, “what have you done with your life?”

She’s done what a lot of us homeschool grads have done.

She’s stayed at home. She’s studied things she’s passionate about. She’s been involved in the raising of seven younger siblings. She’s read hundreds–nay, thousands–of books. She’s translated Psalms into Elvish. She’s baked like a madwoman. She’s fallen deeply in love with God. She’s witnessed. She’s choreographed and directed church musicals, performed with Christian singers at festivals, churches, and benefit concerts. She’s run her own studio since she was fourteen, starting with teaching her siblings. She became a registered teacher with the Royal Academy of Dance at the age of nineteen. She’s crossed Canada five times. She’s lived.

We’re in the same boat. I have few world-approved laurels to show for it, but I have lived more in my twenty-four years than I think some people ever do.

The temptation is strong to feel like a failure if we don’t meet the world’s expectations, but it’s a feeling that we need to shred. Frankly, as long as we live for God we will never win the world’s full applause. Measure not your life–or your children’s lives–in SAT scores and resumes. Measure it, instead, in the fulness with which you have walked God’s path for you. Measure it in relationships, in family, in joy, in passion, in true learning.

At its heart, homeschooling is about going back to the basics so we can thrive the way God meant us to thrive. Don’t succumb to the temptation to shuck the basics now that you’re through your “school years.” Keep focused. Keep living.

And write a bio you’ll be happy to lay at God’s feet.