The Rime of the Lonely Homeschooler

Often people wonder if homeschoolers have friends.  Truth: they do.  They simply don't see them very often. Last year every day of the week I had something; I went somewhere that I saw people.  This year (or at least so far this year) not so much.  I feel more and more like a socially excluded homeschooler every day.  The olders have been gone, and the youngers and parents have been busy, leaving me. Alone. In the house.

Three times today I caught myself laughing at some stupid thought I'd had or some stupid thing I'd done.  Aloud. By myself.  In an empty house.  Sooner or later, I'm going to start talking to myself.

Times of Day When I See People: Breakfast, Lunch (sometimes), and Dinner.  You see, everyone else in my family (when they're home) spends the day upstairs, where it's sunny and happy and loud and crazy.  Thus you realize why I cannot be there.  I spend the day downstairs sitting before my good friend Dellbert 2 (the computer) in quiet, solitude, and an air of general industriousness.  You might understand why it's wednesday and I've got all my Spanish and Composition done for the week and with enough time left to waste the afternoon.  There's no people here, and apparently I'm not interesting enough to distract myself.

Days of the Week When I Go Places Where I See People:  As of right now, just on Sundays, but eventually it will be Tuesday nights for Bible Club, possibly Wednesday nights for AWANA, and Thursday nights for bible quizzing.  Every other second of the week it is a 9 out of 10 chance that I will be sitting right here staring into Dellbert's Luminous Little Face.  Although I suppose it is a possibility that I will have gone to the library.

Frankly, I think I'm going into shock after being so busy all summer.  Since pretty much the moment that school let out until now, I have been with people constantly.  I have spent 5 weeks working at a christian camp, one week attending a different camp, one week helping at a VBS, one week with my cousins, one week at a family reunion, a different cousin was at our house for around a month, at different times two friends stayed a week, and then I had about 2-3 weeks where I must have had 3-4 sleepovers and spend lots of time catching up with friends I hadn't seen over the summer.  These past three days are probably the longest time I've spent with myself since early June.

But here's the truth, I really do like being alone.  It's not that I'm sad that I have to be by myself; I rather enjoy listening to music and typing happily away.  I would much, much rather be alone all day than be at the highschool.  I guess adjusting just takes some time; I'm sure that in a few weeks I won't even notice the fact that I never see anyone ever.  It's just, these first couple days have been kinda depressing, a little long, and sorta lonely.  I'm pretty sure I've gone through almost every playlist in my grooveshark account, and I've been journaling long drawn out entries about nothing in particular.  I've never thought myself a people person, but maybe after so many weeks of this and that and general busy-ness and activity, I'm finding it a little harder than usual to settle back into my normal introverted school year routine.

So I obviously, I blog about it.

Speaking of which, when did "blog" become a verb?  Creepy.

But to return to the topic at hand, in honor of my endless hours at the computer and general wishing-I-was-with-people-instead-of-electronicsness, I will conclude this post with a brief poem about my unpeopleness inspired by a portion of the Samuel Taylor classic, "The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere" (He certainly took liberties with spelling, huh?)

Anyhow, my version: (be sure to read with plenty of dramatic flair)

Day after day, day after day
I'm stuck with Delbert 2
Staring at an glowing screen
And occasionally using the loo

People, People, everywhere
Yet none to talk to, i think
People, People, everywhere
I'm lucky to have enough to drink

THE END

Inspiring, no? I think I've found my calling in life...