It all began on a dreary Saturday morning in July of 2021, at a local venue known as the Camp Jordan Arena. More specifically, it was CSTHEA’s Home Education Expo in East Ridge, Tennessee, an event that occurred every year for as long as I can remember. But this year was different. This is the first year that I remember much of the event, and the events of this year’s event are such that I shall not soon forget.
I had been homeschooled until sixth grade—in 2016—by which time I had become hopelessly unteachable by my mom. This was in large part a result of my autism, but one thing led to another, culminating in the very last resort—public school. I struggled at first, but despite my social awkwardness, this environment eventually worked wonders on me. By ninth grade, I was a star student and a leader. I was taking a special high school path provided through the Future Ready Institute, and I had ambitions for college, either via the Air Force or en route to the Air Force. My top college choices were Middle Tennessee State University or the United States Air Force Academy.
In short, everything seemed to be going my way: good grades, good performance, lofty goals, excellent resources, covid, college aspirations, career dreams—
Covid.
Just like that, like a rock between the millstones, covid inserted itself as another part of life, nothing to be particularly concerned about. But then it exploded, destroying almost everything around it, everything among which it had so cleverly made itself at home.
After it became clear that schools were not going to go back to normal, my parents decided to bring me back to homeschool. Why study in the public school curriculum at home when we could learn wholesome and useful things and still be at home?
And this is why, for the first time in several years, my mom and I found ourselves at the Home Education Expo that Saturday in July. The event spanned a Friday and Saturday, and my mom had been there on Friday. I hadn’t gone with her on Friday because I was working as an intern at a local radio station. So when she took me with her on Saturday, she had already seen things that interested her, and so she told me to wander around while she went back to a particular table and asked questions. This turned out to be another God-moment of its own, but you can read about that in another issue.
Now, remember, I had been to this event before, but I remembered very little and the tables were all at least a little different. So I browsed from here to there, stopping at a few tables and finding some interesting things, but developing no serious interest. After all, I wasn’t the teacher. Mom had chosen all of the curricula for tenth grade—the year we went back to homeschool—and I had only a limited impact on that curriculum. High school graduation was contingent on earning certain credits, and those credits I would get. Never mind that high school English was beyond my mom’s ability to teach. Those were the requirements, and by God, they’d be met.
So I just drifted aimlessly past table after table, keeping away from the area where my mom and her secret table were located.
Just as I had come to think that I had exhausted the tables in my given domain, I found myself in the far back corner of the room. The only thing of note was a table belonging to the umbrella school we were studying through. Knowing enough about it, I moved on. At least, I started to.
I remember very little about the next five seconds. Somebody dropped a bag, and two other people jumped back into each other and me. I regained my balance by leaning on a table. Out of sheer curiosity and mounting boredom, I turned to see who the table belonged to—Bryan College.
I had made up my mind about college—or the academy—in ninth grade, so I listened with half-hearted interest to another talk about another college. Bryan was a Christian college in Dayton, TN, and the main takeaway for me was their low tuition. But my mom had visited the table the previous day with no joy, so when we reunited a few minutes later, she said that Bryan wasn’t an option. I don’t remember why, or that she even said why, but after we diverted again, I noticed her talking with the Bryan College lady. By then, however, I had filed it away as one more in a long list of colleges that were just there if necessary.
There were other things more pressing from that day, so I never heard the name Bryan College again for two weeks. I went on with my life until July 26th, which was a Monday. That day, I either didn’t have to go to work or took the day off, I forget which, and my mom wanted me to go somewhere with her. Typical of industrious and clever mothers, however, she didn’t tell me where we were going. We simply got in the car and drove to Dayton. I didn’t figure out where we were going until we actually arrived at Bryan’s half-hidden front entrance.
As one would expect from a college visit, we were given a campus tour before sitting down to speak with two ladies in Admissions named Ms. Gates and Ms. Wesolowski. During this meeting, they told us about this thing called dual enrollment, and my mom decided that this was a perfect solution to her dilemma of teaching me English. The best part, however, was that the state of Tennessee provided a Dual Enrollment grant to cover the full cost of those courses.
I completed two semesters of College Writing, finishing both with a 4.0 GPA. As I attended these courses, I had the opportunity to get to know a few of the students on campus, and I began to become part of a community for the first time in my life. The effect that this experience had on me was so significant that my parents signed me up for the Summer Institute at Bryan College which would take place the following year.
The Summer Institute was a week-long experience that will be told more fully in future works. What I will say is that it gave me a remarkable taste of what Bryan College was like, turned me into a social magnet, and strengthened my desire to attend Bryan as a full-time student.
After choosing to major in Business Administration, I began my year as a high-school senior with another dual enrollment course: Intro to Business. But right before school started, I took another day off work—a different job this time—and found out that I would be able to attend Bryan College for four years with no cost except for room and board. This journey would not be easy, but it would be a testimony to the greatness of God. and this story, which encompasses so many others, is a story that is yet to be told.