Do You Worry About Your Social Skills?

No.

I do not. I was home schooled, and this is the first question I get so often when I tell people that I was home schooled. It is seriously about the rudest thing you can say to me. It's the equivalent of me asking you, "Don't you worry about your education?" when you tell me you went to a public school. And my question is probably more relevant.

When you ask me this, all you are doing is conforming to an untrue stereotype. When I was in middle school, I was on the middle school math team, science team, I played on the chess club, I went to week long camps several times a year, I was in Boy Scouts, and did so many other things that are slipping my mind at the moment. In high school, I was on the high school math team (And won a nice handful of awards), on the science team (We went to the national competition one year.), took classes outside the house, took classes at ACC for the last two years of high school, continued Boy Scouts, took group guitar lessons, and continued attending summer camps. I also signed up to volunteer with several groups, including the ACGS, and others. I was in a high school honor society.

I say all that not to brag, but to show you how socially involved and exposed I was. I did a lot of activities, and so many of them were run at a more mature level than classes and events at public schools that I honestly feel that I got a much better social experience than many of my peers.

When I meet people, I don't tell them that I was homeschooled. Why not? Because I don't want their preconceived notions to color their perception of me before they know me. I let them get to know me first. And then, when I tell them I was homeschooled, and they inevitably ask, "Don't you worry about your lack of social skills?" I can then say, "You've known me for several months, we have had class together, hung out a fair bit, talked, worked on projects together, and you've seen me interact with several other people. You didn't even know until I told you that I had been homeschooled. How do YOU feel about my social skills?"