| Year of Entry: 2008 |
Age at Entry: 16 |
Hometown: Durham, Connecticut |
The Confidence and Courage to Become Myself
I did not fit in with the other students at my high school, and none of the teachers or administrators were able or willing to recognize my situation. My high school offered very few resources for students looking to challenge themselves, and teachers’ expectations for their students were low. In an effort to move forward in the math curriculum, I took an honors geometry course through Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth (CTY) during a summer. It was only with great trepidation that the math department head and principal let me skip the high school’s geometry course, even after I had aced their geometry final. Every time I pursued extra course work, I was met with an incredulous “Why?” from teachers and my peers.
No Longer Unhappy
My intellectual isolation led to social isolation. I just did not have the same interests as any of the people surrounding me. Seeing my unhappiness, my mom began researching gifted children and their education. Through her search, she found the Program for the Exceptionally Gifted (PEG) at Mary Baldwin College. My mom says that as she read the PEG website she started shaking and crying because she knew in that moment that I was going to leave home sooner than she had expected. I am so thankful that my mom was an advocate for me by finding PEG and that my parents had the courage and confidence to let me leave home to finish becoming myself.
Although I was scared and nervous when I arrived at MBC, I was no longer unhappy. What I most enjoyed about that first year was structuring my life. I was in control of my time and my thinking.
