| Year of Entry: 1988 |
Age at Entry: 13 |
Hometown: Knoxville, Tennessee |
The Gift of Time
I love the Program for the Exceptionally Gifted (PEG) at Mary Baldwin College, but you should know that I rarely tell people that I graduated college at 16. "How? Why? Are you sad that you missed your high school prom?" are among the questions I like to avoid. When I do tell people that I graduated college at sixteen, I say that all of the joys in my life are possible because I had extra time to try things. I say that my personal statement from my PEG application came true: "I want to have the ability to be myself. At PEG I won’t be laughed at because I care about learning. I love the idea of being able to go at my own pace, and I enjoy the way the girls interact and support each other."
I also say that if our young daughter chooses PEG when she turns thirteen, we’ll be as excited for her in 2024 as I was in 1988. Better, we’ll never ask her if she’s sad that she missed her high school prom.
