Essay: Experiences That Made Me Who I Am Today.

Experiences That Made Me Who I Am

In life, we never go through experiences for the sake of going through the motion. Whether we realize it or not, we carry pieces of experiences that take place in our lives within our hearts. Most of these experiences remain in our hearts to help us to grow into the people we strive to become. Other experiences take us beyond our breaking point to teach us to appreciate blessings that are yet to come. In my short life, I've had my share of my good and bad experiences; however, some of them have impacted me in more significant ways than the others. The two experiences that shaped me into who I am today are homeschooling and being raised with animals as pets.

Although homeschooling had its pros and cons, it was the best of the two experiences. When I was in public school from kindergarten through second grade, I knew that I was different from the children around me and it was painful. My parents were raising me as a young Muslim girl and tried their best to convince me that it was okay to be the only white hair on a black ox; however, I was too young to see the beauty in being different. We were the only Muslims in town and I suffered dearly because of it. Underneath the baggy fitted clothes, too-soon matured mind, and well-mannered child, I had a low self-esteem, was being bullied by other kids, didn't make friends easily, and tried to become a "teacher's pet" to make the pain more durable. Seeing that I wasn't coping well with being different and wanting me to be raised with a strong religious background, my parents began to make plan for my siblings and I to be homeschool starting the summer of 2007, just as over 1.5 million other students were learning in the United States of America according to the National Center for Educational Statistics.

Homeschooling was a great experience for me third through eighth grades. It helped me develop inseparable bonds with my parents and four siblings, allowed me to grow up in a protective environment, helped me learn to manage my time, and helped me form a sound religious background. In 2007 (the year I began homeschooling), 88% of homeschooling parents decided to homeschool their children due to their concerns for the school environment. On the other hand, 83% of parents decided to homeschool their students because they felt that their children needed religious and/or moral instruction in their education. Other parents decided to homeschool their children because they weren't satisfied with their child's school curriculum, wanted their children to learn from a nontraditional teaching approach, and many other reasons. "Benefit 3: Homeschooling allows a God-oriented education focused on service...Benefit 7: Homeschooling protects children from immorality...Benefit 8: Family unity and a more personalized learning experience (Chris and Ellen Baird)." The couple homeschooled their five young children and shared the benefits they found in homeschooling (which are very similar to mine) on their website. "Homeschooling simply gives our family the chance to have more quality time together (Chris and Ellen Baird)." My family and I experienced the family unity that comes along with homeschooling just as the Chris and Ellen Baird. When my siblings and I were in public school, we missed out on activities my mom did because she did them during school hours to be sure she'd be free to help us with our homework after school. After we began homeschooling, my mother took us everywhere she went and we all enjoyed it. We visited family members, shopped, and went for ice cream in the middle of the day and never missed a lesson because there was always time to fit them in our schedule. Spending so much time with my mother and siblings helped us develop a very strong bond because we were nearly always together. We learned better communication skills and used them to better our relationships.

"Instead of dragging themselves miserably through a slowly-grinding day of schoolwork, they spring into their schoolwork with enthusiasm, because they have control (Chris and Ellen Baird)." My siblings and I sometimes woke up before dawn not because we had to, but because we wanted to start on our studies early so that we could have the rest of the day to ourselves. We spent the rest of the day in the great outdoors playing sports, playing with animals, and combining concepts we learned in class with games we played. Like the Baird children, we were also raised in a religious home. My mother scheduled our lessons around our five daily prayers, began mornings with religious studies, and made sure we finished our lessons early on Fridays so that we could attend the Friday prayers at our local mosque. Although my parents only spoke English I learned the Arabic language and memorized about half of the Qur'an (Muslims' holy book) in Arabic word for word by the time I was 16 years old. When I wasn't learning Arabic from various websites and workbooks, I was learning from my Qur'an teacher who spoke to me in both English and Arabic. Most people were amazed by how much I was learning, but it was due to the spare time homeschooling had created.