Jeffrey | Ohio
Success. It’s such an elusive goal for so many people. I'm currently an anesthesiology resident physician here in Cleveland, Ohio. And I think for a lot of people — at least in the environment I’m in — it's never done. It’s never good enough. So if that's what success really feels like, how many people really want that?
When I think about homeschooling and the things that I learned beyond the subject matter and specifically with Abeka Academy, I think about success from a biblical perspective.That success is not found in the acceptance of someone else. It's not found in building an empire.
Success is found in being the person that God wants you to be today.
I can remember studying for 8 to 12 hours a day, so I could take the MCAT, this one, eight-hour test, just to be able to have the opportunity to apply for medical school. And I remember sitting in my parents’ basement and asking myself, why am I doing this? It's because I felt so strongly that this was the path God had laid out for my life.This was the road to becoming a physician.
That biblical worldview from Abeka Academy, from growing up in a Christian home, from going to church and having that community influence, really did push me to choose a career where I could serve and show the love of Christ and take care of people when they're at their most vulnerable.
I'm the fourth of five kids, so I was born into a family that was already using the Abeka curriculum. When I think about Abeka Academy, it feels like I was able to explore the things that I was interested in while also gaining this very classical teaching education, where the fundamentals were emphasized over and over again. I think Abeka did a great job of teaching critical thinking, and then how to apply that to something new.
My mom was always thinking, how can I support education and show real-world
value for things? So I remember going to places like museums and national parks. And because we used Abeka Academy, I had a greater part of the day, maybe one or two hours more in the afternoon, to really figure out what I was curious about, and it wasn't the same thing every day.
When I was homeschooled, my mom did such a good job of making our environment a school. There was a specific room in the house that was the school room, and I don't know where she went — maybe to like a rummage or an estate sale — but she got an actual school desk that had a little cubby hole under it where you kept your papers and your coloring pencils. And we had a specific TV that was just for our homeschooling. In kindergarten and through grade school, we received Abeka Academy on these VHS tapes. Literally a box would arrive. We'd sort them out, make sure they were all accounted for, and then we'd put them in our school room.
When it was time to go to school, I woke up in the morning, and I was in the school room doing school. I didn't realize then how important that was. But, for me, I transitioned to Christian school at the start of ninth grade. I was able to think about my time at home with my school desk, my school chair and my school room, and then it was just a semi-natural transition to, OK now I'm in a different physical environment, but it feels the same in terms of sitting at a desk and listening to the teacher and paying attention.
Now that I'm beginning my professional journey as a physician, I'm seeing the dividends, and I'm getting to live out those real-life examples that I really gained from my faith, my family and Abeka Academy.
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