While most 14 year old’s are getting ready for high school, my daughter, Alexis is preparing for her first year on campus at the University of Toledo as a full time student. Yes, that’s right my 14 year old is heading off to college this fall.
She has always been a curious child, forever seeking answers to things that perplexed her. She basically taught herself to read at the age of 4 after I introduced her to simple books that teach the extremely basic letter sounds. She tossed them aside stating that they were boring. She chose harder books and just asked me what each new grammar rule was. I rarely even had to repeat a rule, her memory, phenomenal!
She excelled at a shocking rate that was all new to me. My first child was a slow reader struggling to grasp basic concepts. It turned out that he was dyslexic, which brought on many challenges. It took many years to get him to the fluency level that it took Alexis in just months.
Alexis was a voracious reader, advancing her reading level at an unprecedented pace. She would bore easily of simple concepts and basic words. She sought out books that challenged her in every way. It quickly became difficult to find books containing topics that would interest her and still be age appropriate.
I enlisted the help of the fantastic library staff at the Toledo Library who came up with some great selections, but too soon ran out of ideas alongside me. By the time she reached 9 years old she was reading the same new releases that my friends and I would discuss at park playdates while the children her age played tag at the playground.
While she was reading college level books her friends were just starting their first easy chapter books. It became hard for her to maintain friendships with children her age, always frustrated having to stop and explain the meaning of words in everyday conversations.
At 10 she was reading unabridged classics, and at 11 years old she passed he acuplacer test at the University of Toledo enrolling in her first college class at the age of 12.
As an oddball to society herself it was no wonder that she chose to take a sociology which studies the systematic development, structure, interaction, and collective behavior of organized groups of human beings. She flawlessly interacted with her classmates with daily online assignments and group activities and was overjoyed to talk to academic equals.
This fall Alexis will join four thousand other incoming freshmen walking alongside over 20k students on the 982 acre campus of the University of Toledo.
Not only will she be a full time college student she will be co writing my 2nd book, College Bound, which will detail how and why I’ve sent two children off to college at just 14 years old. She will share her experience and what it’s like to be a child in a room full of adults in the land of academia.
College at fourteen is not for everyone but for some it’s a way to fit in.
Onward and upward, go Rockets!
