I yapped a lot in this post so I added a TLDR at the bottom of this post!!
I was in public school till 4th grade when the pandemic hit, however, during the pandemic my parents were having major marital problems that essentially caused me to become educationally neglected. I was going through extreme mental problems already without including the isolation of the pandemic and then that with my family on the verge of falling apart it just all overwhelmed me, so I turned to ignoring my problems by spending all my time in fandom spaces online and daydreaming having a better life. Once the pandemic ended and my parents decided to stay together my mom basically... never brought up my education? I've always had super bad anxiety when it comes to education (throwing up before school, unable to sleep from endless anxiety, extreme stomachaches that could take my appetite away for days) and while my mother never did physically punish me over school, she would make comments that if I ever went below a b she would, which only made me more anxious that if I asked about my education she would notice that I was slacking and she would punish me,, so I just never asked.
Now I am 16 turning 17 in January and my mom "unschools me" which just means that she let's me stay at home all day, she doesn't provide me with anything to educate myself at all and I moved across the country at 13 so I know no one near me that'smy age that I could talk to about this. She has brought up that I'm going to need to get tested for my GED a couple times these past months but ??? I only have an education of a 4th grader, 5th at best. I guess she's just going to throw me in the testing room and hope it's a 4th grade state test?? Which obviously is causing me to freak out with unbearable anxiety and even worse, I get incredibly frustrated when I don't understand things and I start to sob, so I'm horrified that I'm going to go to a testing center, walk in, flop embarrassingly hard while also sobbing the entire time. I didn't realize I was being educationally neglected until last week when I saw a Tumblr post talking about it, I've done a little digging and I've found a couple reddit posts of people my age talking about being in the same situation and wanting to return to public school,, which don't get me wrong, I am shitting bricks about having to go back to school a be a super senior with a bunch of mean teenagers, but I would like to get at the very least my Highschool education.
So, I'm basically wondering, how do I do that? How would they catch me up to Highschool education? Would it be wise for me to do it? Should I just wait until I'm 18 and try to study for my GED by myself? (Though, I will admit I'm not sure if I have the self discipline to teach myself while utterly clueless) I am my sister's only babysitter rn so I probably won't be able to do it until next year when I am 17-18. I live in North Florida and from what I saw when I did a quick search it is possible to be in highschool past 18!! I don't think my mom will fight me on it based off of a previous question she asked me earlier this year so I'm nervous about basically everything but asking her. I'm mainly posting this in hopes that anyone that has been or is in a situation like this can tell me what to expect to help with my anxiety, but honestly any reply to this post whether it's reassurance or advice!! :]
TLDR: Haven't received education past 4th grade, I would like to go to public school at 17-18. Would like advice and what to expect IF I do go from people that have been in similar situations, however, any advice or reassurance would be greatly appreciated too!!
Submitted October 2, 2026 at 08:21PM by Chuudreamer https://ift.tt/bGNpueX
