So "school" is a temporary condition while "disability" is not. It sounds like you're going to be dealing with a condition that curtails your social involvement for the foreseeable future. Which sucks. I'm sorry. Cautionary tale: a cousin of mine home-schooled her kid. She was more than qualified - she had her teaching certificate and made most of her family's money tutoring school-age kids that weren't getting what they needed at public or private school. Then some rippin' aren't-we-clever academy full of like-minded kids opened up and they moved to go do it. And then it turned out to be a scam so the parents banded together and did like this home-school academy. Think there's like 50 of them. Anyway. Bright kid, in a semi-social environment, about as best as you could imagine from a "home schooling" environment. Yet the kid lasted exactly two quarters at college, developed substance abuse problems and bombed out. Not a great school, either. You've already figured out the pluses and minuses: you're the master of your domain... but you're the master of your domain. That means you will have to challenge yourself or risk entombing yourself in a complacent cocoon of you-ness. It also means that you will have to seek out social interaction because none is coming to you... and if you don't want to live your life as a shut-in on disability, you'll need to interface with the outside world at every opportunity. My cousin's kid was convinced he was brilliant because everyone always told him so. He did not, however, have the first clue how to talk to girls, how to get help on a homework assignment or what it meant to fail because he always did the comfortable shit. He never challenged himself so the first time he faced an external challenge he crumpled. From this point forth you are your own taskmaster. Trust me: you'd rather beat the shit out of yourself and discover the outside world isn't so nasty than take it the other way 'round. There is very little reward for comfortably defeating easy challenges. The benefits of failing against things beyond your comfort zone are beyond count. Your reach should always exceed your grasp; that's the only way to grow. If you're comfortable you aren't trying hard enough. My immediate advice: find a social group of people your own age that you must see in person at least once a week. Once you've got that figured out, find another. You're going to find your days filled with lonely stretches where it will be so easy to assume these words on a screen are people, and what they say to you counts as human interaction. It doesn't. It doesn't come close. None of this shit will ever make you truly happy, it will just trick you into thinking mild bemusement is enough. My next immediate advice is to set yourself an outrageous goal that you might reasonably accomplish in six months to a year. Maybe you'll release an iPhone app. Maybe you'll self-publish a book of photographs. Maybe you'll paint a watercolor a day for six months. Do something with your time that will teach you something and give you something to show for it and be ruthless on yourself. I graduated high school half a year early, and then got rejected by two colleges I'd been admitted to because they were shocked at my lack of rigor. It meant I spent 18 months at home instead of going off to college, and a grim 18 months it was. However, I had a car I hadn't quite finished and those 18 months took me from raw frame rails with a Triumph sitting on them to a 425 HP 4x4 on mud tires that I drove a thousand miles to college. I've forgotten more about cars than most people will ever know, and knowing that I took two frame rails and a pair of axles to "working car" between the ages of 17 and 19 did more to give me confidence and competence than anything else I've ever done. When my 300-level materials science class got to the subject of welding, the instructor turned the class over to me. This is not a "home-schooling" question. This is a self-determination question. The stakes are bigger than you imagine, but so are the opportunities. Choose wisely and hold yourself to account.
Thank you. in Sweden you are entitled to pretty good help with School, so I am whining a bit - basically my Home school situation is not traditional. Also i do theater, so that's sorted - and swimming. I am pretty social - but my parents are shut ins. They think I talk all the time but honestly I've always been like this and I just don't have another outlet right now. I started talking at like 1 and 1/2 and never really stopped. I feel like I'll learn french. Yep. (I've studied it for 5 years so not THAT impressive. And duolingo is amazing. Like it is wonderful. I would marry duolingo if it was a person.. Also I'm maybe writing something Heroes of Hubski-esque. Maybe. Depends on how frustrated I get with being stuck in bed.
Fuck yeah shoot me a PM and let us exchange words. Just to tack on to what Klein said, these are good skills to have for pretty much any situation. Just because you're in a college doesn't mean the social situations happen to you magically. Not that I'm worried about you - that was just an issue that I had trouble with freshman and some of sophomore year at my university. Had to turn a town I hate into an ally. Have lots of allies!Also I'm maybe writing something Heroes of Hubski-esque
Ooh, I used duolingo to try to learn German before I got access to the school curriculum. How is it for French? I found it tough to use with German.
So good. I haven't studied french formally in one and a half year and I'm better than ever.