In Tennessee, if you are college-bound, you need 22 credits on your high school diploma. My son just finished all of his requirements this month – December 2025. Yes, his official graduation ceremony will happen in May 2026, but this month marks the end of his high school. He is done. I am done homeschooling. Boom. Just like that, 13 years (almost) of homeschooling him are over. I can’t believe I just typed that.
My daughter slicing the cheesecake I made for my son’s 18th birthday
What is there left to say? I feel grateful. Grateful for the privilege to mold him and to help him become all that God wants him to be. At this point, he is thinking about starting his own business. Many people take a gap year between high school and college. My son will probably do that. At least, that is what is looking like now for him.
Gen Z no longer feels pressured to attend college like my generation, Gen X. We heard it from our parents, the Baby Boomers: “You gotta make something of yourself. You gotta go to college.” How times have changed.
Dirty Jobs
Mike Rowe and his TV show “Dirty Jobs” had a lot to do with this shift. Rowe showed shrimp boats making hundreds of thousands of dollars – more than most lawyers and doctors. A lot of people love working with their hands, in the open air. Many people dislike a desk job. Unfortunately, nobody gave them permission to say, “I would rather be bushhogging than typing this letter.”
My son’s 18th birthday cheesecake
It is our duty as parents and educators to show our children a vast array of career opportunities and listen to them. What do they enjoy? Observe what makes them feel alive. Help them figure out what they feel called to do.
There is a time to guide them and there is a time to allow them to make their own decisions. The time has come for me to allow my son to make his own decision.
The universities which have accepted my son and offered him all sorts of scholarships will defer his admission until next year. We leave that door open because nobody knows the future.
