Anna's Announcement.

Hi everyone. So, straight to the point, I have decided to skip a year and start college this fall. Surprise (to everyone including myself)! This is the result of many things, and came about in a rather sudden revelation, which happened to occur while I was talking with Grandma as we painted. (Have to watch out for Grandmas and those serious discussions!)

Back when I first entered high school I wanted to go after four years of high school. Let me explain. In Haiti high school is five years instead of four. Since Eli and I were ahead, Mom had Eli do an extra year, he only turned 18 the week of his college orientation. We planned on doing the same for me. After Eli left,  I heard about his adjustments to college and I started to hit the difficulties of high school, I agreed with mom.  I was perfectly content to spend an extra year without all the worries of college, without having to figure out college financial aid forms with dad, without stressing about college grades and scholarships. Without being separated from my parents and without leaving Haiti, my home of 16 years. The longest I have ever been in the US at once is four months.

So this decision was not taken lightly.  I lined up the pros and cons. Part of the doors opening was my elder brother, who if not necessarily enthused, is no longer opposed to having me overlap a year with him (Apparently he met some people who overlapped with siblings or relatives, and they all said that they were so busy they didn't actually see each other much.) My good SAT results also motivated the change.

For my 5th high school year, 'senior year', the main things I planned to do were advanced Chemistry, World history, and Pre Calc. I want to major in International Relations. Pre Calc and Advanced Chemistry have nothing to do with that, and I already studied more science than usual. World history does sound interesting, and I had been looking forward to that. In fact the deal was, if I wanted to do it, I needed to finish all the high school literatures we already owned, so I did double literature this year (some of the old British and American classics and poems are painful😝).  So academically I am ready.

I like Délice. I can see how Mom and Dad will help and teach this community about health, nutrition, and other things. However, I am also a social, competitive person. School wise, I studied a lot for my SAT. My motivation and goal was to compete with different scores and the percentile posted on the internet, also scholarships are competitive, so they were motivation too.

I know the whole ideology of "compete against yourself" But sadly one of my big motivations tends to be competing against other people. And trust me, it takes talent (and google) to be competitive academically when you are homeschooled and the only one in your class; the only one in your high school for that matter... Volleyball used to be an outlet, and I would release my competitiveness for about two hours a day, five/six days a week. But I left that outlet behind in Fauche.

 Délice has already changed me for the better. I learned a lot during my short time here, and will continue to learn until I leave. But I feel I will be able to grow much more in the Calvin College community, even if it involves some major transition/growing pains.

 If I stayed I would still learn, probably mature a bit... (I will be turning 17 in February) but I think I can do the same at college. There will be homesickness, but that will happen no matter when I go, and this way Eli will be there, one member of my immediate family.

I decided all this a couple days before Christmas, and spent the day before Christmas Eve, and several days after Christmas, working on my application, with Mom helping and working on my transcript/course description. We took family and senior pictures on New Years Day at the fort.

Talk about fun holidays. But we got it done and sent in, though still working on other college related applications.

Kris & Cory- How do we feel? As you may guess.  We know that Anna is ready for the next phase of her life and are excited to see her grow and thrive in college. We will miss her greatly and not just because of her good cooking.

We are grateful for our time together and thank the Lord for our energetic, lovely daughter. Please pray for all of us as we transition through this big change.