I’m homeschooled, I’m a senior in high school and I’m in college.

When I first began attending a local community college as a 16-year-old junior, I was nervous, to say the least. Walking into the situation, I was under the impression that all my classmates would be adults well over the typical college age. I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to keep up with the work load and that everyone would know I wasn’t “supposed” to be there.

What I didn’t know two years ago is that concurrent enrollment is becoming increasingly popular. Actually, I know for sure that at least a fourth of my school’s population is in high school. I didn’t realize this in my first semester because I refused to talk to my classmates, but now I know that, even in that first semester, many of my classmates are in high school.

Like many high school upperclassmen, it is not uncommon for curious adults who are unaffiliated with my education to ask what my plans are for when I graduate. I tell them first thing that I am taking college courses already. My response tends to have two polar opposite reactions. The first being the adult assumes I am genius-level smart. The second reaction consists of adults worrying that the college work load is pulverizing me.

The truth is that I make decent grades. Homeschooling prepared me with the knowledge that is needed, which helps when I need to write a “knowledge dump” paper. But when it comes to tests, I tend to stay in the average category.

The typical high schooler taking concurrent enrollment is just a normal high school student who did the research and decided to take the plunge and accelerate their college career. Sure, some kids are geniuses, but so are some attending a normal high school.

For me, personally, attending a community college in high school has been a very positive experience and necessity for my eager personality. However, like almost everything in life, it’s a personal preference to take concurrent enrollment or not. Taking concurrent enrollment is not as scary or mysterious as it first seems.