January 1st may be the start of each year, but for students like us, autumn is the real beginning of things. We’ve all experienced the excitement and nervousness that comes with this fresh start. Not only do we have a whole host of classes and extracurriculars (and work and volunteering and side projects and friends and other random stuff– take your pick), each year brings something extra that we hadn’t expected to be doing.

“Did you know, Minneapolis was colder than Mars last week?”

This conversation came up at a newspaper staff meeting at some point in November. This fact stunned me- after all, isn’t Mars supposed to be really, really cold?- and I spent the next day or two starting conversations with the same statement. I’m a homeschooler, and through homeschooling, I’ve met many friends who share my interests: books, philosophy, and of course, nerdy facts like the one above. You can’t beat a homeschooler when it comes to nerdy facts.

It did leave me wondering, though: if these kinds of cold snaps start happening more often (looking at you, climate change), how will we go outside without freezing? You could stay inside, but sometimes you have to go out, such as when you’re heading to school.

Here, I think homeschoolers have the perfect solution: going to school just means finding the best place in the house to set up with books and a laptop (and maybe snacks). It doesn’t require braving the cold, as fun as that can be. When homeschoolers do end up outside, our ‘schools’ are more likely to provide hot chocolate. Either way, we win, because of the gourmet opportunities.

Clearly, homeschooling solves most of the world’s problems. Students don’t like homework? Solved. Modern families don’t spend time together? Solved. No one understands homeschoolers? Solved...

Sure, there can be drawbacks. I expect all of us can remember a time when we were asked how we socialize if we’re ‘always at home’. That question is a great opportunity to explain our busy lives: school, friends, sports, clubs- and somehow, we still find time to relax (hopefully) and send in submissions to newspapers.

If we have so much community already, why do we even have a homeschool student newspaper? Perhaps the reason is in the question: we have a newspaper because we have such a strong sense of community. None of this would exist without the support of the AP Homeschoolers board, the newspaper staff, and everyone who reads or submits to the newspaper. It's a group effort.

Community? Definitely.

Luisa Ensslin, Editor-in-Chief