“Play Chess.”

That was it. The only assignment that day.

Ah, the minutiae of homeschooling. There were these occasional days where my mom didn’t plan for us to do any traditional schoolwork. On these days, we ended up with gems like this.

“So… we just… play chess today?” Asked my brother, staring at the calendar.

“Yeah, I guess we do,” I replied.

I was 15 years old. It would be my last year of homeschooling before I began college classes through a dual-enrollment program. In college, I spent two years passively listening to lectures.

Two years of studying, focusing, memorizing, and trying desperately to gain something relevant and useful from my efforts.

It wasn’t all in vain; I earned my AA degree when I was 17. However, when asked what I learned, I don’t have what I would describe as a “traditional” answer. I would not mention anything about writing, history, English, or any of the other topics I spent the most time covering.

Instead, I learned that not one thing I studied in college held even close to the value of the

“bizarre” assignments I had as a homeschooled student.

“Weed the backyard.” “Make dinner.” «Teach the dogs a new trick.” “Fix the hole in your old sweatshirt.” “Build the new furniture for the office.”

My parents both worked during the day, so these projects taught my brother and I to do things on our own. To work hard, and learn quickly. We learned to work well as a team, or by ourselves.

As for chess? My brother and I took “play chess” as the challenge of our academic careers. It became one of our daily school assignments.

Just from that assignment, I learned to lose calmly and win gracefully. I learned to laugh when I made mistakes and then move on with my life. I learned to strategize and plan. I learned that everything can go wrong and still turn out okay if you keep trying. That everything can be going right and still end poorly if you lose focus or stop putting in the effort. I learned to be confident while also staying humble.

My college experience was seen as so significant and important in the eyes of other people.

Especially at my young age, it was considered a major achievement to have earned a degree.

And I am proud of myself for it! Nonetheless, I didn’t learn anything I could really, truly use on a day-to-day basis. At least, nothing as valuable as chess.