Ayla McDonald by
19-year-old Jon Krejci is in the second semester of his Kinesiology major at Parkland College. Krejci’s educational background is a unique one; similar to a handful of Parkland students, Krejci did not go to school. Apart from partaking in band and in a math class at Central High School, this past year at Parkland has been Krejci’s first time in an academic institution.
Krejci describes his homeschool experience as one of isolation and social confusion.
“I was not in a co-op, I was just homeschooled by myself, in my room for ten years. And then, I started interacting with people when I was around 15 or 13,” Krejci said. “I started interacting with people through band and through martial arts and dance. Though, when I had only been by myself… I had no social behavior expectations.”
Because the majority of his life has been spent away from other people, Krejci feels that his perspective of humanity is different from most.
“I studied human interaction for so long but from a non-interactive standpoint,” Krejci said. “The way I see human society is that I notice a lot of patterns and I notice a lot of parts about humanity that other people generally do not see…. An example would be, the fact that a reality doesn’t truly exist within someone’s own life in that, if you perceive something to be real, that is only what you have been shown… our ideas of reality are still heavily influenced by what we’re allowed to see and by what we have been convinced that we’re seeing.”
Krejci describes his transition of going from a home-education situation to experiencing the world through school as walking out of a cave.
“Imagine you’ve lived in a cave your entire life,” Krejci said. “All you know is what you’ve seen outside of the cave and the little bits of stimulus you get of the outside world are through the lens or through the oculus of the opening. Now imagine, instead of slowly crawling out of that cave you get rudely shoved out… and now there’s this whole new world of dangers and decisions. You’re incapacitated by the beauty of everything because you’ve never seen such beautiful things before outside of your cave, and you can interact with so [much], but you also have no idea what you’re doing. So, it’s a give and take in that everything to me right now is interesting, cool and new, but also, I make a lot of stupid decisions and I get hurt a lot because I don’t know what’s going on.”
Although learning to function in society and in academia has been challenging for Krejci, he believes that his hard work to adapt is paying off.
“I’ve worked very hard to not appear like a hermit,” Krejci said. “I feel as though I’ve made a pretty good transition by mainly just spending more time around people, more time around functional humans, and learning slowly what is acceptable, what isn’t… I think that I can interact very well with people now, just [be]cause I made it my main driver.”
Krejci has found a lot of support at Parkland, from help with classes to social opportunities.
“The administration at Parkland is very understanding because a lot of Parkland students are in that boat,” Krejci said. “The administration has a lot of resources that are very good, they have TRIO, they have D-120, tutoring sessions. They’re very understanding and they’re very willing to work and willing to help, even with social events.”
After two semesters at Parkland, Krejci’s current feelings towards academia are relatable to many students regardless of their educational backgrounds.
“I got no frickin’ clue what I’m doing right now,” Krejci said. “I have no drive to complete my major. I feel as if I’ve completely wasted my time and money. But, I want to complete something, I want to achieve something in this world, and I want to help people. So, I’m continuing to take my classes and I’m continuing to try as hard as I can to pass…I also feel empty inside regarding what I’m going to be, who I’m going to be and who I am now. That’s because I’m trying to focus on my practical for Anatomies.”