My Story: Jared L — NorthStar Navigator

By Jared L.

I never knew I would join NorthStar Academy, and in fact, I never knew online school was an option. I never knew that this event in life would lead me to one of the sweetest communities I have ever seen. In the grand year of 2020, when the whole earth shut down, I was presented with the opportunity of learning in this new format. Six years later, and I have had one of the roughest senior years I’ve ever heard of.

This school year started with the winds of change practically knocking my family over. I don’t think this certain wind of change has the word subtle in its vocabulary. At the beginning of my senior year, we had to move. At the time, we had no idea where we were moving to, just the simple knowledge that we had to move.

A few months in, a lot of trips along the East Coast, and a lot of prayer later, we found our destination: Tennessee. This was no smal taskl as we came all the way from North Carolina. We made several trips back and forth to look at homes and get things settled even somewhat, but the market was so bad at the time that nothing fit our needs. On one of our trips we were graciously given permission to move into another church’s parsonage 45 minutes away from the church my dad had just gotten a position at. So, trusting God, we move to the parsonage and keep the majority of our home in boxes waiting for the next step.

Several months later and at the start of the new year, we found a home close to the church that can fulfill our needs. The only problem was that it was a fixer-upper. Our new task was not to simply move in like one would imagine, but rather go back and forth from the parsonage to this new home every day to work on the house. We ripped up carpet, tore down walls, and scraped ceilings for another few weeks until dad said it was time for us to start sleeping at the house instead of going up and down the mountain to the parsonage. So, on mattresses, we slept inside a torn up house that felt like that one drawer in your grandparents house that has all the tools. You clank the drawer around a few times, struggle to get it out, shuffle all the heavy metal tools, and eventually find what you're looking for.

At the time of writing this article, 4/29/2026, we actually got out boxes from the parsonage to the house. The floors are all new, the walls all freshly painted, and my Grandmother's extension of the home is near completion. It took a lot of patience, guidance, muscle, and wisdom to get to this point, and there’s still much ahead, but the majority is finally behind us.

The advantage of online schooling is the fact that I was able to still get course work accomplished through all of this. There would have been no way for me to get a full year of school done in a brick and mortar school when all of this has taken place. However, when a school is all online and laid out for you in such a good manner, it makes that problem void.

It’s been a busy, confusing, chaotic, year, and I am glad I’m on this side of the experience. I praise God that I have been able to get so much accomplished throughout the calamity and commotion and have been able to complete a full senior year! Now, I am onto the great future.

Columns: 🗞️Staff Stories

Jared L has been at NSA for six years and at The Navigator for three. He lives in the United States and is beginning his pursuit into the veterinarian world of studies. He enjoys when he can allow his creativity to run wild with his hobbies of building Lego sets and painting Warhammer.