There were a couple of students who asked, "Why are we watching this? I hate Roller Coasters!" At least that is Red's interpretation of events. This may or may not be what actually happened. According to him, there were other students who were on their phones texting, and not paying attention. This is typical behavior for a group of teenagers. In fact not all that long ago we went to a film event after he completed a film camp last summer. They were playing all of the short movies the students made in camp. Red complained the whole time. "This is boring! When can we leave?" He asked over and over again, only wanting to stay long enough to see the film that HE made. I remind him of this. "That was different. I was tired," he says. "Well, maybe the students in that class were tired."
I wasn't there, so I couldn't tell you from his report whether or not anyone had anything positive to say. He chose to focus on the negative. He comes home upset, yelling, with the angry face. I am able to redirect him pretty quickly. I tell him that all my readers on the blog loved his video! (Yes...I stretched the truth.) But that was enough to get him off the negative trip...that is until this morning, when it was time to get on that bus to go to school.
He attempts flipping over the coffee table and bangs on a few doors and walls. We have the run-of-the-mill screaming to the top of his lungs. He throws a fit like that of your average toddler...only he's 15 years old and nearly 200 pounds. He refuses to brush his teeth and get on the bus when it arrives. Once his meds kicked in fully, he calms down, cleans up the mess, brushes his teeth and I take him to school.
Suddenly, he can't handle his classes. "People in my classes are out of control," he says. "They are loud. I can't handle it." All of his teachers are mean ...they're not supportive. It's so hard to figure out what is Live and what is Memorex. What is real vs. what is imagined, magnified, exaggerated and plain old untrue.
His teachers paint a different picture. He is passing all classes. He is doing his work. He is talking to peers in his classes. He has a group to eat with at lunch. Peers are talking to him. He gets lots of high-fives and hellos in the hallways. I witnessed a few "What's up man?" greetings this morning when I took him to school and walked him to his BASE class.
He's tired of school!??? Well guess what?? So am I!
"I dreamed of a white padded room last night."
Show me some love!
Logging you in...
Adelaide Dupont · 285 weeks ago
And for those of us who knew and appreciated these points in high school to a greater or lesser extent - always good to have a refresher and feel them through the current and future generations who we survived to be able to see.
I especially appreciated points 5, 7 and 10.
And young women not settling or settling down yet is a good thing.
"It's never too late to live our dreams" - but it may be too early for some of them!
And 8 of course.
nicole · 243 weeks ago
Risa · 230 weeks ago
LAH · 221 weeks ago
Maira L. Coral · 216 weeks ago
I was looking for information for my Multi-Genre Disability Research Project from my Early Childhood Special Education class on the web, when suddenly I came across your blog. I started reading this out of curiosity and I want to tell you that as you said yourself, you will not be Amanda Gorman, but you managed to make me shed some tears, perhaps because I felt totally identified with your words, especially in the part that you speak of your son. My son also has Asperger's syndrome, he is 19 years old and he is in the second semester of College. Also like yours, he takes classes from home, likewise my eldest daughter is also taking college classes from her room. At the same time, that I work as a preschool teacher from my kitchen through a computer, my husband sleeps in the room during the day because he works at night. Also in the afternoons I myself take virtual school classes. I am a 51-year-old Latin woman who began to learn the English language as adult, so maybe you find some deficiencies in my writing, however, I was very moved by how proud you express yourself about your son. Referent your mother, I liked the humorous tone that you give when your talk about her, so I did not want to miss this opportunity and stopped my assignments for a moment to let you know that your words do make a difference, since they reach the heart of at least those who have opportunity to read you. I want confess you that is the most long I have written to someone I don't know, because your words inspired me, thank you...
Gavin Bollard · 209 weeks ago
Thanks for this post. I've been very distracted of late and so this was how I found out about our friend Kate. Kate's struggles were very real but they were so constant and so wide-ranging that it was difficult for people around her to address them. I think it's going to take a while longer for me to process all this.
I learned so much from Kate because she was always quick to point out the many injustices in the world. In her glory days, she was very much a crusader and she cared for everyone. Over the years, as her situation took its toll, I came to realise that it was the fact that she couldn't be put in a single specific category, that made the system fail her. She needed help that they weren't set up to provide.
She needed more care and she needed to be less alone. I'm so sorry that this has happened.
For a long while we were corresponding almost every day but a couple of months ago, I realised that she had become so stressed that nearly every interaction I had with her was starting to trigger her. I backed away to give her a bit more space. She only had a little time that she could stand to be online and there were too many things that she wanted to do in that time. I thought that by taking a step back, she could reach out to more people who might be geographically closer and able to assist.
Kate was a beautiful soul and she will be sorely missed by all of us.
diyalabs6192603 11p · 192 weeks ago
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Spoil your cat · 122 weeks ago
Many of these living arrangement aren't good, and many of the people who run those places really don't have the residents' best interest at heart. Those places are like old age homes and foster homes, where you sometimes hear horror stories. They're hard to trust. But then there are good ones, of course.
The best thing for an autistic adult is either to go on living at home or working and renting an apartment and living independently, but that isn't always an option.
Duncan · 112 weeks ago