Catching Up: The Graduate

All y'all remember Bug, right?   My son, who is on the autism spectrum?  I think my last post on the old bloggg was when he graduated high school.  That was 5 years ago.

Well, he's now graduated college.  B.A. in Anthropology, minors in Geology and Art History. Wants to be an archaeologist, or work in a museum, playing with the artifacts.  Ah, boys and their toys....

Come last winter, with graduation looming, we had no idea what he should or could do, what the possibilities were (or weren't).  Whether OVR would do right by him and help him get a job In His Field (instead of at the Home Depot).  He still to this day gets no services (future rant looming), and so everything was up to us.  As usual.  The idea of an adult on the spectrum - coming to the end of School - Life as he's known it for 23 years - is a huge deal.  It's a huge deal for all students on the spectrum, even for high school graduation.  The world is huge and overwhelming as it is - with all of the choices out there, how do you know where to go or what to pick?

So, when it came to looking for things like internships or field schools (both of which he needed), I did most of the finding, and he chose what he wanted to apply to.  I mean, I knew what we could afford, or not, and his eyes would glaze over looking at pages and pages of results in Google searches.  Gee, I don't think he needs any services (she said, sarcastically)....

Last year Bug did a field school at Montpelier, James Madison's plantation in Virginia, and before that, he did a state internship at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania.  Still, there were a couple more that he wanted to apply for, so he did.   In fact, we figured, let's throw all the balls up in the air and see where they land.  What can it hurt?   The worst that can happen is a No.

So, Bug applied and got into three grad schools.  He did a geological field school in Costa Rica last spring, and an ethnograhic field school on sustainable culture and food in Perugia, Italy for five weeks this summer.

And.

He also got an internship for this fall - PAID - at the Smithsonian Institute.  Yep.  He did that.  Grad school - and the $40K bill in student loans that is probably going to come with it - is deferred at least one semester.

Anyone who knows of someone who wants to rent a room to a very laid back guy, please buzz Moi ASAP!!!

And - as for all the people in the world who were disbelievers (and those were a LOT), well, y'all can kiss my butt.   Bug, still proving them wrong after all these years.  ;)

#DNCSNAFU, or Dissing People with Disabilities

My friend Lisa, the owner of the very EXTREMELY nationally popular blog A Day in Our Shoes, and coordinating Facebook page and I agree on about 95% of our politics.  She is usually a lot nicer about things than I am, probably because her kids are young.  Me, I’m getting closer to Social Security and have less patience for bullshit.

So anyway, a couple of days ago, she posts this:

Just This.

So What Now?

Once upon a time, I used to have (a) bloggg.   And that was its name.  I started it for political reasons, but eventually it morphed into what I would call “Autism Central in my Living Room.”   And I kept it up for seven years.

As one of the first autism bloggers and the founder of the Autism Blog Ring – that’s something the internets had pre-Facebook - I floundered about for pretty much all of my now-adult son’s life, researching strategies & therapies, trying to understand IDEA and maneuver the special ed system.   

As a proud member of the Liberal Coalition of bloggers, I also bloggged about politics, as well as autism, special education, my varmints, about the time I made my kid a cat food sandwich (by mistake!!)…..   

Around the time Bug graduated from high school, I was just tired of all of it and packed it in.  Face it, Facebook makes it easier. Plus, it’s free.   

There have been a couple of times that I have wanted to bring bloggg back.  Sometimes you just need a place to shoot off your mouth.  ;)   I tried it once on Tumblr, but I couldn't get the connections I had before, and it just seemed like the place was set up for pictures and not opinions.  It was frustrating, so I just stopped.

Then I made this one, and wouldn't you know that someone stole my BLOGGG Blogger domain?????  Bitch.  And they're not even using it!  

But the one thing I could never really get with bloggg were connections.  Connections to other parents of autistic kids, or kids with other special needs, connections *for* Bug - preferably close to where I live, but if not, ok.  Most of the mom bloggers who stuck it out as long as I did weren't local, or had other things to deal with.  So while we could commiserate, we couldn't really work together.  It made it really difficult to help others.  

Facebook changed all that.

I don’t think any of us could ever have imagined how it felt to have been lost for years and years, and then finally find not just 10 or 15, but THOUSANDS of people with the same issues.  FINALLY we had CONNECTIONS.

Our connections have developed into this booming community, hundreds of Facebook groups, thousands and thousands of parents, and so many more children with disabilities - and their parents - will be able to find answers, and maybe avoid all of what Bug and our family went through.

So I'm back to rant.  It's election season, so I suppose that's fuel....no, I Know it is.

XXOO Moi;)