The year spent working on the letterboard with my mom has been the best year of my life. I have allowed myself to be known. I have also gotten to know my mother as well. Before this journey began, I was locked up inside my head, looking for a way to show the world I…
Category: Healing
How I Learned to Break Out of My Shell: an Autistic Boy’s Perspective on Communication
I learned to communicate on a letter board this year and it has changed my life in immeasurable ways. A letter board is a plastic stencil board with the alphabet on it that I touch to spell out my thoughts. Before this year, I was locked inside. I couldn’t express myself at all. I didn’t…
Our Time at the Horse Boy Ranch
Over Spring Break of this year, we went on an “epic road trip” (the use of the word epic usually makes me cringe, but in this case, I’m going to declare that it applies). To save money and to hit various spots along the way (including Birmingham, AL and New Orleans, LA), we drove from Washington,…
How Quickly Remarkable Shifts to Normal
Before I get too far down 2014, a year that has started out with an exhausted, unmotivated version of myself, I figured that I should catalog, in prose form, where we are in our “Autistic Life”. If I wait any longer to document this particular moment, it will quickly melt into the daily landscape of…
Good Things: A List
Just a list. In case a random earthquake causes a mountain to pop up and stand in my path, I want to document a few nice things for the record. All of these things parallel my son’s transition into his new school (we’re still paying for it out of pocket, and driving up there four…
Unpredictability is the Worst Part
So I haven’t written much on here lately. The fact is, I’ve been incredibly depressed. Often angry. Sometimes in a rage that only somebody else with an autistic child could understand. And then back to being depressed. I’ve had nothing particularly incisive, witty or mind-blowing to write here. I don’t expect to always have unique…