On the 8th of January, the day I
was to go back to school I began packing my things for the next few months I
would spend at UCM. I packed eight Give Yourself Goosebumps books (I just
love reading those things), Demetri Martin's This is a Book; The Dharma of
Dragons and Daemons (I want to write Buddhist themed screenplays and I've
got to learn about them); Unlikely
Friendships: 47 Remarkable Tales from the Animal Kingdom (I love the
animals in that book); 101 Celtic
Knotwork Designs (I like to draw these things in my spare time); my book Ends of the Earth: Togo to Turkmenistan,
Iran to Cambodia, the Frontiers of Global Anarchy (geo politics is
something I love); Poisonwood Bible
(that book has gotten really good); my book Poetry
as a Spiritual Practice (I could learn something); and Best Buddhist Writings 2011 (to read and to keep all my Best
Buddhist Writing books together). I also
packed my clipboard and art supply kit for making friendship bracelets, my
flute, my Buddha poster to hang in my room, and a couple of other things (I'll
still put enough time into my work).
Jack's parents car pulled up in
to my driveway around two o'clock that evening. I said hello to Jack and his parents, Jack and I talked about our break
and my mom talked with Jack's parents for a while. Then we took off to UCM.
On the way I heard my phone
ringing. I checked it. It was my dad. I answered the phone and he told me that he
couldn't order my textbooks over the phone and have me pick them up at the
bookstore because the deadline for doing so was the 28th of December. Never-the-less, we agreed that he would order
the books I needed for my classes on Amazon and he said they would get to me by
either Tuesday or Wednesday. He called
back a few minutes later and told me that the chart I needed for my History
class wasn't available on Amazon but he said if I bought it at the bookstore he
would pay me back for it. I agreed.
Jack, his parents and I got to
the school and unpacked our things. I
put my clothes away, shelved my books that I brought and hung up my Buddha
poster. Then Jack and I went with his
parents to Walgreens where I bought some shampoo and some mechanical pencils.
Once I got back to school and
had everything I needed, I went to dinner where I saw a familiar face. It was Cassie. I walked up to her and greeted her and we
talked about our breaks and we agreed to sit next to each other. We told each other the things we got for
Christmas and she told me about how she had gotten a job at the Einstein
Brothers in Library. Though she told me
she wasn't volunteering this semester, she did say she would stop by the study
hall every so often to keep up the friendships with me and other members of the
THRIVE program.
The next day I went to my first
Learning Strategies class where Mrs. Carter led us around the building to find
our classes. After that I went to the
bookstore and bought the chart I needed for my History class, then found out
where my classes were.
At one, I went to my U.S.
History class where I ended up volunteering to be a note-taker for one of my
fellow students. We met at the end of
class and we agreed we would meet every Friday after class so I could give her
a copy of the notes I took. After that I
went to the Office of Accessibilities and got some carbon print paper. I went to my Creative Writing class an hour
after my History class got out. The
class put their desks in a circle and we, the students, went around the circle
and told the class our names, where we were from, the best books we've read in
the last six months and what we hoped to accomplish from this class. When it was my turn, I told then my name,
told them I was from Mission Hills, Kansas, said the best books I've read
within the past six months were Poisonwood
Bible and Still Life with Woodpecker. I learned that this class would be largely
discussion groups some of which we wrote a poem or a story and shared it with
the class who would then critique our work however they saw fit while we simply
listened to what they had to say. This
sounded nerve-racking at first but I told myself what I believed the Buddha
would have said in such a situation, "Be in the present."
After that class I deposited some money in my bank
account. That night I looked up books on
the school libraries database by an author I had a great deal of interest
in. His name was Dr. Roy Richard
Grinker, an anthropologist and an autism expert whose daughter is
autistic. I once saw him speak when I
was at JCCC during the JCCC Autism: Beyond the Diagnosis Seminar. One thing he said I liked (though certainly
not the only thing) was when he asked people why they chose him to he speak on
autism issues, they said, "Well, you're not angry." When I looked him up on the UCM library
database, I found a book of his called In
the Arms of Africa: the Life of Colin M. Turnbull.
The next day I went with the
first year THRIVE students and Mrs. Carter in Learning Strategies to get our
textbooks which I realized, the THRIVE program will pay for. I got my Learning Strategies textbook that day
and after that I headed down to the library to check out some books and greet
Cassie on her first day of work to give her some moral support. On the way I ran into her friend Mckinsey and
we stopped to say hi for a moment and I told her I was going down to the
library to say hi to Cassie and help make her feel comfortable on her first day
of work.
When I got down however, Cassie
wasn't there. Never-the-less, I checked
out two books: a Goosebumps book How I
got My Shrunken Head and In the Arms
of Africa. I went to lunch and saw
Cassie eating with Mckinsey and another one of her friends. I asked her if she worked today and she said
that her paperwork didn't get sent to them in time so she will have to start
next week. I started my Workplace and
Community Skills class which the first year THRIVE students would go to on
Tuesdays and Thursdays. After that I
went swimming with Jack, Emily and Jennifer. At dinner I ate with Kimmie, Daniel, Jack, Emily and Julie another
THRIVE student. I saw Cassie sitting in
the Dining Hall and invited her to sit with the rest of us. She came over but I didn't eat anything as I
decided to go down to the King's Chef Buffett, an Asian restaurant, instead of
simply eating at the cafeteria again. When I got back to school I went down to the Rec Center and this time I
ran on the elliptical as all the treadmills with TVs were being used.
That night I finished reading
the assigned reading for my U.S. History class. Kriti, one of our mentors was to get back from India. We waited for a while and then she got to the
the South Ground Ellis Hall and we had some cake as it was also her's and
Kimmie's birthday.
The next night however, I felt
sick. I could not go to class the next
day so I e-mailed my teachers to let them know. I ended up feeling better the next day and finished reading How I Got My Shrunken Head. I turned it into the library and checked out
another Goosebumps book called Ghost
Beach. I was able to go to my
classes after that. On Friday I read the
assigned reading for my History class again. I started learning how the railway industry started leading to the rise
of oil companies in America. I also gave
the student in my class the notes I had copied for her.
After class I went into town get
some red and green embroidery floss to make friendship bracelets (I was going
to get black but they were out) and to look in Hasting's Books where I saw
several Goosebumps books and bought a copy of the Buddhist quarterly magazine Buddhadharma. I started feeling sick again that night, but
by the morning I was feeling better. I
don't know specifically what caused my sickness, but even though I had some
school related stress over the holidays, I was sure that it was nothing
psychological. There has been a bug that
has been going around the school.
I spent the Saturday working on
the poem for my creative writing class with no abstract words and came up with
a poem about my room called My Second
Home. Maybe there's some things I
could work on with this poem but what I found was that doing it helped me
realize that if I keep my door to my room open, I can feel more connected to
the outside world and that I often have so many plans that I sometimes never
get around to doing a single one of them. I also read more of Ghost Beach
that day. I finished it the next morning
and found instructions in there on doing grave rubbing. I looked up Warrensburg cemeteries and found
Memorial Garden where I thought would be a great place to go grave
rubbing. I also went on Plato web and
took a reading, writing and math pretest and I think I did pretty well.
That night I read more of In the
Arms of Africa. Colin Turnbull
apparently was quite gifted in music and languages, though through his early
years he was somewhat secluded, demonstrating many signs of autism
himself. His teachers tried to squelch
his love of things such as music, church, conservation and the Scottish
countryside, which were all deep inspirations throughout his childhood.
The next morning I went down to
the Union with Jack, Emily, Gabe, Alex, Zach and Kriti from THRIVE to volunteer
on Martin Luther King Day. We got our
picture taken and went in a room down the hall where we packed Easter eggs with
candy, tied knots in blankets for the senior's home to stop them from fraying,
and laid out piles of newspapers for the Warrensburg animal shelter. They were going to throw several magazines
and newspapers out that they weren't going to use. I saw one that got my interest, The Numismatist, since I am very
interested in coin-collecting, so they gave me the magazine instead of throwing
it away.
When I got back to my room I did
my weekly and monthly planner for Mrs. Carter's Learning Strategies class, then
I got an e-mail from Teresa, my person centered planner, saying my person
centered planning would be on Wednesdays from 2-2:50. I went down to the Union and played
Runescape. When I got back to my dorm I
looked up "pawns shops warrensburg mo" and found a place called
Central Pawn Shop located near Hastings Books. It looked like it might have some interesting things so I decided I
would look at it tomorrow.
That night I thought of an
idea. Jack has a painting that he did in
high school that he hung above his bed. It shows a lake and several trees under a pale blue sky. It was really good but it fell onto his bed
and he took it down so it wouldn't fall on him while he's asleep. Then I got an idea. I put it on our dresser so it looks like
we're looking out at a lake.
The next day I went to the
bookstore and got a journal for my UCM scrapbook. Then I went down to the Einstein Brother's in
the Red Center where Cassie was now working at and saw here there. We talked for a short while and I got a
toasted everything bagel with butter (my favorite) and a chai tea latte. After class I found the Central Pawn Shop and
saw that it did have some neat things.
I finally started running on the
treadmill that night, which I had not done for a while because I was sick. The next day I made an appointment with Dr.
Mayfield about accommodations for Tuesday at 1:15. After class I went to the pawn shop I found
some neat coins there. I also went to
Hasting's Books (I meet Kimmie and Daniel on the way and they took me there as
they were taking Pierce to Walgreens) and got a book on birds, since I decided
to start bird-watching, a book on U.S. coins, and an Indian Head cent folder.
The next day, Kimmie, Daniel,
Jack, another THRIVE student named Corey, and I went to see Mallory Graves in
Sedalia. We drove for a half hour then
made it to the barbecue restaurant Mallory works at. Over a hamburger, some curls fries and
several root beers I caught up with Mallory, who is now going to a local
community college. After lunch, the four
of us, Kimmie, Daniel and Mallory's mother went bowling in Sedalia.
The next day I got a text from
my friend Maddie asking her how I was doing and I decided to respond to her as
soon as possible. I also finished
reading The Scarecrow Walks at Midnight
and returned it to the library and checked out another Goosebumps book called You Can't Scare Me. Unfortunately I also heard from Jack while he
was talking to his dad on the phone that his mother has cancer.
On the first day of the week I did Plato Math for a half
hour in the Union computer lab as Plato wasn't working on my laptop. The next day I went to my appointment with
Dr. Mayfield and requested an audio book for my History textbook. That night I also did another half hour of
Plato Math.
The next day, Mrs. Carter came
to me in Learning Strategies class and asked me if she could see me after
class. I went to her when class was over
and she said that she had talked to people on the office of Student Activities
about how I wanted to start a support group for people with autism. She also told we the THRIVE program has a
website and the staff was wondering if I would like to help organize it since I
have a blog. Mrs. Carter said, "I
know you're busy but if you just want to think about it."
"Ok, I'll think about
it," I said.
That night when Jack finished
talking to his parents, he called them again so I could leave a message on
their cellphone (they were in the Virgin Islands) wishing Mrs. Ditch a speedy recovery. Then on Friday I went down to Hasting's Books
and bought three things: one a Lincoln pennies folder; a giant plastic Coors
Light bottle for putting change into; and a book called Relax, You're Already Home: Everyday Taoist Habits for a Richer Life. That night I also called my friend Erin. The next day I went to the library and found
out my book In the Arms of Africa is
due on February 7th. I also did three
hours of Plato Math that day.
The next day I went down to
Walgreens and bought some mouthwash. Then I got back and worked on Plato math for another hour and a half,
keeping up with the requirements for THRIVE of doing five hours of Plato a
week. I also got done my homework for
Mrs. Carter's class. The next day I
returned In the Arms of Africa to the
library because I had so much other work and thought I would finish it when I
was less busy, especially now that I had read through about a third of it.
The 31st came and during that
night Jack, Emily and I went to a presentation called Sex, Drugs, Alcohol and Everything in Between. There, a woman named Julia Garcia talked
about her life of recovery from alcohol and drug addiction and the death of her
best friend. On a card we all wrote the
name of someone we knew who was addicted to drugs or alcohol. Then we all got in a circle around the room,
dropped our cards, moved a few steps forward and picked up the card in front of
us. Then we sat down and looked at the
name on the card and on that card we wrote what we had come to UCM for. I wrote things I wanted to do as a
career-"film director, screenwriter, animator and voice actor." as
well as "activism" and the names of some of my screenplays.
Julia showed us the word
impossible on the projector. Then she
showed it again this time with the letters i-m highlighted in read. She told us to read the letters in red, then
the letters in black and we saw that it read "I'm possible." During her presentation I heard Julia say
hobbies take her mind off doing drugs and that gave me the idea that finding hobbies
would take my mind off things that stress me out because I would be so engaged
in activity. I decided to look into
fencing at UCM.
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| Julia Garcia speaks about her experiences recovering from drugs and alcohol |
