The Waning of the Year

After the weekend I cut out letters from blue construction paper and glued them to my bottle. It said “Autistic Pride.” The next day I felt absolutely exhausted before I went into my Workplace and Community Skills class and I took several long natural breathes to stay energized. When I got back to my dorm I took a nap on my bed for abut fifteen minutes.

The next day I went to my Person Centered Planning and talked to Teresa about my tiredness. She said she has allergies and was so tired yesterday and that’s when I figured that I must be tired because of my allergies. Then, instead of going to my Creative Writing class, my class went to the Art and Design Gallery near the Lovinger building and heard three UCM alumni writers at a reading.  Unfortunately, the next Thursday I spilled tea on my laptop that day and it wouldn’t come on. The next day I went to my History class but found out it was cancelled. As I was leaving to go back to my dorm, one of the international students I take notes for came up to me and asked me if I would study with her in History.

We went to the Union and we looked over our notes and our book, asking ourselves questions about what he book had just said. I told the student that instead of memorizing the material, she should try categorizing it. I told her to look for connections between each piece of information and to go over the headings of her books and her notes and turn them into questions. After 1:50, she thanked me for helping her and then said she needed to go to her next class. I got back to my dorm and cut out some more letters out of blue construction paper and glued them to the other side of my rocket. They said, “Liberty, Equality, Perserveration.”

The next day I retyped my story for my Creative Writing class and saved it on my flash drive. I got back and went to the rocket launch with the THRIVE students although after launching a few rockets, the pump appeared to be damaged so we cancelled the Rocket launch. After that I went down to King’s Chef Buffet with Hillary, Philip, and Kayla.

On Monday during Learning Strategies class, Mrs. Carter showed us where the exam schedules are in our planners. I looked at mine and found out that classes on at one o’clock on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays are on May 2 from 2:00-4:00. I took another quiz for my History class and I got a five out of six. The next day I did my homework for my Workplace and Community Skills class, where we printed of compared two careers and found out what the working conditions were like, the physical conditions, the skills and knowledge needed for them, the employment outlook, and the salary. I compared “Writer” and “Producer or Director” and I found out that for both of them required knowledge of the English Language, Communications and Media, Sales and Marketing, and Fine Arts are needed. I realized that learning about what I need to know for the jobs I’m interested in could help me choose classes to take. Both require the ability to listen and ask questions; understand verbal and written information, and at least a High School diploma or GED.

I compared “Animator and other Multi-Media Artists” and “Music Composers, Directors and Arrangers.” I found out both of them require an understanding of Sales and Marketing, the English Language, Communications and Media, Customer and Personal Service and Fine Arts. I also learned that they earn about the same salary and employment opportunities for Animators and other Multi-Media Artists is few in Kansas City, while the he employment opportunities for Music Composers, Directors, and Arrangers are few in the United States.

Producer’s or Director’s outlook in Kansas City was moderate and Writer’s outlook was high. They also made about the same yearly and annual salary. Then I compared Music Director or Composer and Animator. After comparing each of these careers, I choose my three favorite ones and ranked them according to what I found out about them. It turned out I liked Writer and Producer or Director just the same. I also learned about self-employment and careers in the military.

That night ran into Cassie as I was going down the stairs in the THRIVE hall and said hi to her. I asked her how work was going and she said she was exhausted and ready for the summer. I knew exactly how she felt. I asked her if she was taking any classes during the summer and she said no, and that she was also going to look for a job and I told I planned on doing so to. I said, “Well it’s good to talk to you.”

She smiled at and said, “Good to talk to you to, Ben.”

On Wednesday I took another History quiz and got six out of six. After class I went to my Person Centered Planning and told Teresa about my computer and I realized that computers are like the human body. They have all these different parts or organs and all of them need to be working or the computer to be working.

On Thursday I went down to the OAS office and scheduled my exam for Learning Strategies on Monday at ten and my exam for my Personal Math class on Monday at eleven. I also scheduled my History exam for 2:00 on May 2. During my Workplace and Community Skills class, each of us met individually with Jessica about our classes next year and our internships. Jessica met with me and she told me that next semester I would be taking Transition Planning with Mrs. Carter at 10:00 and I would be taking Adaptive PE at 11:00. I told her about my interest in working for the Muleskinner next semester for my internship and she said she would try to arrange that. I also old her five of the five of the classes that I planned on taking at UCM and next year I would take two of them for credit. I told her about Film Appreciation, Cross-Cultural Cinema, Film History, Modern Sub-Saharan Africa, and Modern East Asia.

After class, I went down to a computer store next to Sonic and they looked at my computer and said it would cost me one hundred dollars for them to take it apart and see what was wrong with it. If the logic board was damaged, they said I would cost two to three hundred dollars to repair it. They did say that they would probably be able to get all the old documents off.

After I went to the computer store, I got a twenty-five dollar Barnes and Noble gift card for myself. Then I went down to Hasting’s and saw two books Filmmaking for Dummies and Screenwriting for Dummies. I looked at the second book and it had some good advice about dealing with writer’s block. It said that when you go through writer’s block, your imagination may just be expanding and you need some time for your ideas to adjust to it.

That night I ordered a book online called The Skull Mantra. It is about a Chinese detective (Inspector Shan) in a gulag in Tibet who is suddenly assigned the case of solving the murder of a Chinese policeman and must solve it to save a Tibetan monk who has been accused of the murder. Later Kimmie drove people to Walmart. I went with her, Amanda and Pierce and got dry rice. The next day I put it in one of my UCM bags beneath my computer and closed it up.

The next day my computer still didn’t turn on. Jack’s parents came on Sunday night and I let them take it to my mom’s house. On Wednesday I went to a mandatory meeting in the TV Lounge where Daniel and Kimmie explained the checkout procedures and told us who we would ride with to the THRIVE Award Ceremony at Mazzio’s Pizza. I would be riding with Jill Larsen, Dr. Downing’s secretary.

The next day, I bought a UCM mulezod, two folders (one for my creative writing portfolio and the other for memorabilia of dates when I find a girlfriend) and a UCM pen with my THRIVE points. After class got out, Jessica and I meet with an academic advisor, Krisana West, and they helped me decide on my major, which would be General Studies, which meant I would only need one hundred twenty credit hours. We looked over the requirements. I already had my written communications requirement filled out, my Social and Behavioral Sciences, my Cultural interactions, my Arts and Humanities, and my Interpersonal Skills. I needed one credit class in Oral Communications, Mathematical Reasoning (I had a College Algebra class at JCCC which I failed), one in Physical Sciences, one in Technology, one in Literature, and one in Integrative Studies to complete my General Education requirements.

We looked at what I already had in the way of my General Studies degree. There were four categories of requirements and each of them had to have an upper level class except for one of them, which required two. There was Arts and Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences; Math, Science and Logic; and Areas of Interest. That night I went to the THRIVE Award Ceremony at Mazzio’s and won an award for: More than twenty completed modules/lessons in Plato Reading Comprehension; More than twenty modules/lessons completed in Plato Language Arts; More than twenty modules/lessons completed in Plato Math; More than twenty-five hours in Plato Math; Award for Plato Top #3 (tie with Tyler) time on task overall-69 hours; Completing one level of Plato Language Arts (a level being the equivalent of one academic year); Completing three levels of Plato Reading Comprehension; Award for 90% or above attendance at Person Centered Planning; Outstanding attendance and participation in THRIVE classes award; Average of four’s on weekly progress report; and the Creative Writer Award.

The next day I gave the student in my History class who needed notes a copy of all the notes I took since Easter. That night I saw Sherlock Holmes: a Game of Shadows with Jack and Emily, which I had seen before but it was still pretty good. Over the weekend I worked on my revisions for my Creative Writing class and a paper on what I learned from three or more of the writers we read this year. On Saturday I was surprised yet pleased to hear on the phone with my dad that he married his girlfriend, Sherry. On Sunday I saw the King of the Hill episode where Hank and Bobby enter the father-son rifle tournament but Hank’s repressed memories of his father cause his performance to suffer. In the end, Hank goes to a “sports psychologist” who teaches Hank to visualize what he wants and to say talk about it like it really happened. I realized that could help me in a lot of areas in life. The next day I got a call from Jessica saying a man at the Muleskinner paper would love to meet me tomorrow and talk about possible internships. 

I waited in the Union for 2:00 when I would take my History exam. While I was waiting I saw a girl from my Creative Writing class walk by and learned that our last class is on Friday. I also went to my Creative Writing teacher office and turned in my portfolio.

At about 2:00 I went into the Testing Center and took my exam, plus the optional technology final, which can replace our lowest exam score. I had a hunch that I did fairly well.

The next day I began packing my things. I selected 4:15 for my checkout time with Landon, the CA on the second floor of South Ellis. The next day I went to my last Creative Writing class, where my short story was work-shopped and I filled out a teacher evaluation form. When I got back I finished packing up my things. As I loaded them into the car, I saw Julie, a short girl with Down syndrome walking out of Ellis. I said, “Hi, Julie.” And she said, “Bye, Ben.  I’ll come visit you next year.” Then at four, my mom came and helped me load everything into the car and we drove back home.