Surprises

We had a meeting with Michael’s school counselor.  A pre-meeting before the tests are evaluated and the IEP is recommended and accommodations are made, etc.**

The typical behavioral stuff was said.  The stuff I hear all the time…he is extremely smart and the teachers like him to a point…some of whom know how to handle him, some of whom do not.  There were newer issues dealing with his age and temperament.

But there were surprises that make me amazed and frightened at that same time.  Explanations on why his last year in middle school was so much more difficult (an extraordinary effort by a counselor who then was gone that last year; an effort we were not aware of) and the fact that the boy he stood up to (and got a “day off” from high school for) is a notorious bully and his MO usually consists of violence (which makes me feel good that my son stood up for himself, but worried that he doesn’t always know when he could be getting into something over his head…).  How he had a choice to take a foreign language this year (the one he was in was WAAAY to slow for him) and have to let go of band or take a foreign language next year instead…and the fact he picked band instead (BAND? The SOCIAL thing…the thing that he doesn’t practice for and never seems to show enthusiasm for…that Band).

I was a bit depressed after this meeting.  All the things that have to click for my son to have an education.  For him to graduate.  For him to fit into society’s norms.  The teenage years multiplied by his issues and behaviors.

But, the reason why I am writing this is because I just felt an uplift.  Mulling it over at work.  Thinking about ways to help him.  Realizing how much we have accomplished.  How much HE has accomplished.  How he has gotten over hurdles before.  How he is at this teenager phase that will end.  How help is on the way (once the IEP is in place, there are Aspies that are already mainstreamed that meet and help each other with the social aspects).

And I am proud of him (and wonder how he will take my expression of this—he may shrug or be offended—he is at THAT stage of teenager).

Yes, there are a lot of things I have no answers on.  Yes, he frustrates me every day. 

But I am proud of him and what he does every single day.  

**For those who want to know more about Aspergers in school settings, click HERE.