The Winds of Change...

The Winds of Change are blowing in my house and I have to say I'm kind of liking it.

Kiddo had an epiphany. Long story short to bring you to where our lives are now, a year ago on his 16th birthday, kiddo dropped out of high school. He'd stopped attending 2 mos. into 10th grade because he was being bullied. When a teacher decided to call him a "useless waste of space", he was done & we spent another 2 mos. fighting the system. By January, we were all tired of the fight. The school didn't care.

This is BTW the Reader's Digest version of the story - which is horrific beyond words. Talking about it tends to spiral me into depression, so I'm just not going to go there right now.

Aaanyway.... Kiddo immediately enrolled in the local community college & got his GED. Then, he applied as a late enrolling freshman in Sept. at a state university. He was accepted into the computer science program. His first semester he came away with a 3.7 GPA. Woo! But he didn't seem happy.

Over the last few weeks, he's been very quiet. And then it happened. He announced that he doesn't want to do computer programming for a living. He wants to study Art. Yes, my aspie kid, wants to be an artist. And you know what? I think he'll be a good one. He's very creative (and that's not me the mom saying so - its me, the artist.)

I'm going to share a bit of wisdom here, because I come from a family of artists. Don't let anyone tell you that your aspie kid isn't creative. Put a pencil or a marker or a camera or some clay in their hands and let them loose. If they don't like glue, give them double sided tape. If they don't like playdoh, give them Sculpey modeling clay. If they don't like getting their hands dirty, give them thin rubber gloves (they sell packs of non-latex ones in craft stores), put them in an apron or let them do it naked. Who cares what anyone else thinks! Don't make them color in coloring books if they hate them - give them blank paper and let them do whatever they want. Staying within the lines is for unimaginative people anyway. Set them up with computer drawing programs. Buy them Legos. Teach them how to make paper snowflakes. Let them design the yearly pumpkin face on paper. Any and every way you can help them to be creative - do it. You might be amazed by what you discover.

My son has an eye for photography. He's also talented with clay. He wants to learn to weld and work with ceramics. He wants to learn how to draw with shading and perspective. He wants to create. And it makes him happy. From wanting to have his own computer company to wanting to sell art at shows....the winds of change are amazing.