Splendid Mayhem: Bad Day

Welcome To Holland

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this......
When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.
After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."
"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."
But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.
The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.
So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.
It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.
But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."
And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.
But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.

Monday, August 25, 2008

Bad Day

Day 1: SCARY.

French: I walked into French (a la Francais) confident. hahahaha I walked out, and immediately pulled out the laptop to drop it. Don't fret, I'm back in Francais Un. Or however you say French 1.

Genetics: Ah, well ok. Read Ch 1 by Wednesday. 10-4

Lunch: With a friend, Chick-fil-A. Yum

Calculus: Oh, Lordy. I took notes, and was totally pumped. But, I think my teacher has it in for frat guys. She gave a speech on "if you aren't strong in algebra and trig and want to plegde and be in a frat, get out of my class." There was also the "I have thrown chalk at kids for disrupting" speech. I think that lady is Koo-Koo! Left there, still happy. I'm a female for one :) No thought of pledging to anything.

Calculus Drill: Test # 1. 9 questions, no calculators of any kind. Just brains. Well, only your brain. And, mine. Is so out of 4th grade. Which was what the quiz was on. 2/3 * 1/4= ? I missed it. Infact, I missed like 5 of the 9. I can't divide decimals, I got the numbers right, just put the decimal in the wrong place. I'm stressing.

I hae a TON of homework to do. I should not be blogging. I needed to vent~ to all those people who stopped reading after my first sentence. I've been searching for a new class since 6. It's now 10. I'm in trouble. Wish me luck.

1 comment:

The MitchellsAugust 26, 2008 at 9:45 AM
I'm so proud of you. I have NO desire to be smarter if it means I have to go back to school. I'm super impressed!
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