Splendid Mayhem: Classes Start Tomorrow!

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.

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Classes Start Tomorrow!

ECK!

I 'kinda' changed my major a few times over the course of last semester... Long story. I'm going back and forth between 2. But, I've found a BS degree that I can do for both. So, I guess at this point I just work on it and decide later. I've fought with myself over the 2 for the last few years. Really, I want to do something for Logen. And, I know that I can do anything I want to do as long as I put forth the effort and work hard to get there. (And, so can you!) Blah, blah, blah.

Needless to say, tomorrow a new semester starts. And, well- I still haven't nailed down my classes. I'm signed up for Microbio, Advanced Composition, Abnormal Psych & Survey of Calculus. Oh, help me- this semester is going to suck. I'm not happy with this course combo.

I need several more sciences, so I should be taking 2 this semester- but nothing else is open. My strong suit is not English, so Adv Comp is probably going to cause me some grief.

And, The math class--- hahahaha. I thought I was done with math after Trig. Math= tears. I know I used to tutor the junk at the Community College, but I don't like to actually be in it.

Abnormal Psych will be fun. I'll get to learn about other crazy people like me. Yay!

Wish me luck!

2 comments:

KieraJanuary 11, 2009 at 5:11 PM
Sounds like a fun class load. I was in abnormal psych in college and it was an interesting class! You are going to kick butt again! Hope all is well!
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ErinJanuary 13, 2009 at 2:14 AM
Oh man.. crossing my fingers that you'll make it through just fine! I get my exam results from the big exams I wrote in November in a couple of days, and I am freaking out! I'll be back at school soon too... so we can moan together. ;)
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