Discerning the Future

  The thing about the future is, we can't see it.

  A lot of people think that's pretty darn scary.

  Other people - sometimes the same people at different times - find it very exciting.  New gadgets, exciting possibilities, and all that.


  When your kid has special needs, the future is scary.
  Will he be able to support himself?
         Who will take care of him when i'm gone?
  i don't want him on the street.
               Can i save enough, not only for my own retirement, but also to take care of my kid for what could very well (hope) be a normal lifespan?
  Will he live at least moderately well?
       Will his roommates, for roommates there will almost certainly be, be compatible?
               Will they beat him and steal him blind?
  These are not unrealistic scenarios!

  Next year is Max's last year in school.  He is finally performing at a 3rd/4th grade level.  His wonder-full teacher told me that last week, he did better, behavior wise and academically, than she's ever seen him do.

  Finally it's all coming together for him.

  And in May 2013 it ends. 

  In some ways, that's like throwing a kid out when he enters middle school.

  This is not a complaint.  Life is not fair.
  If educating a regular ed kid is expensive, education for special needs child makes that look like a drop in the ocean.
  Still.
  It leaves us with the question of,
                               What comes next?


   We have some ideas.  We're working on it.  But that doesn't mean it's not scary that the  school bus won't be coming and we have a wonder-full kid who may, with a suitably understanding employer, be able to work parttime, but really isn't motivated to get off the couch (sound like any other 21 year olds?)  Who will likely always need some sort of assistance to live, but none the less, WITH that assistance, can make valuable contributions to society.












  When Boom graduated from high school, when we ourselves graduated from high school, we had no real idea what the future held, but we did have a general idea of what shape we were aiming for.  Some of us achieved it earlier, some later, some not at all, but we had some concept of what we were going for.
  With Max, it's more like an ancient map with the "Here Be Dragons" gap than a modern one of somewhere you haven't been.