WFMW: Probably won't work for you

I had had something completely different to write about for today but I will just have to use that later.

Do you know what works for me; I mean really works for me?

My job. I love my job. I honestly cannot think of anything that I would rather do for the rest of my life (besides be a mommy and wife). This posses a problem seeing as my job is not a career and I'm going to college to get a career. It makes it sort of hard to pick a major when everything that you find pales in comparison to what you are already doing.

I am a one on one aide to an amazing little boy with autism. I wake up every day wanting to go to work. I spend time outside of work trying to figure out ways to help him grow and learn. I spent my summer wondering how he was doing and what progress he was making. Last year I was given the wonderful (and difficult) task of being his one on one for the entire day. This is not the norm so I was really lucky.

This year I am the morning aide and he has an afternoon aide. I must admit...I was not thrilled at having to share him. I do not share others easily to begin with and you have to understand that hours and hours of kicking, screaming, scratching, and head butting was endured so that he would learn the various things that he learned last year. I was afraid that I would get an aide that either a) thought that they could start changing routines and schedules even though we had worked so hard for them to be established and were finally seeing some progress or b) just wouldn't care and would let him do whatever he wanted.

It would have been SO, SO easy for me to have gone into this school year with a very distant and cold attitude towards the person who would be working with him, because, of course, they wouldn't care nearly as much about him as I do. But, I didn't. I stopped myself and re-evaluated my emotions and my intentions. I was not in control of the situation and having a bad attitude would not help anything. I vowed to greet the person warmly, share with him or her whatever it was that we had worked on and try my best to make sure that my interest was for _________'s best school year and not my own childish feelings.

What do you know? The afternoon aide is awesome! She's brand new to working with special needs kids, but not new to working with kids. She's inquisitive and actually wants to learn how we deal with ________ and what is expected of her. I'm so glad that he has an afternoon aide who cares. I'm also really excited to have someone to confer with and exchange knowledge. It will be nice to have someone to talk to about problems, worries, and successes, and progress who understands where I am coming from.

I love my job. I would do this forever if I could. I plan on doing it for quite a while, perhaps even after I graduate. To be able to work with this specific child for a long time would be so rewarding, because even in the few short months I worked with him last year he has grown tremendously. My job works for me!!!