A New Chapter & Lessons Learned

Today finds me on a train, heading for Toronto.

After holding out for five months of roommate hell, technical difficulties, and more stress than I personally would have been able to tolerate, my Aspie daughter has made the decision to leave the game design program she was in…she’s coming home.

But what might seem like a failure on the surface is not. It’s more. So much more…and I’ve spent the last week convincing her of that. Because beyond what she’s learned about human relations (or lack thereof) and her personal limits (so much greater than she—or we—ever knew), she’s also found the niche she’d like to make her career. Rather than game design as a whole, she wants to focus on something called texturizing—the adding of layers and details to artwork that makes it more realistic. I’ve looked it up online, and texture artists are an actual thing, and yes, you can totally make a career out of it…who knew, right?

So…the takeaways from this whole experience? In my daughter’s words (paraphrased):

1. Nineteen-year-old boys make lousy roommates.
2. The friends who want to change you into something else aren’t really friends.
3. Kitchens don’t clean themselves (and 19-year-old male roommates don’t clean them, either).
4. Sometimes going to school is as much about figuring out what you don’t want to do as it is about what you do want to do.
5. What you do want to do is worth working for.
6. You want to aim for a job that pays enough so you don’t have to have any roommates. (But you definitely want a cat.)

I think she’s going to be just fine, don’t you? 😉

This week in Toronto is all about decompressing and having fun. She needs to see a familiar (and friendly) face, she needs help winding down the school stuff (there’s an exit plan…?), and I want her to leave on a positive note. Plus, I think I need to reassure myself that she really is okay. 😛

So over the next three days, we’re going to figure out how many boxes we’ll need for packing her when her father and I return in a couple of weeks for the actual move; we’re going shopping; we’re having burgers and cheesecake at her favourite places; and we’re hitting up a couple of the tourist attractions such as the aquarium and the zoo (giant panda babies, here we come!).

It will be fun. It will be silly. And it will be oh, so healing for the both of us. And in my book? There’s no better way to begin the next chapter. 😉