Last Four Months
Yes, I know I haven’t written in almost three months and the last time I told you what happened was in April. Whoopie, I don’t know if I can tell you everything
that happened in between right now, but I’ll have a try.
In the last months of 10th grade not very much happened: I went to the Model European Parliament (students playing the Europarliament) from May 12th to
16th. It was very cool, cause I really love debating. At first, it didn’t seem very cool, cause my geography teacher, who’s in the organisation of the MEP, was very worried about me due to my blindness. I was expected to address the potential problems to him, which I still don’t think of as logical: did
I see any problems? But eventually I aksed the teacher about it anbd then he was very laconic, so I decided addressing potential problems was his concern.
The MEP itself was really wonderful, cause the Gymnasium Apeldoorn (my school) group was cool, the family in Arnhem that took me and some other people
in their house for the week was wonderful, and I enjoyed the debate. I was in the External Relations commission I, which debated the EU’s role where it
comes to undemocratic states. That was really an interest of mine due to the war on Iraq, so it was very cooool.
A few days after MEP my computer crashed. I used my old computer for a few days and after that, half a year of work appeared to be gone on my normal one,
because the last backup was performed on December 23, 2002. I really hate it and the worst may be that I lost some school work I might need next year on
my exam (ie. my English book report). That would be a big problem! *Scared*
The social skills issue (typical 4th form aka 10th grade topic) continued with my teachers filling out a frustrating list of so-called social skills on how well I applied them. They seemed to have a somewhat different view than they had in November (when they had to fill in the thing as well). I feel my
“not so close friends” the social skills really suck, cause I don’t understand how to apply them in an endless number of situations, except for the ones
I should apply in each situation (facing people, and uhm, what else?). Not that I don’t forget to face people - in fact, I forget it all the time -, but
anyways. It’s quite frustrating, cause I know the 16 sentences, so why can’t I apply them??? I’m intelligent enough, ain’t I?
Also the issues about a possible ASD continued. Volkert van der Graaf, who killed famous politician Pim Fortuyn in May 2002, is said to have Asperger’s,
so very much fuss has been going on about him and therefore about everything ASD related. This was in the beginning of July, a time in which I had great
difficulty with all this. I would watch the 8-O’clocknews stating Volkert “doesn’t suffer from the autistic Asperger’s Syndrome” and I felt very strange.
On a news programme a person with an ASD (has PDD-NOS but was called Asperger’s) was interviewed and I really had to watch that. It felt quite strange:
this is something I assume I have???|
Later that month, I went to International Computer Camp
in Switzerland. It was very cool as long as I avoided the Dutch tutors. “If you need it, you should ask for help,” didn’t match well with his pushy behaviour
to make me do things I couldn’t. I really felt inferior to the rest of the Dutch group, which was just not why I had come to ICC. But in a few days I realized
I could still make friends with other people etc. Now I think Eric (the most pushy Dutch tutor) just treated me the way normal blind teens are or should
be treated: be helpful when really needed,but don’t be too protective. Eric is cool in other ways, though: he taught amazingly about the braille notetaker
and let me feel a toad cause I’d never done so (he’s a biology teacher). And of course I’ve known throughout ICC that the dislike I had of the way I was
treated was purely my problem and part of what has been my problem for a long time.
After ICC, I for a while stopped nagging about ASDs. I was blind, I had a bad attitude towards that, and blind people are always delayed in social skills
development. Right now, I’m still on some ASD groups etc. and really recognize it, but I don’t define myself as much as an Aspie/Auti as I used to.
OK, this was a short description of the most important things that happened until August. I’ll tell you about my experiences in the 5th form (aka grade 11) the next time.
Take care!
