You know when your child is first diagnosed with Autism and you mentally inventory all the different things in life that adhere to strict social norms that would be absolutely impossible to do as a family because “autism?” (Specifically level 3)
Events where you may be required to stay in an assigned seat, like an MLB baseball game, or an airplane flight spanning multiple hours.
What about events that require you to stay in an assigned seat for 3 hours with an expectation of complete silence like a theater?
Something like a live production at Seattle’s Paramount Theater?
Impossible. Not even remotely thinkable. That was us in 2017.
But that is exactly what we did last weekend.
We did the impossible.
Jonah got to see his first play in a musical theater (Back to the Future) and he loved it!
He laughed at the appropriate parts, even mocking Doc Brown when his pants “split” yelling “hahahahaha! booty!!”
He managed the crowds just fine and used appropriate body and voice control throughout the performance.
The trick was to choose seats directly behind a railing with nobody else in front of us. That way, Jonah wouldn’t disturb anyone should he decide to get “more comfy” with his feet or kick the “chair” in front of us. (We learned this trick during plane travel. We always book a seat in front of Jojo’s seat.)
But he did just fine. It was a pretty uneventful event, honestly.
I couldn’t even dream of that possibility in 2017. Don’t ever give up hope.
Around here, we do the impossible… every single day.
Today, a musical at a theater? Who knows what we will do tomorrow!
#ausome #fromSeveretoHere #autism