My Fellow Autistics Part 2

This past September, the Career Services office held a Volunteer Fair in the Library Concourse. I attended the fair and found the Compeer Program. It is about people who become friends with kids or adults who have disabilites and don't have any friends. I signed up and told them that I was autistic.

They had an eleven year old kid with high functioning autism that they could pair me with. I was thrilled. Two weeks later, my Compeer bosses and I met with his mother. The experience went well. I was approved to be his mentor.

In this blog, I'll call my mentee.......my mentee. I finally met my mentee at his house later in the week. As my compeer bosses and I approached the door, there was a small sign on the door in his handwriting saying "Come In AJ." I was thrilled to see that. I still have that sign saved to his day.

My mentee showed me his cats and his computer games. He's really good at those. It was a good time.

One week later, we had a hangout on campus. We ate lunch, worked out on the trend-mills, and played imaginary rocket wars outside. It was a lot of fun.

Later that day, I showed him one of the Chemistry rooms on campus. He loves chemistry which led to me showing him the lab. He showed me the chemicals and explained how they are used for wars. He had a full conversation/debate with a safety professor about chemistry that lasted for over a 1/2 hour. I couldn't believe my ears. I am taking a chemisty class next semester, I am going to hire him as my tutor.

The next week, we went swimming at the UC pool in the evening. We played rocket battles, treasure hunting, stole christmas presents, christmas trees, and even sang christmas carols.....all in the pool. We were in there for an hour and a half, and that's not including a Pool-Pals session I had right before that. It was a great time!!

The next night, my mentee and I had dinner with a few of our friends in the cafeteria when they were having a Thanksgiving meal night. After we were all done we took our garbage and placed them on the moving bar that led to the back. My mentee wanted to know how that worked. A Cafeteria staff member overheard him and took him to the back. One of my friends and I went with him. He was amazed as he saw how the garbage was put away and how the dishes were washed.

He was so inspired......he now wants to be a dish washer when he gets older. God bless him!!

Our adventures weren't done yet. We both went to the Compeer Holiday Dinner somewhere off campus. We had a great time. I saw my old friend who used to work at the UC cafeteria and hopes to work there again in the Spring. He is a Compeer Mentee as well. I could be wrong but I think he has Cerebal Palsey. The Mentors and Mentees sung songs together in one big group. My mentee held leftover Christmas branches from his Christmas Tree and called himself "Lord Pintar." He was chatting with everyone there.

The funny thing was, as we were all singing, my mentee grabbed a plastic candle and was waving it in slow motion as if we were at a concert. Classic!

This event was so big, even Santa Clause made an apperance. My mentee and I approached Santa Clause. Santa asked him what he wanted for Christmas.

Mentee: You know.......I just want happiness. I don't really want presents. I just want happiness.

I couldn't believe my ears. We all realize that Christmas is about way more than just presents but I didn't think people understood that at such a young age. I took great pride in realizing that a 12 year old autistic kid knows the true meaning of Christmas.

Santa: And what would you like for Christmas? (to me)

AJ: (Still in awe about my mentee) Oh, I'm not materialistic either. I just want to hang out with my family.

We all formed a circle and sung one more time. I was holding hands between my friend from the cafeteria, and my mentee. The atmosphere that night......was incredible....

Two nights later, my last night in Utica before the break, I had dinner at my mentee's house. We had Chicken Carrots, stuffing, etc. My mentee and I were watching Wheel of Fortune. I used to love watching that show as a kid, it's been a while since I have seen it. My mentee and his mom love the show. I was shocked that Wheel of Fortune and Jeapordy air on NBC in Utica. In Long Island/The City, it airs on ABC. Weird. It was cool reliving some nostalgia with my mentee.

His mom dropped me off to campus. On the way we were discussing about potential causes of Autism and just about Autism in general. Hopefully there will be an official cause of Autism discovered. In the mean time, I'm going to continue to have fun hanging out with my fellow autistics.