“Your son might work in a grocery store bagging groceries for the rest of his life.”
Someone said this to me right after my son Jack was diagnosed with autism.
The words stuck with me for years.
I thought about them when he was in kindergarten. When he started fifth grade. When he was a teenager.
Fast-forward.
Jack is twenty-one now.
Today marks six weeks at his new job.
He works in a grocery store.
He cuts fruit in the produce department.
In this life alongside autism, I’ve learned it’s not always about the destination, but how you got there in the first place.
He filled out applications.
He went on interviews.
He studied the bus schedule and wore his best shirt.
And he got a job.
I’ve learned that a life lived differently is not a life less lived.
What a beautiful thing.
Please join me in congratulating my son Jack on his first six weeks at his job.
We are fiercely proud of him.
