Asperger Syndrome Support Group
Asperger syndrome - also referred to as Asperger's syndrome, Asperger's, Aspergers or just AS - is one of five neurobiological pervasive developmental disorders (PDD), and is characterized by deficiencies in social and communication skills, normal to above normal intelligence, and standard language development.
[ As usual, this turned out a hundred times longer than it was supposed to be. Feel free to skip around. No need to bore yourself with the whole thing. ]
I seem to have one of the less manageable cases of incompatibility with school work. And it's the most miserably frustrating thing in the world trying to get anyone at all to understand it. But what is there to misunderstand? If something doesn't interest me, my brain won't give it the time of day. Period. Though... to be fair, I don't quite understand it myself. I've tried my hardest to force my way through menial assignments, but I have no control over what my mind takes to and what it decides isn't worth my time. Perhaps that's where the misunderstanding lies. I've found that those who haven't experienced it firsthand are virtually unable to fathom that not completing an assignment can attribute to more than just "laziness". I just literally cannot do it if I'm not even slightly engaged.
Another problem, which is unfortunately very easily stacked upon the former, is the amount of work that I'm given. Large amounts scare me. Math is a perfect example (although, thank the heavens, I've gotten all of my math credits and don't need to deal with it anymore). I understand the concept of some formula or equation the first few times I do it. That's all well and good, but then the homework I'm assigned has me do it another thirty times over again. And my brain shuts down, refuses to lend that much attention to it. And the issue therein is that the assignments build up to a point where I just completely withdraw and stop doing the work altogether. That has, in the past, led to a terrifying amount of makeup work, me being weeks behind, and ultimately breaking down psychologically, giving up, and being racked with anxiety in every aspect of my life thereafter.
For these reasons, I would absolutely adore school and would be a straight-A student if homework were nonexistent.
I've finally come to terms with all of this, after five or six years. Of course, I've always had this problem, but it was in middle school that it became a real issue, since the workload grew exponentially. Even in elementary school, though, I can remember having complete meltdowns when faced with too much homework.
The problem was, when high school came around, that I was too proud to just lessen the workload on my own. I was dead set on taking all of the advanced and honors classes that were available to me, because I didn't want to be anywhere near the kids at the bottom who didn't value education. That wasn't me, and I didn't want to be associated with them.
When that approach pretty much always proved to shatter my psyche, I gave in and settled with the bare minimum. My one and only concern, now, is graduating with at least D's in required classes. If the class isn't required, then I will gladly fail it in order to preserve my own mental stability. I took AP psychology last year, spent a good three weeks trying to keep up with the workload, and eventually just stopped. I went in to the second trimester of it, and didn't even pick up a pencil that entire term. I got something like a 20% in that class. HOWEVER, I paid attention. Very avidly. That's the whole reason I took AP psych. I love psychology, and if I trusted in my abilities as a student, then I would gladly pursue a career in it. I did fairly well on all of the tests, despite my not doing an ounce of work otherwise. But, unfortunately for me, test-taking skills aren't as valued as actual grades are. I never study, I never take notes, I only hardly do homework, and I half-ass every project I'm assigned (that is, if I even do it at all), but you better be damn sure that I'm gonna ace the final at the end of the trimester. Not to mention all of the tests and quizzes along the way. Again, though, nobody cares that I'm good at testing. They take one look at my grades, and deem me a failure.
... To be honest, I didn't create this discussion thread to talk about anything that I just mentioned. It was supposed to be some brief background information, but turned into a bit of info-dumping. Sorry.
The real reason I wanted to talk about any of this is because of what happened at school, yesterday. I'm a senior this year, you see. And that means that I have four required classes. Four classes that I MUST pass. Civics, economics, and two English courses of my choice (being satire and mythology). What with my strong desire to make this as easy as possible on myself, I've taken some liberties and I have three considerably simple trimesters with pretty small workloads. This first trimester, the only two classes I have in which there is homework are satire and civics. Satire is fantastic; I got the teacher I wanted for it, and it's a very fun and interesting class.
I am, however, not so fond of my civics class.
This is a HUGE problem.
First of all, I'm largely into politics. I was afraid that I might get a teacher whose teaching style drives my fascination away, and sadly I was right. I was hoping for the one social science teachers I've had who kept me absolutely enthralled throughout his class with daily lectures that would last basically the entire period. If I'm not mistaken, he was a college professors at some point in his careers. Hence, the wonderfully stimulating class discussions. I love lectures. I'm very much an auditory learner.
The teacher that I did get... he's a football coach. That alone is a big red flag, to me. He being a football coach means that his values lie someplace that mine do not. I hate the concept of football. I hate that FAR too many Americans place more importance in it than anything actually worthwhile. Normally, I don't like criticizing something that makes someone happy, but in the case of football, I will gladly do so. I will gladly do so when American teachers and laborers are hardly being paid enough to feed their families, while American football stars make undeserved MILLIONS every year. They're contributing nothing to society, and yet are rewarded far more than other vastly more important occupations in this country.
The same goes for other big sports out there, but... I think football especially is an absolute epidemic.
So, this is basically the very last person I'd ever want to teach me about politics.
I tried to give him a chance, just to see if he proved to have a tolerable teaching style, but that hope didn't pull through. He's so disconnected from the class. Where my preferred teachers would write their own homework questions to make sure that students got from the text what they needed to understand, this teacher only assigns the questions in the actual textbook. And they in no way promote retention of information. It's absolutely mindless work.
Instead of standing in front of the class and directly discussing worldly issues with us, he lets articles and videos on the internet do that work for him. He'll comment on them just to reinforce the information being told, but rarely seems to present ideas of his own. He doesn't encourage us to respond or participate, he doesn't fill in all of the nooks and crannies with information that I would LOVE to be learning right now. Instead, I feel like I'm taking absolutely nothing from the class. Given my "study habits" (or lack thereof), this is a catastrophic situation.
So, I went to my vice principal yesterday, and I made the brave leap of pleading my case and requesting a teacher change. However, my vice principal is, again, pretty much the last person I'd want to talk to about this. He's big and burly and athletic and it's clear to me by his demeanor that he's not going to care for my particular individuality. Maybe he'd care if I were captain of the basketball team instead of concertmaster of the orchestra. Probably doesn't even give a damn about the music program.
If you couldn't already tell, I'm a bit averse to men like this. Conversation with them, nevertheless, is intimidating as all hell.
Stupid me, I tried to take a completely practical and sane approach when presenting my concerns to him. The problem there is that if I'm made to seem like someone who can handle school just as well as my peers, then my argument doesn't have much of a backbone. I didn't take that into consideration.
I was doing pretty well in explaining things, I think, for awhile there. But then he stopped listening and he started to counter everything that I had to say. He hounded me about providing deeper explanations, to which I didn't know how to respond, and he was curt enough to simply reply with, "So?" to some of my reasons. It was around that point at which my mind went blank and I lost my composure. My responses were no longer calm and well thought out. I stuttered a lot and glared at his desk, slowly but certainly cracking beneath the pressure. He told me, "I don't see any reason for why I should let you change teachers." And once his verdict was clear, I did as I never fail to do in situations like this -- I sat still and quiet, chewing on my inner lips and ringing my hands, at a complete loss for words or actions, pleading inwardly that he say something to further the discussion instead of just leaving it at that horrible conclusion and sending me on my way.
The icing on the cake? When I finally did leave his office, he couldn't even bother to remember my name.
"It was Andrew, right?"
"No... Alex."
"Oh. Well, see you later, Alex."
I felt nothing but absolute defeat and helplessness as I walked off and for the next several minutes after that. I felt sick, I felt like crying, I felt that I needed to run away and find someone who would tell me that everything was gonna be okay. But I just made a beeline for my next block (teacher assistant), and found some means of solace in filing paperwork. And by "solace", I mean severing all ties to my emotions and the world around me and hyper-focusing on the work at hand.
Now I feel the sickness creeping back in, though. This civics teacher has assigned three different projects all at once, and I'm losing the battle of fighting the urge to flee and block it all from my mind, if only to spare myself the anxiety. But if I start off on the wrong foot now, who knows how it'll affect the rest of this trimester? I'm so tired of struggling not to fail classes. I mean, I can do it... I can make sure, somehow, that I don't end up failing this class. But it's exhausting, it's completely mentally and emotionally taxing, and it's something that I never wanted to have to do again. Wishful thinking, I guess.
I'm obsessing too much over all of this at once, I know. I'm only making it a million times harder on myself. Taking a step back and viewing it from an objective standpoint, it seems simple enough to remedy. But once I step back in, the panic strikes again and I shut down. It's like I'm on fire, and I KNOW that I should "stop, drop, and roll", but I'm so overwhelmed by the intrusion of fear in my every thought that I can't just take a moment to gather myself and implement what needs to be done. I know what I need to do, but I can't bring myself to do it.
This all goes back to my absolute hatred of the educational system, though. I told my vice principle that I'm not engaged in this class, that I don't feel like I'm learning anything, and that I fear I'll do poorly because of it. What more reason should I need? As a student who places so much value in education, I should have the equal opportunity to learn as I need to. I wish there were something in between normal classes and special education classes, because that's where I would belong.
God, civics of all things! I'm so upset that I'm not being given the chance to take from this class what I want to take from it. Unlike the majority of my peers, I was actually looking forward to civics. And, O, sweet irony, I'm the one who's getting the mediocre education! It destroys me to think of all of the students in my preferred teacher's classroom who don't appreciate one bit of what he's so artfully providing for them -- because there must be at least a few who don't care.
Knowing me, this isn't something that I'm going to get over. What I wish I could show my vice principal is how this is going to eat at my mind and deteriorate my quality of work, my drive, my morale, my sanity. I wish he cared. I wish for somebody, anybody who matters and who can validate my feelings and actually DO something about it. Because I can't make my own decisions. And for my entire career as a student, these decisions have been made for me by people who are either completely oblivious or could really care less about what impact such a decision may have on my mentality.
I know what's best for me. I know how my head functions. I know what I need in order to get as far as I can with what I'm given. I don't think anybody believes that, though. I'm seventeen. Of course I'm clueless, of course I need authority figures to take care of the big stuff for me, because there's no way I could possibly have it figured out on my own.
But, to be frank, I think I'm smarter than a whole hell of a lot of them combined.
I seem to have one of the less manageable cases of incompatibility with school work. And it's the most miserably frustrating thing in the world trying to get anyone at all to understand it. But what is there to misunderstand? If something doesn't interest me, my brain won't give it the time of day. Period. Though... to be fair, I don't quite understand it myself. I've tried my hardest to force my way through menial assignments, but I have no control over what my mind takes to and what it decides isn't worth my time. Perhaps that's where the misunderstanding lies. I've found that those who haven't experienced it firsthand are virtually unable to fathom that not completing an assignment can attribute to more than just "laziness". I just literally cannot do it if I'm not even slightly engaged.
Another problem, which is unfortunately very easily stacked upon the former, is the amount of work that I'm given. Large amounts scare me. Math is a perfect example (although, thank the heavens, I've gotten all of my math credits and don't need to deal with it anymore). I understand the concept of some formula or equation the first few times I do it. That's all well and good, but then the homework I'm assigned has me do it another thirty times over again. And my brain shuts down, refuses to lend that much attention to it. And the issue therein is that the assignments build up to a point where I just completely withdraw and stop doing the work altogether. That has, in the past, led to a terrifying amount of makeup work, me being weeks behind, and ultimately breaking down psychologically, giving up, and being racked with anxiety in every aspect of my life thereafter.
For these reasons, I would absolutely adore school and would be a straight-A student if homework were nonexistent.
I've finally come to terms with all of this, after five or six years. Of course, I've always had this problem, but it was in middle school that it became a real issue, since the workload grew exponentially. Even in elementary school, though, I can remember having complete meltdowns when faced with too much homework.
The problem was, when high school came around, that I was too proud to just lessen the workload on my own. I was dead set on taking all of the advanced and honors classes that were available to me, because I didn't want to be anywhere near the kids at the bottom who didn't value education. That wasn't me, and I didn't want to be associated with them.
When that approach pretty much always proved to shatter my psyche, I gave in and settled with the bare minimum. My one and only concern, now, is graduating with at least D's in required classes. If the class isn't required, then I will gladly fail it in order to preserve my own mental stability. I took AP psychology last year, spent a good three weeks trying to keep up with the workload, and eventually just stopped. I went in to the second trimester of it, and didn't even pick up a pencil that entire term. I got something like a 20% in that class. HOWEVER, I paid attention. Very avidly. That's the whole reason I took AP psych. I love psychology, and if I trusted in my abilities as a student, then I would gladly pursue a career in it. I did fairly well on all of the tests, despite my not doing an ounce of work otherwise. But, unfortunately for me, test-taking skills aren't as valued as actual grades are. I never study, I never take notes, I only hardly do homework, and I half-ass every project I'm assigned (that is, if I even do it at all), but you better be damn sure that I'm gonna ace the final at the end of the trimester. Not to mention all of the tests and quizzes along the way. Again, though, nobody cares that I'm good at testing. They take one look at my grades, and deem me a failure.
... To be honest, I didn't create this discussion thread to talk about anything that I just mentioned. It was supposed to be some brief background information, but turned into a bit of info-dumping. Sorry.
The real reason I wanted to talk about any of this is because of what happened at school, yesterday. I'm a senior this year, you see. And that means that I have four required classes. Four classes that I MUST pass. Civics, economics, and two English courses of my choice (being satire and mythology). What with my strong desire to make this as easy as possible on myself, I've taken some liberties and I have three considerably simple trimesters with pretty small workloads. This first trimester, the only two classes I have in which there is homework are satire and civics. Satire is fantastic; I got the teacher I wanted for it, and it's a very fun and interesting class.
I am, however, not so fond of my civics class.
This is a HUGE problem.
First of all, I'm largely into politics. I was afraid that I might get a teacher whose teaching style drives my fascination away, and sadly I was right. I was hoping for the one social science teachers I've had who kept me absolutely enthralled throughout his class with daily lectures that would last basically the entire period. If I'm not mistaken, he was a college professors at some point in his careers. Hence, the wonderfully stimulating class discussions. I love lectures. I'm very much an auditory learner.
The teacher that I did get... he's a football coach. That alone is a big red flag, to me. He being a football coach means that his values lie someplace that mine do not. I hate the concept of football. I hate that FAR too many Americans place more importance in it than anything actually worthwhile. Normally, I don't like criticizing something that makes someone happy, but in the case of football, I will gladly do so. I will gladly do so when American teachers and laborers are hardly being paid enough to feed their families, while American football stars make undeserved MILLIONS every year. They're contributing nothing to society, and yet are rewarded far more than other vastly more important occupations in this country.
The same goes for other big sports out there, but... I think football especially is an absolute epidemic.
So, this is basically the very last person I'd ever want to teach me about politics.
I tried to give him a chance, just to see if he proved to have a tolerable teaching style, but that hope didn't pull through. He's so disconnected from the class. Where my preferred teachers would write their own homework questions to make sure that students got from the text what they needed to understand, this teacher only assigns the questions in the actual textbook. And they in no way promote retention of information. It's absolutely mindless work.
Instead of standing in front of the class and directly discussing worldly issues with us, he lets articles and videos on the internet do that work for him. He'll comment on them just to reinforce the information being told, but rarely seems to present ideas of his own. He doesn't encourage us to respond or participate, he doesn't fill in all of the nooks and crannies with information that I would LOVE to be learning right now. Instead, I feel like I'm taking absolutely nothing from the class. Given my "study habits" (or lack thereof), this is a catastrophic situation.
So, I went to my vice principal yesterday, and I made the brave leap of pleading my case and requesting a teacher change. However, my vice principal is, again, pretty much the last person I'd want to talk to about this. He's big and burly and athletic and it's clear to me by his demeanor that he's not going to care for my particular individuality. Maybe he'd care if I were captain of the basketball team instead of concertmaster of the orchestra. Probably doesn't even give a damn about the music program.
If you couldn't already tell, I'm a bit averse to men like this. Conversation with them, nevertheless, is intimidating as all hell.
Stupid me, I tried to take a completely practical and sane approach when presenting my concerns to him. The problem there is that if I'm made to seem like someone who can handle school just as well as my peers, then my argument doesn't have much of a backbone. I didn't take that into consideration.
I was doing pretty well in explaining things, I think, for awhile there. But then he stopped listening and he started to counter everything that I had to say. He hounded me about providing deeper explanations, to which I didn't know how to respond, and he was curt enough to simply reply with, "So?" to some of my reasons. It was around that point at which my mind went blank and I lost my composure. My responses were no longer calm and well thought out. I stuttered a lot and glared at his desk, slowly but certainly cracking beneath the pressure. He told me, "I don't see any reason for why I should let you change teachers." And once his verdict was clear, I did as I never fail to do in situations like this -- I sat still and quiet, chewing on my inner lips and ringing my hands, at a complete loss for words or actions, pleading inwardly that he say something to further the discussion instead of just leaving it at that horrible conclusion and sending me on my way.
The icing on the cake? When I finally did leave his office, he couldn't even bother to remember my name.
"It was Andrew, right?"
"No... Alex."
"Oh. Well, see you later, Alex."
I felt nothing but absolute defeat and helplessness as I walked off and for the next several minutes after that. I felt sick, I felt like crying, I felt that I needed to run away and find someone who would tell me that everything was gonna be okay. But I just made a beeline for my next block (teacher assistant), and found some means of solace in filing paperwork. And by "solace", I mean severing all ties to my emotions and the world around me and hyper-focusing on the work at hand.
Now I feel the sickness creeping back in, though. This civics teacher has assigned three different projects all at once, and I'm losing the battle of fighting the urge to flee and block it all from my mind, if only to spare myself the anxiety. But if I start off on the wrong foot now, who knows how it'll affect the rest of this trimester? I'm so tired of struggling not to fail classes. I mean, I can do it... I can make sure, somehow, that I don't end up failing this class. But it's exhausting, it's completely mentally and emotionally taxing, and it's something that I never wanted to have to do again. Wishful thinking, I guess.
I'm obsessing too much over all of this at once, I know. I'm only making it a million times harder on myself. Taking a step back and viewing it from an objective standpoint, it seems simple enough to remedy. But once I step back in, the panic strikes again and I shut down. It's like I'm on fire, and I KNOW that I should "stop, drop, and roll", but I'm so overwhelmed by the intrusion of fear in my every thought that I can't just take a moment to gather myself and implement what needs to be done. I know what I need to do, but I can't bring myself to do it.
This all goes back to my absolute hatred of the educational system, though. I told my vice principle that I'm not engaged in this class, that I don't feel like I'm learning anything, and that I fear I'll do poorly because of it. What more reason should I need? As a student who places so much value in education, I should have the equal opportunity to learn as I need to. I wish there were something in between normal classes and special education classes, because that's where I would belong.
God, civics of all things! I'm so upset that I'm not being given the chance to take from this class what I want to take from it. Unlike the majority of my peers, I was actually looking forward to civics. And, O, sweet irony, I'm the one who's getting the mediocre education! It destroys me to think of all of the students in my preferred teacher's classroom who don't appreciate one bit of what he's so artfully providing for them -- because there must be at least a few who don't care.
Knowing me, this isn't something that I'm going to get over. What I wish I could show my vice principal is how this is going to eat at my mind and deteriorate my quality of work, my drive, my morale, my sanity. I wish he cared. I wish for somebody, anybody who matters and who can validate my feelings and actually DO something about it. Because I can't make my own decisions. And for my entire career as a student, these decisions have been made for me by people who are either completely oblivious or could really care less about what impact such a decision may have on my mentality.
I know what's best for me. I know how my head functions. I know what I need in order to get as far as I can with what I'm given. I don't think anybody believes that, though. I'm seventeen. Of course I'm clueless, of course I need authority figures to take care of the big stuff for me, because there's no way I could possibly have it figured out on my own.
But, to be frank, I think I'm smarter than a whole hell of a lot of them combined.
-
I find myself going places in the car and not wanting to get out of the car. I come back home and I don't want to get out of the car. I think it's the only time I spend reflecting. Chronic tiredness from Long Covid plus the immunosupressing meds for my Crohn's is slowing me down but everything just seems a massive effort. I am dealing with the paperwork following my father's death but it's not...
-
Wow, it's the middle of the week already!Today is our 11 year anniversary, so we're going out to a nice dinner. I'm losing a lot of sleep these days, hence a wonky schedule and uncomfortable feelings. But I know it will pass, eventually.I hope all of you have a peaceful day, and may good things come your way!
I'm an old dude but I had a similar experience. Useless biology teacher which was one of my favourite subjects. In the end I got literally thrown out of class.
My council having gone through this and other crap because I was different is to stop obsessing. In this case it's probably not worth it.
Take it as a learning opportunity of how the common herd regard civil matters. Marvel at the general lack of engagement and cluelessness. If it doesn't help you study the subject, study the teacher and pupils engagement with the subject and continue your own studies.
If you are different you have to learn to pick your battles. You have to compromise or it will kill you.
Remember most of your classmates have struggles with many of the subjects like maths and never want to do it but have to anyway. Watch how they struggle and deal with it.
The truth is we all have to compromise. NT's compromise all the time despite what we might think. Unless you are very rich or very gifted compromise, doing it with good grace and acceptance is an essential life skill.
Dear lord, this all sounds much too familiar . . . but thankfully from a long time ago.
Don't schools now have a student advocate or an ombudsman who could help you? If not, could a pro bono attorney be found, if not by you then by your parents, to help you affect your class change? I don't have children (a wise choice for Aspies), so I really don't know all of the potentials for remedy which exist today. Or could you perhaps speak to someone outside of your school system who nonetheless knows something about how it operates and "how things get done"?
I'm sorry that I found this discussion thread so late; I can genuinely relate to what you are going through since I went through the same nightmares back in the 1970s. Please don't give up; it does get better eventually.
You are certainly welcome to send me a PM if need be, but I just don't know how much help this old man will be able to offer.
J.
is there anyway you can do the class online? we have an online academy at our school so that kids that need to learn differently can. look into it. talk to your counselor. do you have an IEP or 504? Teachers have to make accomodations if you do
What I hear her say over and over is that the college instructors are unprepared, giving the students bad advice because they don't work in the entertainment industry anymore. They criticize her because she does things like they are done in the real world and not like the book. She knows who she is and what she has accomplished and gets put down at school like she doesn't know anything. The classes are small but are not controlled. There is always some opinionated loudmouth who dominates the discussion. She has started many classes excited about the subject and been heartbroken to find another disorganized class or instructor who won't control the discussion. She has failed and had to repeat several classes and the fear of failure has amplified her anxiety to a level that caused seizures. She must medicate herself now just to get through a class. It jeapardized her job and she was put on medical leave twice. At the moment things are ok. Her one wish is to have "one semester that doesn't suck"
I have some advice for you. Number one be a little more open minded about the person you are. You will change a lot as you go through your late teens and twenties and being too rigid in classifying yourself might limit the good things you could experience.
Number two. Pay attention to the anxiety and frustration this is causing you. If you are doing everything you need to medically then you need to start developing some coping skills or this will snowball on you. The positive thing I hear is you are adapting to your strengths but I think you may be allowing your self too much leeway in not putting forth your best effort. As the others have said there are things in the world you have to muck your way through the best you can.
Someone suggested online classes and this is a great idea. I wish I had let my daughter do more of her classes on line. We have an excellent virtual high school and I wish we had taken more advantage of it. There is not wasted time. I believe you when you say you feel you are smarter than you get credit for. The school system has so much time wasted in controlling behavior while trying to be politically correct that the actual material to be taught is lost. Do the best you can with this instructor but if necessary repeat the class online if possible. And consider online classes for college.
The last thing is hard to understand right now because you want to be with your class. Try to graduate on time but don't make it the end of the world if you don't. The biggest lesson I have learned dealing with neuropsych conditions ( my family has them all) is to adjust the timeline. Things will still get done even if it takes a little longer. There was no rush to finish college because the employment picture is so weak right now. She went out on her own and had to come back home but the next time she goes out she will be ready.
Take a deep breath. Try not to obsess about the poor conversation you had with the principle. That horse is probably dead. Try to find something positive you can salvage out of the class. Sometimes thinking you don' t want to do something again is good motivation. Thats one of the ways I got through college. I was working in food service doing 3 jobs to make 40 hours and my motivation was to never have to to it again.
Good luck and let us know how it turns out
Kerry
I've definitely known my share of having to make up classes online, and I've had to face the possibility of dropping out of school entirely, even. And I know that I need to take these things as they come, but it's easier said than done. A big thing about me is that I panic when I feel like I'm wasting time, and that I need to get things finished quicker than I am.
Again, it's all easier said than done. I'm certain I'm not alone in feeling that way. However, I know that it isn't impossible. I know that I need to work on my rigid viewpoints and allow for a little more defeat and leniency, and all that good stuff, haha... and I certainly will do what I can. In fact, after discussing this issue with my therapist, she offered to speak to my vice principal herself. Not even from a "I'm a psychologist and this is what I think" standpoint, but... really, I don't know how she does it. She's an absolute master of words and persuasion and explaining things, and she's a godsend when I need to bring up issues with my parents, because she does all of the talking for me and hits it right on the nose! I wish I could bring her everywhere with me and just have her talk for me when I need her.
So, once more, I'm sorry for the impersonal response, but I read every word that you've all had to say, and I thank you all very much for the useful and kind words.