Graduation

Emily will be coming home next week for her convocation or graduation ceremony. For her and many others, graduation is an accomplishment and a happy event to be celebrated. For me, when I "graduated" half a decade ago, it was because I reached the age that the school system could kick me out.

Today, my mom attended a workshop called "Beyond Graduation", which explores what a "good life" looks like for people with disabilities after graduation and how they can use their strengths to contribute to the community. Even though my "graduation" was years ago, my mom decided to sign up for this workshop because my days are not meaningful enough. I have a good life and I am well cared for by my support workers. My mom knows that it is possible to make my life better by supporting me to be a contributing member of society. She cannot do this all by herself, so she is working on building a circle of friends for me. Due to my lack of social skills, this has been a slow process.

Beyond Graduation is a project of PLAN Institute for Caring Citizenship. In partnership with Taking IT Global, a website has been created for families and youth to connect and to access information/resources. The website is in its early stage of development. They welcome feedback and suggestions so that they can improve it.