It went very well... I haven't had that much fun in quite a while to be honest, and I don't think I've been quite that on edge from chaos at the same time, lol.
I took Age1600's advice and went to find noise canceling headphones, but wound up getting an MP3 player for $25, which wasn't bad at all, and I was pleased to find that our group was one of the few who didn't have "cure autism now" or something of that nature on their shirts. So I was quite happy to be in that group.
For anyone else who ever considers going on one of these walks.... or want to know what it is like....
It was social chaos essentially so it really didn't matter whether or not you were inept-no one cared or expected otherwise... but at the same time, there were a LOT of people there, and I wound up getting smacked into a few times.
There weren't a ton of activities set up for people to do, so it wasn't constantly a battle of trying to figure out what to do next. Unfortunately, the activities were not labeled very well, so it was difficult to find them, and they were not grouped together, so it was kind of like playing hide and seek with some of them.
There were a lot of animals there, so for those of us who like animals, that was just great! They even had a huge Clydesdale with roses weaved into its hair and it was just beautiful... and sooo gentle. The only time it moved was when my daughter went to pet its nose and almost put her hand into its nostril, lol.
They had water and tea to drink, and hot dogs and chips to eat, along with a little Ben and Jerry's booth set up to get ice cream at. That was it, so if you are picky about those things, you need to bring your own food. Luckily when I looked over the information sent, it had told us that in advance, I just didn't see it because it was too much info being thrown at me while I was already nervous/excited.
I had to wear my sunglasses the entire time because there were soooo many different colors going on constantly. There were probably 30 different teams with different colored shirts, some of them bright, some had a lot of colors, some were solid colored for the most part, and a lot of them just looked too similar to figure out who was who without my sunglasses. Without them it was a blur, so that was definitely helpful.
My legs are sooooo sore. If you ever do this walk, check out the route you are taking through the area, lol. Some of it was uphill, and here I am, 4 days later, still with sore calves.
I must say... it was very interesting all in all observing people. Not in just an NT vs. us type of way, but it really put into perspective all of the differences between us as auties/aspies as well. Some kids were screaming and holding their ears because of the noise, and some were screaming and holding their ears because the kid next to them was screaming (other noises were not bothering them).
One little girl was running her hands through the dirt, and her mom kept on getting onto her for it. I kept thinking, "just let her do it. It's not hurting anyone and she seems to be enjoying it in some sort of sensory type way. Where else could she do that and have no one flinch at all?" ...then the little girl walked over to another kid and started touching them with her dirty hands and he screamed and ran away in terror.
Some things were funny to watch, and put things into a much better perspective than what I had in my mind... but it also reminded me that when I get to thinking of doing special things for autism or anything (like special schools which has been brought up quite a bit), I realized how much that would really require to be able to meet every single person's needs, as there are soooo many different ones.
_________________
Sorry about the incredibly long post...
"I enjoyed the meetings, too. It was like having friends." -Luna Lovegood
13 Oct 2009, 10:12 am
Thanks for letting us know how it went.
