Saturday, September 11, 2010

Island Hopping

In 14 days of college, Son2 has become a person we do not know. When he lived with us, he was chatty with us but totally quiet around others. He had no friends. He didn't go out with others. And he was a slug. He liked to swim, but pretty much any other activity that required any physical effort was met with massive moaning and complaining. It took an act of god to get him to walk to the end of the driveway to get the mail.

Until today. Today he and a few of his new friends (yep, he has new friends...we are still in shock!) left the campus, traveled to the ferry, took the ferry across Long Island Sound to Block Island, rented bikes, and biked all the way around the island. They got some lunch and took the ferry back home.

Our kid did this. Not just other people's kids. OUR kid. It is entirely possible the pod version of him has taken control (sorry for a reference to a movie that might be too old for some of you!).

So what is this like? WEIRD! We are proud of the fact that he is working so hard to make friends. We are excited that he is being successful. But heck, we can't skip over the fact that we are a little concerned. We aren't calling and checking in on him all the time. And we don't have paid spies following him around campus. But it is hard not to worry about a kid who is so enthusiastically embracing the world when he has so little real world experience under his belt.

But he did it. At least he called when he was on the island and we know he did most of it. And we assume he made it back to campus cause we've had no frantic calls from a stranded boy on an island. So we just look at each other, shake our heads, and wonder where this kid came from.

As Daughter says - "that is NOT my brother!"

6 comments:

Bijoux said...

O.M.G......that is AMAZING! I like your daughter's comment too!

secret agent woman said...

Maybe all those years the seeds you were planting in him are now starting to grow. Sounds to me like he is going to thrive in his new situation.

(I saw the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers from the '50's, although that is of course before my time. But there's also one from the '70's and even another more recent one that I never saw. Still, pod people are part of the collective consciousness for most of us, I'll bet.)

VioletSky said...

I bet his new friends will watch out for him.

Anonymous said...

What SAW said. You planted the seeds, now they're growing.

Tanya @ TeenAutism said...

Wow - I would be in shock too! And, like you, a little concerned. I totally hear you on that! But it's really fantastic to hear how well he's doing. I'm thrilled for you!

Lacey said...

Nice post thanks forr sharing