Airlines Preparation

So, now it's time for David to prepare for flight travel. As soon as we decide on an airline, we're going to coordinate with them to help assure success on Dave's first flight.

There has been disappointing press regarding autistic flyers. It's a tough time in history, because both caregivers of autistic people, and the airlines themselves, are pioneering in a society that only now is acknowledging the presence of neurological differences in people. And pioneering involves making mistakes. I choose to view the problems of airlines and autism as learning opportunities.

The first lesson I've learned is that there's a lot more involved in preparing neuro-atypical ("autistic") people for their first airline experience than we talk about at autism conferences or in our newsletters. Dave and I are trying to anticipate all that could cause discomfort (noise, nausea, anxiety, itsy-bitsy bathrooms...), and to establish a program of desensitization (as we have done successfully with certain phobias). It's also important to choose our airline carefully, and to inform the airline ahead of time that a neuro-atypical traveller will be on board. For instance, the reason Jet Blue and Southwest can offer cheap fairs is that they cut out the little luxuries-- in other words, they're uncomfortable. After David has gained experience, he'll be able to tolerate this. But, his first flight must be comfortable. A bad first impression could ruin flying forever...

1. So, first comes claustrophobia. David and I will save our pennies to buy first-class seats, on as LARGE a plane as we can. Once he's comfortable flying first class, we will switch to economy.

2. Second, David will start with short flights, and then move to increasingly longer ones. The objective of the first few flights is not the destination, but the flight itself. I'll take notes on how the flight is affecting Dave, so as to assess whether he is ready for a longer flight. There should, however, be a fun reward at the other end. Maybe we'll visit our old buddy, Father Chuck at San Luis Rey Mission in Oceanside, which would involve an hour-and-half long flight. Then again, Disneyland is less than an hour away.

If Dave's first flight is difficult, we'll keep taking hour-long flights until he's desensitized. When he is, we'll add another hour, then another, then another. When Dave can handle a five-hour flight, he gets his BIG REWARD:

a trip to visit his much-beloved FermiLab! Yay!

3. Third, David will wear ear plugs with silencing headphones to cut down on the engine noise. We were talking with an autistic friend the other day about her headphones and earplugs, and she said flying was still noisy even with those. We'll see...

4. So, what about fear of heights? Dave doesn't really suffer much from this, but I did take him on a couple train trips where we went high on a bridge. He was fine. Of course, 300 feet above the Carquinez Straight is hardly the same as 20,000 feet up on a plane...

5. Also, Dave has never taken artificial pharmaceuticals, because we don't want to risk their affecting his mathematical genius. However, we'll make an exception for the flight. We'll talk to his doctor about prescribing enough anti-anxiety medicine to bring with us on the plane. Maybe, Dave won't need to take it. The news stories never mention whether the autistic people kicked off of airlines had anti-anxiety medicines available. Neuro-typical (non-autistic) people routinely "take the edge off" their flying nervousness with an onboard alcoholic beverage. David is a non-drinker, so we'd better be prepared with an alternative to alcohol.

Dave and I had fun the other day when we drove to our nearby international airport and watched a plane take off. Being a scientist, he was able to explain to me the aerodynamics involved in that seemingly routine event. It isn't, though. It's really amazing that humans invented airplanes and rocket ships. Dave will probably take that first flight at Thanksgiving. We'll keep you posted as to how it goes.

Graduation!!!!!!!!

Well, he did it! David Nisson graduated with Highest Honors, receiving a Bachelor of Science in Physics, on June 12, 2010. Yay!!!

Big Honor

Yesterday was the UC Davis Physics Department Picnic, where the staff honored David and three other senior undergraduates with a departmental citation for hard work. Then, Dave and one other graduating senior also received the Saxon-Patten Prize ($$), the department's highest undergraduate honor. Wow.

Dave has come so very, very far from the days when a lot of people told me I was crazy to insist that he would ever attend college and have a career.

Those discouraging days are truly behind us now. The UC Davis physics people don't even bat an eye at including David fully in their common pursuit of science. So what if he "spaces out"? Actually, a certain amount of it is required of all of them in order to think those big, scientific thoughts. So what if he stutters while explaining his ideas? It's worth being patient to see what sort of awesome science finally makes its way out of Dave's amazing brain and onto that chalkboard for all to see and benefit from. I believed the professors yesterday who told me between bites of potato salad and veggie burgers, "We're all really glad that Dave has chosen to remain with us."

It's like a giant, invisible eraser has come along and magically erased all the painful, tough years of tears. Sitting in the oak-dappled sunlight of the UC Davis arboretum, watching some grad students take my autistic son gently under their wings to teach him proper technique for sending a volleyball over the net, it finally, truly settled into the rested and ready marrow of my soul: David, my dear son, you're on a whole new path with a fresh, clean start, and the best of angels to guide you.

Ph.D... here we go!

Big Life-Changing Decisions

Wow, time has really flown by fast, so I haven't posted here in FOREVER.

First and foremost, David has decided to remain at UC Davis. Yay! He won the Eugene Cota-Robles Fellowship, which is just great. And, we have excellent resources here to help me help him with his autism issues.

Second, after years of being focused almost exclusively on particle physics (at an unusually young age to decide something so specific), David has enjoyed his senior year condensed matter class so much that he's thinking about switching to that area of research. So, this summer, Dave's going to do a science project with one of the UC Davis condensed matter professors. This will help David clarify his decision-making process. Very exciting!

Admissions

So, first, admissions:

Wisconsin rejected him.
Rutgers admitted David with an awesome fellowship for study only (no TA, no research-- just studying his first year while he "gets his feet wet") amounting to a giant truckload of money.
Davis admitted him (yay! yay! yay!) with a tentative offer of a TA-ship, while they decide about a fellowship. Praying, praying...Davis is our first choice, not just because it would be easy on me to stay here (more resources for caretakers than other places) but because of the physics itself. David is really shining here, with this wonderful team.

Peace

GRE and Fall Quarter Grades

So, in spite of having to spend any and all free time studying for the GRE, and completing graduate school applications, Dave earned all A-pluses in fall quarter at UC Davis. Wow!

Here are Dave's GRE scores:

Writing: 4.0
Reading: 460
Math: 700
Physics: 820

Not too terrible on the language stuff, considering Dave received no extra time, so ETS disabled him there. No- studying more couldn't have helped; it has to do with his autism. It takes him twice as long as most other people to read, but when he's done, he understands the material much, much better than most...

Same with his writing-- Dave can't write fast under pressure, but with plenty of time to do so, he is a brilliant writer. I can't just technical writing, but his professors tell me he writes the best science papers and laboratory reports they've ever read. Again, wow.

Here's Dave's current admissions wish list:

UC Davis
Wisconsin -Madison
Rutgers
CalTech
UCSD
University of Arizona

Happy New Year

Well,

I'm feeling frazzled by the process of watching Dave apply for graduate schools and fellowships. The easiest thing for me is to just stay here in Davis. But, is that the best thing for David?