Autism has taught me so much. I wanted to share a bright lesson from yesterday’s outing. We often talk about rigidity in Autism as something to overcome. Gooli showed me a bright example of the other side of rigidity yesterday– persistence.

First, a little back story… Gooli LOVES basketball (really, he loves throwing things into the air and watching them fall- sound familiar?- and we’ve joined him in that pleasure, introducing him to related games and activities- including basketball). He approached the impossible task of getting a child sized basketball into our standard sized basketball hoop like he does everything– with focus and persistence. He’s now AMAZING at it- often capturing the attention of kids and adults who stumble on to the sight of him making shot after shot at the park.

Like I mention in our story- we recently made a dramatic cross country move. Our move was from a very mild climate to the marked four seasons of New England. Gooli’s adjustment to this change in weather is for another post- but relevant to mention here.

Yesterday, like he does often, he requested “Gooli go playground, throw orange basketball”. I tried to explain that it was too cold and that the overnight snow would make it impossible to play. He insisted. Instead of trying to convince him that playing basketball was impossible, I decided to “teach him” by letting him see for himself. I drove him to the playground and let him approach the park as he typically does. I was convinced he would see the mountain of snow and turn around- teaching him an important lesson about the weather. Instead he taught ME. Playing basketball was not impossible, he would just have to overcome some obstacles. He climbed the field to the court (knee deep in snow). He stood in front of his favorite hoop (knee deep in snow). He threw the ball a total of three times. On the third time, he made a basket. He then immediately ran back to me, with a huge smile on his face, screaming “I want go home”. In that moment he taught me, his rigidity is also his persistence. A wave came over me (it happens sometimes, more and more these days), and I felt complete certainty– this guy is going to be just fine.