Last updated on December 21, 2023
Podcast 0111; Season 07, Episode 04; 4 December 2023
Our family is tired — exhausted — but we are well. The first half of this school year has gone smoothly, though everyone is extremely busy. We’re so busy that the blog and podcast had to be set aside, much as I predicted in August.
In the spring, I had a medical emergency, ending up in the ICU for a week. I fell behind and never caught up with my online projects. Then, surprisingly, I ended up returning to teaching at a major university. I also accepted an “overload” schedule and a few too many side projects.
Winter break won’t provide enough time to catch up, either, as I prepare for another semester with an extra course. I also have to complete those scholarly projects and my annual review paperwork.
Still, The Autistic Me isn’t gone. Be patient and there will be new content.
Transcript
Welcome to Perspective on Neurodiversity. I am Christopher Scott Wyatt, speaking as The Autistic Me.
Subscribers and blog followers noticed that I did not manage to release a podcast episode in November. I have assured those who asked that everyone in our family is well and there are no emergencies. Instead, much as I predicted in August, the fall of 2023 has been hectic.
Normal life has made it difficult this fall to maintain the podcast, my blogs, and my social media accounts. I have no idea how other working parents with podcasts and blogs manage to produce any content during a school year.
Trying to produce episodes at least monthly proved beyond my stamina.
After months like November, I find myself envying full-time creators who earn a living producing quality podcasts, videos, blog posts, and social media. They have tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of subscribers and followers. Their podcasts have sponsors. Many of them have small teams or they outsource editing and transcription of content.
And then there are the dedicated hobbyists. That’s me: a slightly insane, certainly overwhelmed, and sometimes on schedule hobbyist.
Many, many parents juggle more than we do. I don’t want anyone to believe I’m seeking sympathy or that I’m “humble bragging” about our family.
I want everyone listening to pause and consider all the things each of us does. You might have those days when it seems you’ve done nothing. That’s rarely true, though. You probably did what you could manage.
If Susan didn’t work from home, I’m not sure we could do everything we cram into each week.
Both girls attend charter schools. Leigh’s school demands a lot of students, academically. Anne’s school focuses on behavior and helping at-risk students. Of course the schools are in opposite directions from our house, in two different towns.
Susan heads south with Anne at 6:30. It’s a 45-minute loop to the school and back, taking the tollway. Several times a week I receive messages that Texas Tags has charged us another $20 in tolls.
It’s a quicker loop to and from Leigh’s school, about 30 minutes. I handle the morning loop with Leigh. In the afternoons, when I am home, I also pick up Leigh while Susan retrieves Anne.
In August, I started teaching at Texas A&M, which is 114 miles from our driveway to the parking lot. The commute takes me through several small towns, complete with stoplights and 30-mile-per-hour speed limits. Apple and Google Maps claim it’s an hour and 45 minutes. Maybe the maps don’t account for stoplights and morning traffic.
I leave the house at 7:45 on Tuesdays and 7:10 on Thursdays, taking Leigh to school northwest of our house before heading east. I’m in my campus office between 10:30 and 11 a.m, tired and sore. My afternoon class ends at 5:10 and I’m home between 7:30 and 8 p.m. The drive home seems much shorter than the morning commute.
Few activities trigger me as much as driving. Sometimes, it’s the distance that causes stress. But, a short drive with a lot of traffic can be worse. The commute to College Station begins and ends with heavy traffic. About 90 minutes into the drive, I stop at a truck stop. My muscles are usually cramped. My back, neck, and legs ache. I often develop a severe headache. I walk about, use the restroom, and then force myself back into the driver’s seat.
When I arrive at my office, I need an hour or more to recover before teaching. It’s a great relief when I return home.
The distance between home and the university also means I’m not close by if there’s an emergency.
On a Thursday, September 14, Leigh broke her wrist at school while walking between classes. Always an overachiever, she managed a sprain and a dislocation. I took her to the nearby emergency clinic on Friday. Then, we went to the orthopedic specialist early the next week.
For the next six weeks, she couldn’t participate in swim and her music lessons focused on theory. The injury was one more source of stress as she started a demanding middle school year.
September had me doubting that I could teach and still function as a parent. It didn’t get easier, either.
Everyone in our house was emotionally exhausted in October.
The first week of that month, we lost our beloved Misty Kitty. Throughout August and September, we spent a lot of time and effort caring for Misty. We took her to the vet for lab tests. We bought various brands of cat food. It’s likely she had cancer, the vet concluded. Keeping her comfortable and giving her attention was all we could do.
Anne and Leigh grew up with Misty. She adored them. Misty slept next to Anne on our bedroom floor when Anne needed to feel safe. Misty slept on Susan’s side some nights. Her purr was a rumble. We will miss her.
Susan had managed all the vet visits for Misty, including two that final week. She did everything a person could, including being there at the end for Misty.
By the time November started, I was buried in teaching tasks that had piled up during October. Most professors I know teach two or three classes. Sometimes, they teach multiple sections of a single class. I taught five course sections this fall, each with more than 25 students. Though four were sections of the same course, each had its own online shell. Managing five online shells is not something I wish to do again.
Grading, planning lectures, and more grading. Plus, there were administrative tasks and research projects. I have two academic papers and a book chapter to write this year, so far, along with at least one full-length scholarly manuscript I need to complete. (Actually, I have three academic books outlined, but they hadn’t been a priority until I resumed teaching at a university.)
I’ve itemized the girls’ activities many times on this podcast and on The Autistic Me blog. Their needs come first, and they need their extra-curricular activities. Both are Girl Scouts, and Susan leads their troops. Leigh has swimming and music lessons. Anne has been playing basketball. There’s something happening most nights and on most weekends.
The girls come first. Then, we have our extended families. Careers matter, since everything costs money. Finally, after everything else, I try to post to the blogs and produce podcast episodes.
If I have only a few “free” hours during a week, those are spent with the girls and Susan.
Thanksgiving break was going to be my chance to edit some podcasts and update the blogs. Instead, our web server was reset on November 19. Eight websites were offline. By this Sunday, December 3, I had restored the text content of all but our most complicated website. My immediate priority was restoring The Autistic Me, where the blog and this podcast reside. Once I had that working, I reimported the blog posts and static pages to six other websites.
One more website to go, and I’ll likely work on that during the Winter break — but I’ll balance that alongside producing some of the podcasts I’ve recorded with guests.
Podcast guests expect their interviews to air within a few weeks, not six months after recording them. One reason I haven’t been recording new episodes is to allow myself time to catch up during December and January. I’d love to have podcasts in the queue for weekly release again.
The semester ends December 15. My students have final presentations to deliver and I have grades to record. Anne and Leigh also begin their winter breaks that day.
I don’t know if spring of 2024 will be less hectic. It might be busier.
Busy isn’t bad, either. It means the girls are active in their sports, music, and scouting. It means I’m teaching full-time. I’d rather be busy than alone with time for lots of blogging and podcasting. (Unless I was being paid to blog and podcast, of course.)
My academic career seems to be stabilizing, for the first time. I work with good people at a major university. The job isn’t perfect, with a heavy workload and lots of time on the road, but I can’t overstate the value of generous and supportive colleagues. I might not be on the tenure track, but I am on a professional track with reasonable security.
The girls are doing great in school. They’re enjoying their sports. We’re busy as a family, and that’s a good thing, too.
I’ll still be producing podcasts in the coming months. I have a lot of blog posts to complete, too. The Autistic Me isn’t going away just yet.
If anything, my family and I are doing better than ever.
I hope you enjoyed this episode of Perspectives on Neurodiversity. Remember to subscribe to the podcast, and please leave a review if you found the discussion useful.
Don’t forget to read The Autistic Me blog and follow my posts on social media. Look for “Autistic Me” as one word on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Links to The Autistic Me on social media are included in the show notes.
I am Christopher Scott Wyatt, speaking as the very exhausted Autistic Me.
The Autistic Me
- Blog: https://www.tameri.com/autisticme/
- Podcast: https://autisticme.libsyn.com/neurodiversity
- Podcast also at: https://autisticme.libsyn.com/
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