We’ve reached an important milestone….we survived our first year as an organization! Mind you, we did it in a really tough year, competing for funding with the Presidential and local election campaigns.
Where did the time go? Wasn’t it just yesterday that we were straddling between many IEP, MET, and other meetings, just trying to make the best of what was being handed to us?
In the last year, we have learned and achieved more than we could ever have dreamed, but most important, our children made progress that nobody expected. We knew that we could do better. What we didn’t know was how much better. We’ve learned more about educating children with Autism, about the non-profit world, about how other people are willing to help or just make a few bucks on our backs. And now, one year after we started, the very people that doubted our commitment still they ask us, “How did you do it?”
Our answer is always the same… “We had a lot to loose, but we knew we would gain a lot more if we made it work”. You see, we were determined to make this work. In our first meeting we pledged: “This is going to work, with me, without me, and in spite of me”
And that’s the truth. After one year of starting our endeavor we’ve come across people that worked with us, people that promised to work but refused to do so when asked, and even people that worked against us, expecting us to fail. And that’s okay, as tehy say, if it doesn’t kill you, it will just make you stronger.
Leaving the public school system is terrifying, risky, and unpredictable. Even so, we were determined to make our Educational Therapies work no matter what was ahead of us.
We’ve documented many of our experiences throughout our first year as a Educators of Children with Autism, which we actually published in a local newspaper.
Anyhow, here is to a tough 2012, and hoping for a better and prosperous 2013.
Happy new year!
