The following is a guest post from 15-year-old Joshua Pulizzi. Joshua is the son of co-founders Pam and Joe, and the inspiration behind the Orange Effect Foundation. At age two, Joshua was diagnosed with Autism. For a high school writing assignment, Joshua wrote a self-comparison to the character, Odysseus, from The Odyssey. We think his response provides insight into how some of his thinking works.
I’ve definitely had an unpredictable life. However, unpredictability is something that’s tough for me. I can’t take surprises. Well… I suppose that’s not entirely true. If there was a sub in the class today, that’s a good surprise. But if Mom decides to plan a last-minute camping trip, my brain kind of screws up the rest of the day. I was planning to sit all day on computers, and now I can’t? It’s upsetting. But I do need to understand that things will suddenly change in my life, and deal with it. My thing with unpredictability has some similarity with Odysseus’s journey: you’re on your course, hoping to go home soon, and then something comes that wrecks your whole plan.
