I am not sure how long my son had been thinking and planning,

But in late 2022 he announced that he wanted to go to university.

After leaving school at the beginning of the pandemic he went on to do a college course, he chose the subject whilst still at school,and before, there was any whisper or indication that the whole world and everyone in it, would be subject to a deadly virus, forcing us to live our lives in an extremely restricted way.

Said course was media and broadcasting focusing on working with cameras. He has always enjoyed making short films and is fascinated by films how they are made and so on. This particular course however focused on the theory more than the practical, and as the majority of his course was conducted at home sat at his computer he began to become demotivated. But not one to sit on his laurels he looked around for something else he could do.

He found a course in the north of England for a degree in photography. Which he duly applied for. All of this was done online from application to interview, he was successful and he started his course in September of 2023.

 But more worrying than this in the months leading up to this he seemed to be becoming more animated and excitable, it seems that for many years he had not been happy about being autistic and that for years he had been hiding it as best he could and as his new life was approaching, he was preparing to reinvent himself.

As if somehow this would exorcise the demons of the past, you might think that 'demons' is a strong word but after many conversations with him, I have begun to realise that he was facing some fierce bullying at school just for being different , ( maybe his good looks and his side ways look at the world annoyed the cool kids) I don't know.

Hence his reason to start a new life in another town, perfectly understandable you would say. 

The questions on my mind however were; Is he ready for this ? Is he prepared ? Have I taught him enough? Will he be able to hack it out there in the world.

Well he is half way through his course and passing his grades, making new friends, exploring religion of all things and to my mind he is safe because he is living in student halls and will be for the duration of his course and a little beyond, work and a career seem to be beckoning, as the university have lined him up with some photography work.At present he is surviving on a student loan and a top up from me.

The great thing about student halls is that all your costs are included so the residents only have to worry about one payment per month, quite different from the realer world. 

And therein lies his next big challenge ( In my mind anyway ) Watch this space.