The Importance of Confidence

Dear Red Bird

A strange thing is happening in our little universe. The boy has changed, we're not sure why. There are little clues here and there, he's more talkative, much more talkative. He interacted with the lady at the deli, a huge accomplishment. Not the low anxious mumble of response while looking at me kind of interaction, but a nervous giving her his full attention conversation kind of thing. I almost burst into tears. He wondered off the other day while we were in a wonderful shop in downtown Victoria. It's the kind of hardware store that sells everything and anything and we eventually found him in the basement amongst the antique bric-a-brac. An area of the store with a dedicated sales associate as some of the items were really rare. Normally this would be a sign to head in the other direction, to high a risk for interaction, but he was beaming away ready to tell us about the cool things he had found. Again, I had to hold on tight to those pesky emotions! He still has his day's when the world is simply too full of people and not keeping to his schedule is more than he can bear, but there is a definite shift happening and it's rather exciting.
I think one reason is the people here, they are so incredibly friendly. We were at a car dealership the other day (our monster truck, all 22 feet of it is too big for this island, we have yet to find a parking space it can actually fit into!) where we met Abraham. As well as telling us about the cars we got his full history, personal cell phone number, an invite to visit his Jamaican Spice store he also runs downtown and basically a ready made posse of his Jamaican friends ready to be our Jamaican friends. We had so much fun with him and he isn't the only one. Everywhere we go people talk to us and welcome us into their families. More importantly they talk to the boy too, as an equal and this has done wonders for him.
However I think the real reason for this shift is confidence. As well as our daily routine of Math, Science, English and the rest, he has time to 'work' as he put's it. Work for him is programming. He has taught himself two programming languages in the last few months and is now actively involved with an online gaming community where he is developing games. He corresponds with like minded people, asking for help when he gets stuck, giving advice on the forums and generally feeling incredibly proud of himself, as he should. ( For those of you in a panic about the perils of cyber communication in one so young and, it has to be said, not terribly street wise, I'm on it. We have full access and control.) I don't know for sure but all roads seem to lead to this boost in self confidence that accomplishment brings and we are reaping the benefits big time.
I've said it before but we took a huge risk pulling him from school and heading out into the scary world with him. Look's like we may have bet on the right horse after all!

Always yours
Sparrow