My wife picked up Bobby, Esca and Isaac from school today and brought them to our home for a “play date”. They were all starving so my wife gave them two waffles each and some apples and that seemed to suffice. They played with Legos, cars, action figures, electric bike, trampoline, laser tag. Isaac got picked up at 5:45 pm and my wife took Esca home at 6:15 pm (Bobby went too).
Bobby still hasn’t ridden his eBike with Isaac, one of the activities he was looking forward to the most once he got it back from the repair shop. Today he couldn’t because my wife was picking all three of them up after school. Yesterday was a late morning, so there was no time.
Katie and I took a drive this evening. She’s excited that the “Pumpkin Spice Latte” is back! We shared some crackers and hummus (see photo to the left) which was delish, but not worth the $5.95 price for such a small container… 🙂 We talked about “potential options” for her “Sweet 16” birthday that will be here in a few months.
When we got home this evening I started to reflect on what Katie said during our drive, how Bobby has loads of friends and has fit in here better here than her. This got me to thinking about stats, and how to help Katie out, so I got ChatGPT to work out some info for me…
Katie told me about the quiet battles she fights every day at Vanier High School. She tells me she’s autistic and ADHD, and the world around her doesn’t always make it easy. She’s also an Advocate on the Myers–Briggs scale — that deep-feeling, idealistic, highly intuitive type. The kind of person who feels everything.
Katie masks it! She appears social, friendly, confident — people see her laughing in class or chatting in the hallway, and they’d never guess how much energy it takes. What they don’t see is that after those moments she just wants to go home, curl up, and recharge. The mask helps her survive the noise and chaos of high school, but it also hides her from the very people who might understand her best.
ChatGPT tells me that given the percentage of the population, and the size of the student body at Vanier, there should be between 12-24 kids who are Autistic and 12-24 kids who are “The Advocate” on the Myers-Briggs scale. It then offered advice on how Katie could identify these people, and make some potential great friends, with casual little comments, such as:
“After things like this, I just want to go home.”
“I like people, but they drain my batteries.”
“The cafeteria’s so loud it makes my brain tired.”
“I’d rather talk about real stuff than small talk.”
Our neighbor Carolyn fell down today. She is in the ER now and they suspect broken knee caps.
Katie stayed up past midnight making a Pinterest board. This is tough because Batman wakes her up in the early morning looking for cuddles.