All About Me in 28 Days (Day 16)
Today’s post is all about something that has a huge impact on me lately. Without a doubt, that something is the field of genetics. Oddly, it has followed me around my whole life, just waiting for its’ significance to be understood. Pretty freaky, huh?
I’ll say! Never in my wildest dreams did I ever desire to be a “Jewelry Lady” but even less likely seemed to be that of the life of a wife and Mommy!
When I was in High School, I was fascinated with the idea of genetics and all that the field had to offer. I was destined (I thought in my child-like way) to become a genetics counselor and rise in my chosen field until I was writing the textbooks that others rose. I had no desire to be a wife or a mom and thought neither were likely on the horizon for me. After all, my parents did what the media and the culture told them was best for girls, they shunned Home Ec classes for me and pushed me into Math and Science so that I could go to college. Little did we all know then!
I did attend college to pursue a degree in Biology, but eventually found that my math skills were limiting and that I fared much better when I was writing about the field and explaining how things worked. Hence, my degree in English (concentration in writing) and a minor in Biology. Yes, sirreee! I have the first Science Fiction degree conferred by Georgia State University. Probably the only one.
Did I mention that I met a wonderful fella who inspired me to stretch my limits during that time? Me, who had barely ever dated, was married at 19 years old, a sophomore in college. Go figure.
Many years later, after 9 years of unsuccessful attempts to get pregnant, we adopted a baby boy. Then, eight months later, I found myself pregnant. Boy, howdy! The next few years were a happy blur!
We were plagued by the normal parenting questions about what was heredity and what was environment. With one adopted and one biological child, we had additional curiosity, but wouldn’t change a thing in the world.
Youngest son has asthma and we learned to cope with the situation and care for him. Eldest son has Asperger’s Syndrome (a high functioning form of Autism). It’s kind of like in the Temple Grandin movie (haven’t seen it? Go rent it. Now. It’s important. I will wait). We have learned and coped and grown with him, but it’s more of a never ending process with any form of Autism. Nothing ever really comes easy for him.
Now, if you are a Mom with an Aspie kid, you throw yourself into research–the kind of research that you need a strong medical/biological basis to even begin to understand. The kind you need to know how to write so you can realize what these well meaning authors left to imagination. The kind of information that you can pore over for hours and not really ever really find any answers.
I found that I was uniquely suited to this type of work. I was highly motivated for my child’s sake. I learned as much, if not more, than my doctor knew about Autism. It turns out, that we are just cracking the DNA code to find out a few little hints about the origins of Autism and if there are many causes or only one.
Now, eldest son is having trouble with intermittent blindness in his right eye. He is already over 6 foot 3 inches at 14 years old, so we are being sent to a, guess what? A genetics counsellor to determine if there are any other genetic factors affecting his growth and neurology.
Right now, the genetics portion is the major impact in our lives. This is opening up a new can of worms. We are used to worms in our household, but this could be some seriously scary worms.
