It was August 18, and my career at the steakhouse came to an end. It was time to do what is hard for all people with autism spectrum disorder.  Making an autism transition is always challenging and it would be this time as well. I would run hot bar for one last senior night with the girl that I’d usually run it with. We were both headed off to college, and this was both of our last nights working there. We had a good time, and the night went smoothly; I must admit that it was kind of hard to say good-bye to the place and a couple of the adults there. But I had to. It was time to move on with life. I thought, Surely there are better things ahead. There have to be some friends to be made down in Bloomington, and life can only get better from here.

After the end of the summer, I spent my last week in town preparing for transition. I began to make some phone calls and get acquainted with the trombone faculty down at Indiana University. I would set up a lesson with my trombone professor, Mr. Peter Ellefson. I was amazed when I first met him, as he was such a fine musician. He had played for a few years with the Seattle Symphony, and, well, he knows his way around the trombone. I moved into my first apartment the week before classes started. My cousin helped me move in, as he had a huge truck. I couldn’t believe the amount of people who were already in Bloomington a week before classes had even started. I was going to be living on my own in an off-campus apartment. I wanted to have roommates, but due to my bedwetting problem at the time,

I was unable to. I thought that getting into Bloomington a week or so early would really benefit me not only socially but musically. I was looking to start my social life over, and I thought I’d spend a week or two doing this before classes actually started. I also wanted to get accustomed to my new surroundings and the new buildings. 

There were so many changes to become accustomed to. I wanted to find out where all of my classes were. I also wanted to spend some time preparing the orchestra audition pieces. I knew that this was going to be a challenge.

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