• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Geek Club Books

Autism Education, Awareness, Acceptance, Advocacy

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Home
  • About
    • Autism Storytelling for Hope and Change
    • Speaking
    • Creative Team & Educational Specialists
    • Advisory Board
    • Our Benefactors
    • Press
    • Privacy Policy
    • Disclaimer
  • Blog
    • All Articles and Interviews
    • Articles By Author
  • Families
    • Welcome Autism Families!
    • Autism Resources Bundle!
    • Freebies
    • Mighty League Autism Moms
  • Educators
    • Welcome Educators!
    • Autism EDU
    • Bluebee TeeVee, Autism Information Station
    • School Visits
  • Comics
    • Autism Comics Overview
    • Autism in Real Life Comic
    • Autism Spectrum Comic
    • End Awareness Comic
    • Understanding Autism Comic
    • Mighty League 1: Autistic Hero Comic
    • Mighty League 2: Autistic Hero Comic Book
  • Resources
    • How to Find Resources
    • Asking Autistics
    • Autistic Self-care
    • Amazon Autism Book Shop
    • What is Autism?
    • Books By Autistic Authors
    • What is Autism Awareness?
    • Autism Glossary
    • Autism Myths
    • Autistic or Person with Autism?
    • Speech and Language
    • Autism Business Ideas
  • Zoom Magazine
    • Issue 13: Family
    • Issue 14: Trailblazers
    • Issue 15: Powerful Women
    • Issue 16: Travel
    • Issue 17: Health
  • Take Action
    • How to Advocate for Autism
      • #Activate4Autism
      • Activator Heroes
    • Make a Difference
  • Contact
  • Donate

Why I’m Going Back to College After All These Years

July 14, 2020 By Jodi Murphy Leave a Comment

TwitterFacebookPinterestLinkedInRedditWhatsApp
Gretchen McIntire gazing out window

By Gretchen McIntire
Photo by GhoZt Studioz Photography

I am doing something that feels awfully brave for me right now. I’m finally looking into going to college after all of these years. I’m doing some research as I’m taking a certification course to become a Certified Home Health Aide at Quincy College after work. All of this feels really big. Let me explain why.

“For so many years I threw the idea of college out the window after withdrawing from night school before I even started. I felt bombarded by people telling me that I couldn’t achieve my goals.“

I was discouraged from trying to get into school for various reasons including my disability. I became extremely fearful of failure. So, I gave up. I withdrew and didn’t look back. But I’m not the same woman anymore!

I feel so inspired to simply take that step forward now. Small steps at a time. To stop worrying and just go for it. This feels bigger than my trip to Manila did but it’s going to require a lot of lost sleep and patience with myself. My ASD sometimes makes me want to rush to get everything done because I’m afraid of falling behind. One of my greatest lessons in grace is “pace” as I’ve learned from bumping into walls.

But I look at the course I’m taking right now at Quincy College and I’m excited to do more. When I was waiting for my pathology results from my breast mass biopsies, I made a promise to myself and to the world that if they came back benign, I would find a way to dedicate some of my life to breast cancer awareness.

When the results were in both times and each came back as a benign tumor called a fibroadenoma, I was elated but I didn’t know how I could give back and now I have some secrets up my sleeve that go along with this plan of being brave.

Those who have been following this journey will be the first to know when I have bigger news. But for now, I’m focusing on getting my certification course finished and another secret thing or two that I will fill you in on in my next article.

Have you ever had a dream of going back to school? Or have you wanted to take a class on something new? Why not try? I’m finding Coursera and edX to be very exciting as a means of learning lots of different things without the traditional costs of school. Why not give it a go? Try something new with me?

Headshot of Gretchen Leary
Columnist
Gretchen McIntire
Read Bio

Read More Essays and Interviews

#AskingAutistics: When Did You Realize You See the World Differently?
Read More
Megan Amodeo in brown framed glasses
A Year That Forced Me to Be More Patient and Flexible
Read More
This Year I’ll No Longer Apologize for Taking Up Space
Read More
#AskingAutistics: What Caused Your Autistic Burnout?
Read More
Why I’m the Caregiver I Never Had Growing Up
Read More
Allowing Myself Grace at Every Turn
Read More

Autism Resources

Our website at Geek Club Books is a platform for autistic voices, positive autism advocacy and education, and sharing autism resources we think you’ll want to know about. In addition to our autistic-themed comic, here are topics we cover and questions we explore:

  • How to Find Resources
  • What is Autism?
  • What is Autism Awareness?
  • Autism Myths
  • Autism Glossary
  • Books by Autistic Authors
  • Autistic or Person with Autism?
  • Speech and Language
  • Autism Business Ideas
  • Autistic Self-Care
  • Asking Autistics Resource Page
  • Zoom Autism Magazine – Autism through many lenses
  • Find great books in our Amazon Book Shop
TwitterFacebookPinterestLinkedInRedditWhatsApp

Filed Under: Being Brave, Blog Haps, Penfriend Project Autism Columns Tagged With: autistic writer, self-confidence

About Jodi Murphy

Jodi Murphy is the founder of Geek Club Books, a registered nonprofit committed to creating a world where autistic individuals are fully accepted, valued and have a voice. Her priority is bringing autistic individuals creative and leadership opportunities that are meaningful, empowering and support their advocacy. She works with a creative autistic team to produce pop culture-based autism awareness education that is innovative, engaging, positive and opens hearts and minds to a new way of thinking about autism. Sign up for Geek Club Books mailing list for free apps, resource guides, curriculum, audio stories and more: https://geekclubbooks.com/autism-bundle.

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Join Our Neurodiverse Community:

Read Our Current Issue:

Search

Latest

  • #AskingAutistics: When Did You Realize You See the World Differently?
  • A Year That Forced Me to Be More Patient and Flexible
  • This Year I’ll No Longer Apologize for Taking Up Space
  • #AskingAutistics: What Caused Your Autistic Burnout?
  • Why I’m the Caregiver I Never Had Growing Up

Topics

  • 501c3 Mission (8)
  • Anxiety (8)
  • App & Product Reviews (12)
  • Autimisms (29)
  • Autism Acceptance (13)
  • Autism at Work (9)
  • Autism Entrepreneurs (17)
  • Autism Resources (6)
  • Blog Haps (535)
  • Buzz (6)
  • Classroom (15)
  • Curious Interviews (116)
  • Day in the Life (9)
  • Dorktales (4)
  • Impactful Blogs (9)
  • Labels (4)
  • Love (5)
  • Mighty League (31)
  • Neurodiversity (2)
  • Our Personal Autism Journey (28)
  • Penfriend Project Autism Columns (216)
    • Adriana's Awesome Autistic Book Lists (1)
    • Aspierations (16)
    • Autism Insider (76)
    • Autistic Speaks (27)
    • Being Brave (25)
    • Chloe Rothschild (3)
    • Fidgets and Fries (2)
    • Happy Aspie (9)
    • My Shaynanigans (8)
    • Neurodivergent Rebel (20)
    • Positively Autistic (17)
    • Proud Autistic Living (6)
    • Tud Sense (5)
  • Pop Culture (8)
  • Safety (8)
  • Self-Care (7)
  • Self-Esteem (3)
  • Self-Improvement (10)
  • Sensory Needs (9)
  • Social Skills (4)
  • Speech and Language (6)
  • Tell Us Your Story (29)
  • Zoom Autism (55)

Footer

Stay Connected

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Copyright © 2021 Geek Club Books

To improve your experience on our site we may use cookies. Find out more.