Two amazing things happened with Sam this week. I’m sure that, to Sam, they are not amazing, they are just living and being. But for me, who knows how far he’s come, and for other parents and caregivers out there who know what minor miracles look like for a person with autism here ya go …

First, I helped Sam navigate another application for work at the Target Distribution Center in Denton. He filled it out himself, but he hit a wall when they asked for his GPA, and he realized that, as a graduate, he couldn’t access that information as readily as before. I helped him brainstorm other places he could find that information and he found it on a copy of a degree audit he’d kept. Sometimes the questions in the online application weren’t clear and I translated for him. When he was done, he told me that since I’d helped him, he needed to return the favor. He put custom ringtones on my phone, which now sounds like birds and frogs, and confuse the cat, which is fun on so many levels.

Reciprocity.

Then, Sam was out with friends having dinner at Chili’s Wednesday when he saw a game on the Ziosk on the table that he recognized as one built by the clients at nonPareil Institute, where he interned. He took a photo of the game while he was there at the table, posted it on Facebook and tagged one of the institute’s directors.

Higher-order thinking (and in a social context).

Two big, gold stars this week.