Extended Version: Beyond the Spectrum - Autistic Teens on School, Gaming, & Life

In this extended interview, our host Mary Baudoin provides listeners with some background information about the teens featured in this podcast episode. These autistic teens from Red Oaks Coping Cottage School in Lafayette, LA, join us for an engaging and eye-opening conversation. 

Hear them share what they love about attending Red Oaks School, their experiences with fitting in, their favorite video games, and their unique perspectives on life as autistic individuals. Tune in for an authentic and uplifting discussion that celebrates individuality and community. 

At the end of the interview, Mary wraps up the conversion with highlights of the interview and provides a sneak peek of guest featured in the next podcast episode, who is Mary Frances Avera.

Transcript

Buzzsprout Red Oaks Teens

Introduction by Mary Baudoin: Welcome to the Second episode this season. I'm your podcast host and producer. Before we dive into this very special episode featuring the incredible autistic teens from the Red Oaks Coping School in Lafayette, I would like to take just a few minutes to give you a little backstory, especially for those of you who might be tuning in for the first time.

Or who may not have heard our interview with Stephanie Kriewlow back in season one. Stephanie is the school administrator and owner of Red Oaks Coping. It's a cottage school in Lafayette, and her episode was one of the most eye-opening conversations that we had in season one. She introduced us to a Radically, Compassionate out of the box approach to education, one that meets neurodivergent children exactly where they are, instead of trying to squeeze them into a mold that was never made for them in the first place. Red Oaks Coping does not operate like your typical school at the cottage school. Sitting in a desk all day is not a requirement.

Standing, pacing, stepping out for a sensory break. It's all part of the flow. There's no punishment for not doing worksheets and no panic inducing pressure to perform. Instead, the focus is on relationship regulation and respect. Children are given the space to trust their teachers, to trust their own bodies.

And to learn at their own pace. That's the spirit behind Red Oak's coping. It's not just about academics. It's about helping children to learn to recognize what their bodies need in moments of stress so that they can regulate, cope, and thrive in school and in the real world. Which brings us to today's episode.

Now, this was not your typical, quiet, polished podcast recording. Imagine Cramming about seven very enthusiastic teenagers, plus myself and Stephanie into one small studio with only four microphones to share. There were some audio gymnastics involved, a lot of joyful interruptions, and more than a few moments where it felt like controlled chaos.

But the kind of chaos that's full of heart laughter and honesty. These teenagers came ready to talk and talk. They did. You'll hear about what they love most about being at Red Oaks, the difference it made in their lives by attending and what it feels like to finally be in a school where they don't have to mass.

Who they are. They open up about fitting in or not, what it's like to navigate the world as autistic individuals, and of course their favorite video games because if you're going to have a bunch of teens in a room, you better believe gaming is going to come up. These young people are insightful, hilarious, and braver than they probably realize.

So sit back, relax, and get ready to hear from the teens themselves. And now let's begin today's podcast.

End of Introduction 

Beginning of Interview with Teens

Mary Baudoin 

Thank you for joining us for this episode of This Ability podcast. I'm your host, Mary Baudoin, and joining us today are several teens from the Red Oaks Coping Program. Let's go one by one and introduce yourselves, okay?

Landon Hanks 

I'm Landon Hanks.

Lucius Worthy

Hi, I am Lucius Worthy.

Mary Baudoin

Hi, Lucius.

Seth Wolf 

I'm Seth Wolf.

Mary Baudoin

Hi, Seth.

Daniel Christman 

I'm Daniel Christman.

Ava Vara 

I'm Ava Vara.

Mary Baudoin 

Thank y'all so much for being here and also Stephanie is here as well, so I want to get to know you guys a little bit more. Where are you from?

Landon Hanks

I'm born and raised down here in South Louisiana.

Lucius Worthy 

I am from Carencro

Seth Wolf 

Lafayette, Louisiana.

Daniel Christman 

I'm from Lake Charles. I moved down to Lafayette because of Hurricane Laura.

Ava Vara 

I was born in Houston, but I live in Maurice now.

Mary Baudoin 

Okay, very good. So I'd like to ask each of you, what is the thing that you like the most about Red Oaks?

Ava Vara 

I like the many different people that I can meet there.

Lucius Worthy

I like the easy work load and that everybody is super chill and non-judgmental.

Landon Hanks 

I will add on to what Lucius, my friend here, said about non-judgmental. At Red Oaks, I'm sure many people in the disability community can agree with me, that we are different. The world is not so, I guess you say, friendly with disabilities so to speak, and Red Oaks is one of those places that is a place for disability people just because we are different being autistic for knowing yet I was in eighth grade, I'm currently in a senior, so I've been knowing it for four years, since I was 13 years of age, and I've been with it all my life, but having known and how much it affects me now looking back at it, it's just like wow.

Obviously this is a big thing. I mean most kids in the autistic world who are in public school have troubles, not just with the school in general, just life as a whole. I mean Red Oaks, as he said, is as non-judgmental you could find. As I like to say, your tribe. Simply due to the fact that as in the world some people just don't get along because you could be different. I'm different obviously. On the surface you wouldn't see such difference. There are different rentals that people have, I guess you say, on the inside, not on the outside, but you have it on the inside so to speak.

Mary Baudoin 

Well let's get some feedback from the other guys. Do you guys agree with what he just said?

Lucius Worthy 

Overall, yes.

Mary Baudoin 

Okay.

Lucius Worthy 

You see being different for me, well you see, I'm not too different from other people but still am, and I guess some people just sort of don't like that and so to those people I say that that's fine. I don't need your approval, okay? The only approval I need is my own.

Mary Baudoin 

Seth?

Seth Wolf 

I love all the people over there. They're all so kind, so sweet, and I think she's running a really good business, and I just love it over there. It's really fun to go over there, and it's like a little family community

Mary Baudoin

So you feel like you fit in?

Seth Wolf 

Fit right in.

Daniel Christman 

I feel like I haven't met anyone that I didn't like Red Oaks. I had trouble getting close to people my entire life. I feel like I've had less trouble at Red Oaks.

Mary Baudoin 

All right. Let's move on to the next question. What do you like to do in your space-time, or what is your favorite animal or video game?

Lucius Worthy 

My favorite video game right now, it's got to be Arsenal.

Landon Hanks 

Well, one thing I am doing, I am very much a sports fan. I've taken interest in sports, so I've done many officiating or umpiring from sports from football. I've done a couple of leagues here, one being the most transparent in Youngsville for the sports complex. I've also umpired little in Broadmoor, both very welcoming communities, and that's one thing I like about it because granted I am different, like I mentioned earlier, you may not see on the outside but if everyone in communities of that.

I like it because everybody, granted sports is all fun, and people want to win some and lose some, the community still as itself is not, I guess you would say cruel would be the best word for putting aside people doing because people are human.

I do like drumming because I feel like music is one of the things that I can, I guess I say, do that can kind of help me cope with said things because obviously some people may not have the best coping mechanisms, or some of them don't even have the right tools in the toolbox to use because I mean some people are just not fortunate to have a place like Red Oaks that helps you gain opportunities granted some of them say they don't, but some of them don't have, some of them don't understand things on a level that Steph as a whole has able to understand.

I mean with her starting up the business, her motivation to how she treats her business, it's something that some people of the government think will never be able to understand. She takes time and understands. She doesn't think autism as how it's a disability. She understands how autism is not just a disability as it's classified it. She thinks that's just a difference, which in reality it is just a difference. It's not that really a disability as they say. That's how it's classified in the dictionary.

If you look it up, I mean obviously that's how I was going to classify it is, but I really think it's a difference, which I'm sure everybody can agree with me with. Yes, it can be a disability in some places with two or when you get to the lower spectrum. Yeah, I still don't think it's a disability. It's differentials in all spaces, all levels, but still the part of it is you're just different from other people and just because you are different does not mean you can't do anything else people want you to do. One thing that I'm going to put to all is that once you put your mind in something, by golly, you can do it.

Ava Vara 

My favorite animal is a cat. I think it feels really rewarding for them to get closer to you, and once they do get close to you, they're very cuddly and sweet, and I like the little noises that they make. I think they're very cute. I do a lot. I like art, I do karate lessons.

Seth Wolf 

Red Oaks includes everything about what you are if you're funny, different if you laugh weird, if you're short, whatever. Whatever you want to put it at, put in the blank.

Mary Baudoin

What's it like to be a little different? And I would like to start on this end of the table.

Ava Vara 

Well, sometimes it's not all that strange, but you notice the little things like how people look at you differently or how sometimes you don't understand stuff that other people do, and most of the time you can live your life normally, but there's some certain times where things get overwhelming or you feel that people are being judgy. I was diagnosed at a pretty early age, so I kind of knew what was going on with me for a long time.

Mary Baudoin

And the question is what's it like to be a little different, if you feel different?

Daniel Christman 

I haven't really been judged or bullied really. I was diagnosed in school because for various reasons, but I never really had that much trouble or anything.

Seth Wolf 

Just like don't be ashamed of who you are.

Lucius Worthy 

What is it like to be different? Just know that if you're around judgmental people, and they have that knowledge that you are going to be bursting a couple of blood vessels.

Mary Baudoin 

Are you saying that gives you the right to be upset?

Lucius Worthy 

Yeah, I mean if somebody bullies you, and it's literally just for being different, then I should be able to do that too and then if you try to complain you look like a hypocrite.

Ava Vara 

Yeah, I think it's justified to be upset, but the things you do in response may not be as justified I guess.

Landon Hanks 

One thing I do want to mention about that, it's sometimes kind of hard people can hurt you. Because even I'm hurt about being different. Sometimes I think I'm just not a, I don't understand what I was made for or why I'm even in the world to begin with because I mean just because different, I feel like I should not be part of the society, and that's just hard because as the old saying goes, life's not going to be a straight line so to speak.

Ava Vara 

You don't need a purpose to be allowed to live.

Landon Hanks

Well, let me rephrase it as to that point. I feel like why me? There's also another question can be why not me? Because I feel like with me being an advocate here within the disability community means that I can help other people who have felt my, I guess you say, pain so to speak.

Stephanie 

I have something to add about you specifically, Landon, because you sat there, and you said that you don't feel like you have a purpose, and sometimes you wonder why you're here, and I have been working with you for what?

Landon Hanks 

Four years? Something like that.

Stephanie 

Something like that, okay? There are plenty of purposes for you in this world. I can talk about the fact that we did food drive with Catholic charities, and Landon took it upon himself to start his own, and he brought in more than 30% of the amount of food we had. Landon is the first one to take up for friends, first one to help a friend that's having a hard time and encourage a friend. You have a purpose.

Mary Baudoin

See? I love that. I love a friend that's encouraging too because we all have bad days, right? Sometimes we just need some words from an encouraging friend. Seth, you had something you'd like to add?

Seth Wolf 

I'd like to add onto to Ms. Stephanie. I truly believe that, like Ms. Stephanie said, everybody has a purpose. God didn't just put you here for no reason. I think everybody has a purpose. You just got to find that purpose.

Landon Hanks 

I do agree with you, but I'm going to add on to what Ms. Stephanie said. I guess if there's no proof, I don't know what is. Our group does not allow bullying in any form of it. Let me just put it to you this way. Lucius, our friend, can be a little, how should I say, point being is he had trouble controlling his emotions. That's what I'm going to leave it at.

Mary Baudoin 

And it looks like we have somebody that just joined us in the studio. Steph, do you want to introduce this person or have this person introduce himself?

Stephanie 

Sure.

JT Hanley

My name's JT Hanley. I was born in Las Vegas, but I'm living in New Iberia, Louisiana.

Mary Baudoin 

Let's move on to our next question which is how do you feel about returning to school? Which I'm presuming starts next week.

Ava Vara 

I don't want to go back to school.

Landon Hanks 

Ava, if you don't mind me asking-

Ava Vara 

It's horrible.

Landon Hanks 

What makes it so horrible? I do want to ask that because yes, being a former person in public school or not feeling it's the right environment for me, what do you hate about it? Most teens your age do not like school because I mean they'd rather be at home, but what do you not?

Ava Vara 

The people. I'm going to a new school that is not at all connected to my middle school.

Mary Baudoin

Good.

Daniel Christman 

For me, I am infinitely less nervous than I was last year. I know what I'm getting into. Honestly, it's not that bad.

Mary Baudoin 

Not that bad. What's your favorite subject?

Daniel Christman

I'm going to have to go math because last year math teacher.

Mary Baudoin 

You're a math person. Man, I am anti-math all the way.

Ava Vara 

How do you like math?

Daniel Christman 

The thing is if a bad subject could be great with a good teacher and so last teacher was pretty, a terrible subject could be great with a good teacher.

Landon Hanks 

I do agree with Daniel. With the right guidance, something that you struggle in could be, just because you struggle with it, I'm going to use, for example, I'm terrible with English, but I feel like with the right guidance and with the right tools that I have, ultimately English could not be so bad for me with the right guidance whatsoever, so I do personally agree with that.

Ava Vara 

That must have been a luxury for you guys.

Lucius Worthy

I think I might be the first person to ever say this, but low-key, I am hyped to go back to school because school is all right for me because I like Red Oaks coping because it is superior to all public schools. We only go for three days a week. The workload is non-stressful.

Daniel Christman

Honestly, I don't think many people actually hate school, at least at public school from what I've seen. I don't think as many people hate school as much as they say they do because it's more for the friends really. Honestly at this point, for a lot of people, school is mainly just a way to meet people.

Seth Wolf

So yeah, I'm excited to go back to school because I'm also going to Red Oaks School this year. I'm going to join for the first year, so I'm excited to get to school.

JT Hanley 

At the moment, school really isn't on my mind because I have recently had some stuff going on, and my anxiety's been getting worse, so my normal everyday things I do, so just since I have a hard time always not being able to stop thinking I'm also going to be having worries at school about other things.

Mary Baudoin

Sure.

JT Hanley 

I like Red Oaks coping, it's really good. It helped me. I didn't do seventh or eighth grade. I went right to high school, and I was able to complete with straight A's, but I still had a lot of worries about, I was doing stuff good, correct, and then also something happened with my mom recently, so just worrying about I already have a lot of medical problems. It is okay if I list them out. I wouldn't say I struggle, but I have depression, anxiety. I really would say I struggle with anxiety right now. I also have ADHD and autism, and I also have chronic back pain, so sitting in seats and like that or doing stuff can hurt, so the reason I say I've been struggling with anxiety is just mostly because I've been overthinking multiple times.

Mary Baudoin 

And sometimes I could think with that type of diagnosis you have to just take it one day at a time and not, like they say take one step at a time, don't look at the whole staircase, just one step at a time so that the whole big picture doesn't overwhelm you.

INTERMISSION - Transition to Stephanie Krielow's Excerpt on Red Oaks Coping

Before we continue with our interview with the teenagers from Red Oaks, I think this is a good time to take a break and share a few excerpts from our season one conversation with Stephanie Krielow, the school administrator and owner of Red Oaks Coping because she explains the concept of the cottage school and why it's so different from a traditional classroom setting.

She also talks about her advocacy and legislation to ensure that every special education classroom in Louisiana has funding for cameras. And lastly, the importance of group conversations with the students who may be internalizing a range of emotions. 

Tell us more about the cottage school. 

The cottage school is a very out the box idea.I remember in college learning about child led education, and I just could not wrap my brain around what would that look like? How could the children lead the classroom? Of course, the first several years of teaching, I ran my classroom in a compulsive way your traditional schooling, everyone must sit down, the teacher's in the front of the room, and it went well for typical children.

However, with children that have differences, neurological differences, sitting down in a desk all day can be very, very difficult. So the way we run the cottage school sitting down is not a requirement. I have several kids that are kinesthetic learners. They like to stand up, move around, go in and out the room, and that's okay.

We allow for that. We also do not force the kids to do any work, and we do not punish them. 

That's great. 

And its the most amazing thing when you take the demands off the kids just do it right the first month or two. We work on establishing rapport, so a lot of the work we give in the first few weeks is below level.

Because we want to establish that work and relationship back and forth and the kids feel successful. And so once they trust you and once they know you're gonna be there for them, if they struggle, they're willing to do anything you ask. 

Once you establish a rapport and a relationship with them, they probably wanna exceed your expectations.

Absolutely. So every day when they come in, they have a week's worth of math sitting at their desks. And they can, some days they, they'll do four pages. Some days they'll do two problems.  And that's okay.  They're still worthy of love, no matter how much work they do. And I'm happy to report more than half of my school did two years in math just this year.

It's incredible. Three days a week. Wow. No homework, but just working at their own pace, teaching them what their body may need if they're having some anxiety to do math. I had one little boy, we had to say the M word. It was a trigger for him. And so what helped more than anything was teaching this child, you're dysregulated, what your body needs is bilateral stimulation.

We took him out on the playground, on the ladder. He would go up and down a few times, and then he was ready. Because his body was regulated and he couldn't believe he mastered long division. We hope to help these kids understand their bodies so that they know what their body needs when they're older.

When they're in a difficult situation, maybe they got pulled over. You know, we wanna teach them when you're feeling this way. Let's do some coping skills. Take some deep breaths. It's okay to have your feeling. 

You said if you can identify what might be a trigger for them or or what might be off kilter, then you can help them through that problem at the moment, but then also moving forward in the future. And eventually they'll learn to recognize it on their own. 

Absolutely. And so what we try to tell parents is sometimes when they start at the cottage school, you'll see some behavior because it's almost like when you start seeing acting out. You're unpacking some things, and especially our teenage clientele when they come in, a lot of them have been holding in these emotions.

We allow them to feel it. At first it doesn't look good, but we're there for 'em and we tell them we love them no matter what. Even if you have to take a break, they end in class, of course, is what we hope for. But if any time these kids need a break, we tell that, you know, they can step out. If they need a teacher, if they need co-regulation, we pull an aid and they can step out.

And because the ratio is so small. Small, and we have two free times a day. I can pull the child and help 'em whatever they missed and get done. 

So the children that attend this school, do they range in their neurological differences? 

Yes. We do not accept kids according to where they are cognitively or even physically.We have kids that are nonverbal. We have kids that are on a diploma track, so it's kind of a mixed bag. We do our intakes in a clinical way. You know, before you pay anything, we're gonna get a sensory profile so that we know if your child likes to screen, we cannot put your child next to a kid or in the same class with a kid who might have some sensory sensitivities.

Sure. You wanna set them up to succeed. 

To succeed, and the other students that you're, you're taking all of that into consideration. Before school got compulsive, that's how it was. We were all in a room with teenagers and youngsters, and they naturally help one another. Now in Louisiana, every single parish has funding for cameras, for special needs classrooms.

The issue is parents have to request it, and most parents do not know that there is already money there for cameras. 

I didn't mean to interrupt you. Every parish in the state, every parish in the state has funding for cameras in a self-contained SPED class? So if, let's say I live in Rapides Parish and my child attends a school and they are in the special education class at that school, and as of now they don't have cameras in the class, who do I contact? Do I contact the school itself? 

If I was a parent, I would say. Start at the school level. I would talk to administration at the school. If nothing gets done from there, then I would go to central office.  

So there is funding set aside for every school in, and there's 64 parishes in Louisiana, so That's amazing.

Yeah. I mean, some of the smaller parishes, you know, there are funding's a hundred thousand dollars, but Lafayette Parish is a lot of money for cameras. Right. And I think cameras. I have the perspective of a teacher, and I also have the perspective of a special needs parent. Yeah. So to me, I think this is a wonderful thing, not just for protection for the children, but for protection for the teachers training purposes, right.

To be able to tell a teacher coming in who's working with a child that may have difficulty to say, okay, look at this. This works to show them a visual of what works for the child. When I speak on stuff like this, I'll always like to speak about not just our side, to think about the teacher. To me, this is a symptom of a bigger issue, and it's not that these teachers went into this profession.

You know, my teenagers really have a heart and passion to change the world. I mean, they are world changers. I tell 'em autism is a natural ability to think outside the box too. This business, I went into it thinking I'm gonna help these children. Yeah, right. The first social group, I will never forget, I had a little guy that I was working one-on-one with, and when he would get upset, getting him a peppermint was like flipping the switch.

And I, that goes against every parent in magazine. Better not bring that up in ABA. Okay. I mean, from every. Perspective. You look at that and it's like you're rewarding the kid for the behavior. However, given this child a peppermint, completely reset his brain. Why put the child through a meltdown?

Right. If you can give him a peppermint and he's fine. 

So we're sitting around the table, it's the first social group, and this little guy says, I wanna show a YouTube video. And I said, okay. You know, as long as it's safe, if it is Unsafe we have to shut the laptop. Of course, a few minutes in it gets unsafe. I shut the laptop and he stood up and he pushed his chair behind him to where the chair flipped and I got up.

We had four kids sitting around the table. I got up and went and got peppermint. Handed him a peppermint, took some deep breaths with him. While I was doing that, a little girl stood up, came around, picked up the chair, and. And when we sat back down, another child reached across the table, held his hand and said, I lose control of my body too sometimes it's okay.

And it was in that moment that I was like, these kids are amazing, right? They're gonna teach me. Yeah. And they have Mary. Yeah. I mean, unbelievable. The love, the support. And now you know, if somebody does something wrong. We come together and we talk about it. And when you're vulnerable, it gives permission for the other kids to be vulnerable.

Yes. You know, I had a situation where they were playing hide and seek and one little boy accidentally tagged the other little boy with his phone and hurt him. The little boy picked up and threw something at him. Oh, wow. Well, that little guy went crying. And so I said, okay, everybody come together. Come on, we gotta talk about some stuff.

And we sat down in a circle and the little boy that was crying said, I don't know why I'm crying. 'cause usually I would've just hit 'em back. And I said, well, you're feeling your primary emotion. They all know anger is a secondary emotion. You don't typically feel anger first you feel sadness, embarrassment, fear, you know all those primary emotions.

And he said, well, I don't know why I am feeling a primary emotion. I said, well, maybe 'cause you feel like you can here. Nobody's gonna judge you through your tears through talking about it. The child that threw something had to leave because I cannot say that Red Oaks Coping is a safe placeif it's not, so a boy had to leave.

He was apologizing. Well then another little guy stood up and said, when my dad died, I was angry for a while and my counselor helped me understand that it was really sadness. But he was listening to what the other two, what we were talking about, you know? And he felt comfortable enough. And at this time I knew his dad had passed away, but he didn't know I knew, and nobody else in the group knew.

So I'm like, this child felt vulnerable enough to stand up and share that after his dad passed, he was angry. Truthfully. It was really. Sadness. Sometimes it takes them to see other people, and it's not to say, oh, you were bad. Right? It's to say, listen, we all make mistakes. Let's come together. No, it's unreal.

The way they're willing to talk, they're willing to be vulnerable about different things. We had one little guy, he lost one of his close friends to suicide, and his mom called me, he's in our social group. She said, I'd really like for y'all to talk about it, and Mary, I didn't wanna talk about it. I didn't wanna touch that with a 10 foot pole.

Yeah. Because I know the statistics. Right. It's the leading cause of death and high functional autistic young adults, is suicide. And I'm working with 15 to 20 high function not all autistic, but most. The Lord gave me the green light. So we brought it up. Some of the things these kids said, it was heartbreaking.

However, I truly feel if you shine a light in the darkness, the darkness must, and that's what happened. The end, a few of them were crying. I was crying. And that's such a good feeling when you can relate to what somebody's going through too, because then you feel like I'm not alone. 

What's the hierarchy of emotional needs? Well, it's connection, it's belonging. 

Back to Teen Interview:

So for those of you who would be graduating soon, what are your plans after graduation? Who in here would be graduating?

Landon Hanks 

That? Unfortunately it's kind of been on my mind as of recent. As JT said, my anxiety has been about it as well because I feel like I'm worrying too much. I sometimes feel like sometimes I look at the staircase as Ms. Stephanie put, or as you put it rather that was, my fault, as you put it. Sometimes I look at the whole staircase when you just need to look at one step or two steps because I feel sometimes when I look at the whole staircase, when I try to get up the staircase, I'm going to fall down to the beginning because of how much. I feel like when you walk, I feel like if you walk up a step you can only go down one, but if you try to go up the whole staircase, you go fall down two.

But as to my plans with college, I'm most likely going to go to SLCC Community College because it's a smaller community college. I'll be able to have more attention and help. Back to what I said with English not being my strong suit, I'll be able to get more guidance in that.

Ava Vara 

Pretty soon I'm going to become a high school freshman, so it's not going to be too far off before I start college.

Mary Baudoin 

Good. Good.

Ava Vara 

Before I actually answer this question though, I want to say I do think it is kind of strange that we have to decide what to do for the rest of our lives when we're only 18, and they say like, "Oh, if you don't like it, you can just change your job." Well, it's not that easy, especially with the hiring process. I do have a semblance of a plan. I haven't decided what college I'm going to yet, but I do have some career paths laid out for me. I've been thinking about careers with animals and careers in cooking.

Lucius Worthy 

I really want to make all my dreams happen before I graduate.

Mary Baudoin 

Yeah?

Seth Wolf 

I do want to work. I would like to work at the airport because my dad's a pilot, and I would like to work maybe detail planes and stuff over there.

Lucius Worthy 

After graduation-

Seth Wolf 

I have a-

Daniel Christman 

College is very overrated. It's just half of the degree telling you that the employer that you can do a series of tasks. Sometimes there's some degrees that are utterly useless.

Seth Wolf 

Daniel, if you don't mind, I want to comment on that. I understand, I was thinking about this literally a few days ago. I had a conversation with my mother about this. I understand why you're saying. So we're rated by the same point. I do understand what you mean about it, but degrees when it comes to medical side of things, medical professionals, stuff like that, they had not agreed in their thing, would they be able to do their job if they had not gone to college and had that degree?

Daniel Christman 

There are a lot of exceptions, but for half degrees what I meant was there are half the degrees you could probably do the job you want, you don't really need a degree.

Mary Baudoin 

And there are some jobs that more the trade is more important from being a mechanic, a welder. There's always going to be a need for that, CNAs.

Daniel Christman 

There are a bunch of jobs that are, college is 100% necessary, but there are some jobs that don't require college.

Seth Wolf 

I just want to say about college, it really depends on the job you want to do. For me, I personally don't need to go to college. What I want to do for a job is I don't need to go to college, but if you're like a doctor or something, you definitely, that's definitely good to have it.

JT Hanley

I want to be a content creator when I get older because it's been something I've dreamed about, and I'm passionate about some things, but one thing I'm definitely passionate about, and I spend all of my free time on is games, watching YouTube, and paying people simply just because it's something that I've grown up watching, wanting to do. There is also some others I want to do, music. Then also I've been working on ideas for a game for about years.

Ava Vara 

I'm interested, what's the game about?

JT Hanley 

It is kind of dark.

Ava Vara 

Give us an idea of general plot.

JT Hanley 

Think about a mountain and a person, and it's the end of Fort Long, but it's their own doom. They kind of, stuff goes wrong, not wrong, it's just anxiety kind of gets overwhelmed and just they can't take it anymore after you're doing it but is genuinely going to be a dark game. But other than that, I want say content creation, but I've still been, that's what I was talking about earlier, my anxiety's really been mostly on that. I just have a Discord server goal of just characters, weapons, the missions.

Lucius Worthy

JT, I too had a video game idea. I will call it Nyctophobia FPS. So basically the game itself would be physically dark, minimal lighting. The only thing you have is the flashlight on your M4, and it's basically like a horror game, but it's also a FPS game. The main premise is basically the living human mercenaries versus demons and ghosts and spectry ghouls.

Seth Wolf 

I had a question for you, JT. Do you plan on being a YouTuber who talks about your games that you make and stuff?

JT Hanley 

No, it's going to be mostly gaming because I just want to have fun. That's a lot of people who will start off having fun but then they only do it for the fun of happy, but it's then just draining. I want to do what I want do. There will always be an audience for anything and everything.

Ava Vara 

I've thought about some ideas for a game, or I don't know enough, nearly enough about coding to actually go through with. It just stays in my head.

JT Hanley 

So when it comes to making a game, there's multiple people in the productions who make the ideas. There's people who code, model, rig stuff, so what I'm doing now is just thinking of ideas. If you were to just make a really big game or even just small game on your own, it's a lot of work. You have to learn a coding engine, a game engine on how it's going to run and everything. You're going to have to learn how to draw, rig, model. You're going to need a power grid. It's just a lot of work. So it's better to start off with ideas and then in the future hire people slowly and slowly.

Stephanie

I just want to add, it's kind of starting your own business.

Seth Wolf 

If you make a game that becomes very popular, and a lot of people play it, you can make a big profit from it. There's this game on Roblox called Bloxberp, and it got big, and they sold it for like $20 million.

Mary Baudoin 

Wow.

Seth Wolf 

Something insane. Probably even more.

Mary Baudoin

All right, so the last question is if you could tell other people what it's like to be used sometimes, what would you say to them?

Ava Vara 

I don't think I could put it to words. I would kind of just take their soul, put it into my body, and have them live out a day as me and see what it's like and then they'll finally understand what I go through each and every day.

Mary Baudoin 

I think that's great.

Ava Vara 

And it won't even explain the entire community, so they'll still have a lot to learn. We have a lot of possessions.

Landon Hanks 

In general, once you have a passion, and you go at it and continue with it, nothing's going to stop you. I can say the same thing because I also do content creator. I'm almost at 300, which is great. I never thought it'd be that, but point being is once you have a passion and run with, it's going to become a pleasure.

JT Hanley 

One thing that does stop me, it is one thing I've been bringing up a lot, it is my anxiety because that's one thing that will put it to a rope.

Landon Hanks 

Yeah, I'm going to disagree with you.

Stephanie 

Only if you convince yourself about it.

JT Hanley 

I meant for me.

Landon Hanks 

JT, nothing can stop you even something as simple as anxiety. Once you have the drive and have the power to do it, nothing's going to stop you, not even your anxiety. Granted it may stop you from moment, but it's not going to put a wreck in your plans. It's not going to wreck your train. Really it's weird. I think different than most of my kids my age. It's kind of hard to explain how it is. It's just it's awesome to be me. At the same time it's not because I feel weird and isolated but at the same time I know who I am and I am who I am and I like who I am. So it's essentially come down to on how I like it. But like Ava said, it's sometimes hard to put in words. You just have to, as you say, understand how it is to be in a person's point of view.

Lucius Worthy 

What is it like to be me? Video games and beef flavored instant ramen paired with generic brand root beer.

Landon Hanks 

That proved my point specifically about you like who you are. Ms. Stephanie just proved my point essentially. Lucius answers question granted, like Ava said, she may not thought it was a series, but it's who Lucius is, and I like who it is too because he's so funny.

Stephanie 

It's entertaining, but he's being serious. And you know what? That's okay.

Lucius Worthy

If I were to talk to someone for the first time, be prepared to laugh your lungs out.

Seth Wolf 

This is kind of sad, but the first thought that popped into my head was disappointing.

Stephanie

Tell us why. Thank you for being honest.

Mary Baudoin

Yeah.

Seth Wolf

I feel like probably the reason for that is because I had trouble in the past doing what I want to do. I don't really care too much about disappointing other people again, more about itself.

Stephanie

I can understand how you feel that way because what we know to be true about autism is that sometimes it can be a delay. I'm sure there have been times in your life where you wanted to do something that maybe you were not there yet, but I challenge you over the next few years to try to change the way you see yourself because I have never looked at you and saw you as a disappointment and I know that doesn't change how you feel on the inside. You are at a STEM school making straight A's, and you're walking with intention.

Seth Wolf

Yes, very much.

Stephanie 

And you have come so far.

Landon Hanks

So basically my math teacher, I was walking around randomly during lunch. Some random teacher that I did not know came up to me and said, "What are you doing?" And I said, "Nothing really. Just walking around." And he said, "We walk with intention here."

Stephanie 

Wow.

Ava Vara 

What does walking with intention look like? Do you just struct down the hallway?

Stephanie

Okay. I'm going to show you. Daniel and I have talked about this. This is what it looks like.

Ava Vara 

They're not going to be able to see you.

Lucius Worthy

Yeah. What are you supposed to just be North Korean soldier-

Stephanie 

She's skipping, people. She is skipping on the podcast.

JT Hanley 

To be me, I could only think of a couple words, but I feel I have a hard time explaining my own emotion and knowing how I feel sometimes. And then there's also just, I don't even know, how do I explain me or who I am sometimes. So the question, who do I say I am? How to explain it is a hard one for me. Struggle with my mental health sometimes, so that's kind of one way I can put it.

Stephanie 

JT brings a level of kindness to our group with JT. Because you're hilarious.

Landon Hanks 

This is a funny story about who you are as fun. This is when Ava first come to hang out.

Stephanie 

Oh my god. Are you ever going to let that go? Actually, I think it's-

Landon Hanks 

Anyway, I'm never let that down. But anyway, she was shy at first, which is how everybody, I mean Seth can testify to that. Probably everyone who has been to the group can testify. It's scary meeting new people, and she was so nervous and so scared. And then next thing you know she's over here. She's come out of her shell. We played Cops and Robbers, and that turned into an interesting Cops and Robbers game that's all I'm going to say that. At the same time, Ava, I'm never going to let that down, but to the point I'm trying to make is you came out of your shell and who you were, and it was fine who you were, and you seem to like it. So it was fun. Don't matter what other people say as long as you're approval with your thing and how you like it. It's very fun.

Seth Wolf 

Ava came to hang out. She was pretty shy, and we were like, "Let's play Cops and Robbers." And she was like, "I don't know what I want to be." Next thing you know she has a Nerf gun towards a baby, fake baby doll. And she said, "Don't get any closer. I'll shoot." It made me laugh so hard.

Stephanie 

And then we got to know who Ava was.

Mary Baudoin 

I want to thank all of you for being here.

Stephanie

I truly am proud of each and every one of y'all for coming to do something brand new. This is pretty vulnerable. Okay? Talking about emotions and diagnoses and how it is to be different, and I'm just really proud of y'all for coming, taking on the challenge of something new. A few of y'all were really nervous to come do something new, and y'all got over it, and I'm proud of y'all because y'all just were on y'all's first podcast.

JT Hanley 

Life is like a road. If you go down the wrong path, you'll lose your sense of direction, so you should always make sure you're on the right path.

Ava Vara 

This was fun. I'm going to go now. Bye.

Seth Wolf 

I want to thank you for having me here, and it's very fun.

Mary Baudoin 

You're welcome.

Lucius Worthy 

Peace out.

Landon Hanks 

I'm very much happy that I was fortunate to podcast. Thank you for having me.

Mary Baudoin 

All right everybody that's going to wrap up this episode of This Ability podcast. Thank you for listening.

I hope you all enjoyed that episode as much as I did.

Wrapping Up This Episode & Brief Intro of Guest for Next Episode

I want to thank the amazing teens from Red Oaks Coping for joining us, not just for showing up physically and squeezing into our studio, but for showing up emotionally, authentically and wholeheartedly. Their stories were powerful. Their personalities were bright, and their voices, each and every one, mattered.

It's not always easy to speak your truth, especially as a young person navigating a world that doesn't always understand or accommodate you, but they did it with humor, with insight, and with strength. Next week on This Ability Podcast, we'll be spotlighting another amazing guest, Mary Francis Avera. Mary is a proud graduate of the UL LIFE Program.

UL Life is an acronym for learning is for Everyone, an incredible inclusive post-secondary program at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette designed for students with intellectual disabilities. Mary's story is one of perseverance, self-discovery, and deep personal growth. She shares what it's like to attend college, make new friends live on campus, and gain the skills to live more independently.

She also talks about her hopes for the future, the importance of acceptance, her Catholic faith, and how education gave her confidence and a voice. So make sure to tune in next week for that inspiring conversation. Until then, I'm your host and producer, Mary Baudoin for This Ability Podcast, where our goal is to inspire and enlighten others in the special needs community.

Help us grow our audience by subscribing to our podcast on iHeartRadio, Spotify, YouTube, Amazon Music, apple Podcasts, and other. Podcast Networks. Additionally, if you enjoy listening to our podcast, help us to be discovered by leaving a rating or review of our episodes. This will connect us with other potential listeners and help us to expand our audience from all of us at This Ability podcast.

We thank you for your ongoing support of our mission to unveil stories that inspire and enlighten others in the special needs community.