The carrot-cutter says "Bye bye CARD"

Yesterday Hellas made her famous stir fry for dunch¹. I was put in charge of peeling and cutting a carrot. By the time I had finished my carrot task, Hellas was filling the wok with a yellowish liquid that bubbled and sizzled. A quick search in Wikipedia suggested that it was probably oil. Since my carrot-cutting services were no longer required, I decided to make the most of my time and clean my room. I rearranged some furniture with the aim of maximising space, and threw out a lot of things that I don't use any more. It is amazinng how things can gather up without you noticing. I threw out a lot of things - papers, books, folders, toys that I had bought when I was working for CARD. I also took down my Therapist of the Month poster and my thank you cards from my kiddies' families.

The Center for Autism and Related Disorders (CARD) is an organisation that provides Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) therapy to children diagnosed with disorders that are on the autism spectrum. I worked there for three and a half years, first as a junior therapist and then as a senior therapist. It was a great experience and I enjoyed my time there immensely. I miss the kids that I worked with, and I try to keep in touch with their families. It is really quite a special feeling to teach a young boy to produce his first sound. My time at CARD was filled with many little successes like this - first bike ride, first hair cut, first day at school. I really loved working for CARD and gave it everything I had - I was a damn good therapist. When I received an offer to study at MARCS I knew that my time working at CARD would soon be coming to an end. I reduced my hours to three days per week, then two, then one. I resigned from CARD in May of this year to focus on my PhD. Looking back, I know I made the right decision. Doing a PhD takes up all of your time (just ask Hellas), and it would not have been fair to my kids to show up for therapy sessions when my mind was not 100 per cent on the job. I don't plan on ever going back to ABA, but I'm glad that I did it when I did. Bye bye CARD.

¹dunch is new word formed by combining 'lunch' + 'dinner.' You are having dunch when Hellas starts cooking at 2:30pm and you end up eating at 4:30. I realise that brunch combines 'breakfast' + 'lunch', and that using the same approach I should probably call dunch 'linner', but that just sounds stupid.