Blog #494: Christmas Reflections of 2024 (Part 1)

...

The holiday season as a whole is a time to reflect on many things, including:

Family: Deepen your connection with family, near and far.

Gratitude: Express gratitude for your blessings.

Lessons: Remember the lessons you learned in the past year.

Message: The message of Christmas and the overall holiday season is timeless and is about the birth of Jesus and how he brought love, hope, and joy.

Spirit: Celebrate the spirit of the season.

…

As I share those words in Part 1 of this Christmas/2024 Year In Review blog, I come into the holiday season thinking back on year #3 of Going the Distance. While this year has been largely successful for Going the Distance, the journey to this point was not without hardships. There were some highs and there were some lows. For one thing, 2024 is a year that as a neurodivergent entrepreneur, this year has had more highs than lows. So, let’s take a moment and look back on what 2024 brought to myself and for Going the Distance, shall we?

#1: More Frequent Engagements: One of the highlights of 2024 for Going the Distance that I felt to be more than satisfying was the increase in frequency for in-person speaking engagements. While this year brought mostly local engagements, they were engagements nonetheless. With engagements in Santa Ana, CA (CARSPlus in February), Rumford, RI (the Wolf School in March) and Providence, RI (The Rhode Island School of Design in May), 2024 was all about taking that first big step towards engagements on a much bigger level.

#2: Closing One Chapter, Beginning Another: The next big highlight of 2024 at Going the Distance was also a bit of a personal one as well. In May of this year, I left my day job of 14 years at Stop and Shop Supermarkets to pursue my passion full time of autism/neurodiversity ambassadorship and public speaking. Let me tell you that leaving Stop and Shop was something that was overdue for the sake of my mental health as working in a retail environment was considered to me, at least, a waste of my talents.

Shortly afterwards, I took up a position that was a fit for my practice as a Disability Inclusion Leader at Massability. Part of the increase of speaking engagements was largely due to joining Massability where I represented the DIL at various staff trainings as well as the annual summit in Quincy, MA back in October. Although I don’t get paid on a weekly basis as I did at Stop and Shop, I’d much rather be following this passion more than anything else.

#3: Building Possible Partnerships: As you may have surmised in recent months, I’ve had the opportunity to build more connections and partnerships in 2024. One of my biggest possible partnerships happened this year when I spoke on a fireside panel at the Northeast School Safety Summit in Burlington, MA back in October hosted by the Safe and Sound Schools Organization.

One of my biggest passions in education is encouraging schools to be more self-aware and self-conscience towards special education and sensory friendly students when it comes to school safety drills. Being a former special education student myself, I often sympathize with students that have to endure school safety drills and other challenges that come with being in an educational environment. I hope to once again work with Safe and Sound Schools in 2025 and build more on the connection we have created for one another.

In addition to Safe and Sound Schools, I also started a relationship with the Ernie Els for Autism Foundation in Jupiter, Florida as a member of their advisory board that I look to build on for 2025.

#4 Health Challenges: I want to take a moment and just go off topic for a second because this next challenge in 2024 was a big impact not just for Going the Distance, but for myself as well. This year, my longtime physician retired and the new physician I am with now diagnosed me with a fatty liver and high cholesterol.

If you recall some of my most recent blogs dealt with this reversable crisis and how I was reacting to the news. The fact of the matter is that part of the health issues I had largely stems from my overall general anxiety and I’ve actually had to take some proactive measures to stay healthy that includes making personal sacrifices such as going crazy to search for engagements and activities that acts as fuel to the fire towards my stress eating.

Fortunately, I’ve taken the first steps towards ending this health crisis by eating better and also allowing the Doug Flutie Jr. Foundation for Autism to help me navigate what is the best fit and what isn’t the best fit.

…

So, that will cover Part 1 of this blog and in Part 2 of this blog, I will share with you some of my plans and goals for Going the Distance in 2025. Some will be extensions of this year, others will be new worlds to conquer. So, stay tuned!!

Until then, catch you all later and Merry Christmas Eve to those who celebrate!!