Ready. Set. GO!!!!

Recently, I've received a few emails from Landon's teachers expressing their concern for Landon. Landon is A.D.H.D. and meds or not, each day is a struggle. It is so hard to try and explain what it feels like to have this, and unless you have it or are close to someone who does, it's almost impossible to understand. I am going to use horses as metaphors to try and explain it. To an ordinary child, going to school is like going to a nice big ol' pasture. There are other horses there to socialize with, green grass to eat, a watering hole to quench your thirst, ample room to roam, and a rancher to oversee it all. To a child with A.D.H.D., going to school is like being the race horse who is cooped up in a little 6'x3' stall, just waiting for the "Ready. Set. GO!!!" So you can be free to break though that door and RUN! The green grass and other horses are nothing but a blur. All you can think about is getting to the finish line, so you can be done and go home. Most of Landon's classmates have been together since they were three years old and in Little Flock. They are almost too close for comfort. Sometimes Landon's med's wear off or he is just off kilter. On these days, Landon can't sit still. He can't focus. He is all over the place. Like a racehorse trapped in a stall. He will shout out answers instead of quietly speaking. He can be destructive. His hands need to keep busy at all times, so if he has a stack of pencils and if he is feeling like the announcer just said...."Set"....he will break those pencils in a nervous frenzy and stuff them in his desk or the teacher will throw them in the garbage. He is not perfect. He is not ordinary. It can be a distraction and it can drive the teachers insane. It does. I know it does. And I am so sorry that he cannot behave like an ordinary child. He gets it from me. I was/am the same way. It's not fun. While it doesn't happen everyday, it does happen. A few of his classmates have started to pick on him. They call him names and make him cry. I would not have known this if his teachers had not told me. Landon never complains or tells on them. When I confronted Landon about this, I asked him how often this happens and when he said, "pretty much every day." I about lost it. The memories of my own crappy school days came flooding back. (Try being a hyperactive, little deaf girl in a church school consisting of 40 perfect church kids! But, I believe I posted about that nightmare last year.) I so wanted to dig out my pink cape and fly down to that school....but I didn't. (But, that doesn't mean I won't!) I know it's hard to understand. I know most folk look at him, and think he just needs a little more discipline or he just needs to behave. Sometimes, that is true. Sometimes he is just acting like a ten year old hormonal boy, but there are times when it is beyond his control. It's during those times, that I ask you to not judge. Not just Landon, but every child/adult that doesn't appear to be perfect or ordinary. I wish Landon's class could spend a day with him outside of the boundaries of the school walls. I wish they could see him build the most out-of-this world fort, complete with electricity and a fishing pond, out of nothing but a few boards, a tarp and an extension cord. (I think I did post a picture of that a few months back) No, he's not an ordinary child. But, let me tell you what he is. He is EXTRAORDINARY! His mind is brilliant. (Even if his body doesn't always cooperate.) The years will fly by quickly, and soon he will be free to be what he needs to be. Himself. I can't ask for more.