Odyssey

So here I am.

In Greece.

Yes, you read that right---I'm in Greece for the week, with a group of undergraduates from my college. We'll be traveling around the Peloponnese while reading ancient Greek tragedy and comedy, philosophy, and history. I'm not certain about internet access, so my responding to comments and emails this week may be sporadic/erratic. We're indeed having a bit of a nomadic existence here, traveling to a number of cities and sites each day.

This trip is so over-loaded with significance for me that I find it really hard to believe I am indeed on it. I've never been to Greece---nothing unusual about that, I know. But, since I am a classics professor and teach Latin, ancient Greek, and the literature and culture of the ancient Mediterranean world----I've felt my never having been to Greece to be something of a gap in my professional background. Years ago, while in graduate school, I had traveled around Europe but never to Greece. I figured I'd "get there" eventually and, who knows---after Charlie was born---take him with us.

I never foresaw that Charlie would be born with a disability and that he'd need extra-extra attention over the years of his childhood and into his adulthood; that it'd be nearly impossible to leave him so Jim and I could travel together, that he'd need me to keep his routine and the orderliness of his life in check. Over the years, it became clear to me that it was more and more unlikely that I'd ever be able even to leave Charlie overnight. I've only been away for a few nights once since Charlie was born: A few years ago, I went to Maryland for a faculty summer seminar. That is, I was within driving distance, and Jim could drive to get me---there was no ocean between us.

I only planned the trip because last year Charlie, after so many struggles, was doing manifestly well in his school classroom and at home; had I known he would struggle and things reach a crisis point, I would never have given a thought to something like.........travel in a foreign country. I mean, come on.......

Some of my students who I've known since I started my job at Saint Peter's College in 2005 are going. More than a few of them have been unceasingly supportive. They are graduating this year and it seemed a more than fine way to thank them for helping me in my job---there's been many a day when I wasn't sure I could do it, wasn't sure I could keep juggling teaching and advising and phone calls about Charlie and the need to meet the school bus and the lack of babysitters for a kid like him and everything everything else. The students have provided kindly support and always been understanding and it seems a very grand thing to be able to, as it were, give them a splendid opportunity to end their college years with.

So the trip is a very personal odyssey. It's brought back thoughts and memories about old dreams and aspirations and plans; about a time when motherhood was a non-existent thought in my mind. I can pretty much guarantee you that, if you told me I would have the life I do now, I'd be hard-pressed to believe you and to imagine it. And, to want it.

And here I am, the mother of a child on the autism spectrum with some very severe challenges.

In Greece.

And already eager to hear about the adventures brewing on the homefront.