Doors

The really big challenge for me was making the transition from high school to college. People with autism have tremendous difficulty with change. In order to deal with a major change such as leaving high school, I needed a way to rehearse it, acting out each phase in my life by walking through an actual door, window, or gate. When I was graduating from high school, I would go and sit on the roof of my dormitory and look up at the stars and think about how I would cope with leaving. It was there I discovered a little door that led to a bigger roof while my dormitory was being remodeled. While I was still living in this o1d New England house, a much larger building was being constructed over it. One day the carpenters tore out a section of the o1d roof next to my room. When I walked out, I was now able to look up into the partially finished new building. High on one side was a small wooden door that led to the new roof. The building was changing and it was now time for me to change too. I could relate to that. I had found the symbolic key.
From Thinking in Pictures by Dr. Temple Grandin expanded edition 2006

I keep thinking of this quote as we are in this major transition of life.

We are closing the door on our Military Life. On the life of moving and deployments and TDYs and uniforms and haircuts.

And opening the door to home in one place, moving if we want to and not because we have to, tractors and gardens, and civilian employment.

I am not autistic, nor do I think visually, but I love the analogy of the door and find myself better able to transition when I think in analogies.