Thursday, April 1st at 4:00pm I was at the third floor “scooner” at the Chicago Children’s Museum. Around 4:45 I had a parent and her daughter waiting in line. Next, the girl started to climb. Her mother and I cheered her on and her mother put her hand on my shoulder and said, “My daughter has a mild form of autism so I’m not too sure how she will react to this. I’m so sorry if she takes her time.” I told her it was okay, she should take however much time she needed. I continued to cheer her on, telling her she was doing a great job and to keep going; her mommy will meet her at the end. The girl made it across, she did awesome. A little later, after 5:00 as I was leaving, I stopped to say bye to a friend in the “skyline” and the mother and her daughter were in the Skyline Challenge. I walked over to the mom and said I hoped they were having a great time and I gave the mom my extra "every day is autism awareness day" pin. I could see she was really touched and teary-eyed, and she told me that they were having a good day at the museum and this was an amazing place. As she put the pin on she said quietly, “Not too many people understand how hard it is to have a child with autism, thank you so much.” I let her know about the Play For All events and ran and got her a card, she was really excited. I’m thinking they will be coming! Just typing this made me teary-eyed. I feel so good right now. I love my job so much and I love going home knowing I made someone's day a bit better. It just makes me feel like a much better person.

Sara Piszczek