Odyssey

Published March 15, 2009 @ 02:00PM PT

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.

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Comments (6)

"... Follow knowledge like a sinking star,
Beyond the utmost bound of human thought."

I am elated for you! I've been following your blogs (there, then here) for a long time now. You (and Charlie, and your husband) are an inspiration to many. And I am so happy that you get to see Greece!! Strive, seek, find, do not yield.

Posted by Christa Gainor on 03/15/2009 @ 03:02PM PT
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Thank you for reminding me of that poem, a very old favorite, and thanks for the kind kind words----we're at Olympia today. Around the Pelponnese we go.......

Posted by Kristina Chew on 03/15/2009 @ 07:57PM PT
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How absolutely wonderful for you! I hope that you have an incredible time...you know that Jim and Charlie will be just fine.
Enjoy yourself- you deserve it!

Posted by Jen Niebler on 03/16/2009 @ 05:28AM PT
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Wishing you a wonderful wonderful trip, more fully expressing sides of yourself that are sometimes, for good reason, placed on the back burner. Life is such a balancing act. This week your balance is temporarily shifted, but thank goodness Charlie is in goods hands with your/his supportive husband/father at home. Enjoy this time! Take lots of pictures! You will treasure the memories which will always be a part of you! And I imagine you will be so happy to come home, too!

Posted by Twyla Ramos on 03/16/2009 @ 08:38AM PT
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So happy for you Kristina!!

Posted by Evan Tasch on 03/16/2009 @ 12:56PM PT
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It's so great that you're having time out and in such a beautiful country. I agree with Twyla about life being a balancing act and we all need to have time for ourselves, away from our normal everyday life, so that we can actually be better parents.

Posted by Chun Wong on 03/17/2009 @ 12:47PM PT
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Author

Kristina is a Classics professor in Jersey City, New Jersey, a blogger (formerly at AutismVox), a translator (of Virgil), and an advocate every day for her son, Charlie.