The path may be longer, harder, and far less straightforward than we imagined, but you’ll still get there as long as you keep going. Jacqueline and her son are proof of that. They never gave up, and because of that, he is finding his way forward. It was one of those days that felt like both an ending and a beginning. Her sixteen-year-old son walked into a testing center and took a qualifying exam for the HI SET program, the exam that could lead him toward a high school diploma. To many people, this might sound like a normal step for a teenager, but for us, it was nothing short of extraordinary.
That was the same boy who didn’t speak until well past his second birthday—the same child who began life in early intervention and special programs for preschoolers with disabilities. He was later diagnosed with autism around age eleven, and by that time, he had already endured so many challenges that most adults would struggle to carry. His last full year of school was sixth grade, four long years ago. When we moved after sixth grade, our new district decided to send him to a specialized “autism school.” But her son had also experienced domestic violence and carried the weight of PTSD.
The environment of that school, loud, chaotic, and full of behaviors that triggered his fight-or-flight responses, was unbearable for him. I begged the district to send him somewhere calm and safe. I even offered to drive him 45 minutes daily to a school she had found, but they refused. Jacqueline couldn’t watch him crumble in a place that did more harm than good. So she withdrew him and tried homeschooling while still working full-time and raising two other children. She poured her energy into it, but in her heart, she knew she wasn’t giving him what he needed. Despite her efforts, homeschooling felt like a failure.
He drifted into odd jobs, working at local businesses, fixing fences, and learning hands-on skills instead of math equations and grammar rules. He was only fourteen, but he carried himself with the quiet determination of someone who had already lived many lives. Eventually, Jacqueline bought a home in a town with the perfect solution: an alternative education program for kids like him. She moved for the opportunity, but COVID hit just as it was about to start, and the program shifted online.
Her son, who learns best by seeing, doing, and connecting in person, could not thrive through a screen; he lasted a year before walking away. So they waited, sixteen was the “magic number,” the age at which he could apply for a HiSET program. The catch was that he needed to test at a fifth-grade level to qualify.
After so many years out of school, he had forgotten many things, including fractions, long division, and even calculating area. They crammed together, revisiting the basics, and she whispered silent prayers over every worksheet. When the big day came, he walked into the test with quiet confidence.
Afterward, he told her something that melted her: “I would have failed one section, but I remembered how we had to figure out sale percentages at the store. A co-worker taught me, and that’s how I passed.” That moment captured the heart of his journey, real-life lessons becoming his lifeline. Because of this, her son was on track to have his high school diploma before he turned seventeen. He could complete a trade program before he turns nineteen if he stays on course. That would put him on the same timeline as many of his peers; he would have graduated at nineteen either way. But the difference was in how winding the road had been for them.
There were countless times she thought they would never get there. Time she lay awake at night thinking she had failed him, that the system had failed him, that life was just too heavy for a boy who had already been through so much. But every time doubt crept in, they pushed back. They never stopped, he never stopped. They had setbacks, detours, and long pauses. But standing there and looking back, she knew one thing to be absolutely true: persistence got them there. No matter how many doors closed, they found another way. No matter how many days felt impossible, they refused to quit.
