When I was in 2nd through 4th grade, I started attending meetings to plan for my
future. My mom wanted me to be involved and listen to people in my meeting. In
the meeting, I felt so confused and overwhelmed when I listened to their
discussions about my future. In 5th grade, I was still attending the IEP (in Texas
they are called ARD) meetings to discuss my future and how to improve my
education. By this time, I was very upset and still did not understand why I had to
be involved in the meeting every year! My mom tried to explain why I had to
attend the meeting and why it was important, but I still did not want to attend
the meeting. Then, later when I was in the 6th through 7th grade, I finally started
to participate and discuss issues on how to improve my education and plan my
future a little bit at a time. Just in case, I had my advocate there to take over and
tell them about my classes if I needed help.
