A Summer in Fast-Forward

We somehow crammed an entire summer’s worth of travel, theatre, and adventures into just one month.

It all started with a loop-de-loop of emotions that I’ll unpack more in a future piece. The headline moment? We now have a Grade 8 graduate in the house. Everett’s year ended with a cascade of proud-parent moments — from his heartfelt turn as Winthrop in The Music Man back in May, to walking across the stage to accept not one, not two, but four awards at graduation.

Of course, those milestones also meant confronting the fact that my little boy isn’t quite so little anymore. His next act was spending three weeks in Quebec for a French immersion program. While he insists his French didn’t improve much, he came home with something far more valuable: independence, confidence, and the kind of life skills you only get from doing your own laundry and waking yourself up for class. He also gained several new friendships that he has cherished from bonding with them over 3 weeks.

When it was time to bring him home, Emily, Danika, and I (plus Frio!) turned the trip into a mini Quebec vacation — sightseeing, laughing, and doing the province proud by sampling some cheese and poutine.

Barely a breath later, we were in Toronto for The Lion King. We were awestruck by the sets and costumes, though Everett and Danika had a little sadness knowing it was a show they’d auditioned for. It was one of those small but meaningful lessons in the artistic life — sometimes you don’t get the part, but the art is still magical and uplifting.

From there, we detoured to the cottage. Emily and I stayed with her sisters (and my thrill-seeking nephew) while the kids headed off to Medeba, which is a camp that still holds a special place in my heart decades later. They came back beaming, carrying the same magic I remembered as a cabin leader and program coordinator.

And because apparently we were allergic to staying home, we kicked off August in Stratford, where we soaked up more musicals (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and Annie) and, yes, more cheese.

Looking back, I loved it all. I’m proud of my kids and their adventures. I cherished the time spent with them and with other loved ones. But in learning to better understand my neurodivergent brain, I’ve realized something important: even the most joyful experiences can be draining.

I can handle it — and I did — but I also see now how much I benefit from structure and strategies, especially during whirlwind seasons like this. Executive dysfunction, working memory challenges, emotional highs and lows, distractibility, and obsessive thinking are just as intertwined into my wiring as creativity, empathy, pattern-spotting, and outside-the-box ideas. Knowing this has been the key to understanding my limits and working with them instead of against them.

July was amazing. My family is magical. And I hope that, even in the midst of my own up-and-down inner world, I managed to pass deep love back to them, and to the wonderful people we crossed paths with along the way.