It is hard to believe that it has been two years. A shared-ride vehicle pulled up to my residence to pick me up. This was after nearly two decades of using program-based transportation to get to and from day services and work. I had many fears about using shared-ride transportation. After a while, those fears were greatly squelched. I even made more of a transition a month ahead of the deadline for that to happen.

As with anything I do that is new or different, I become overly anxious. This was no different. But I had no choice. I needed to see if it would be successful. I was patient and understanding during the process. Eventually, hard feelings about the past subsided. The way things were going to be also changed. Things became what they were because they had become quite successful. The past situation had stressed me for years. It was beneficial in its own ways. I had begun to adapt to the way that things were going ahead.

Over a month since the change took place, the staff at day services approached me. They discussed the transition to using a shared ride to go directly to the workplace. This was instead of the practice at the time of going to day services and then to the workplace. I had become agitated with some challenges. The changes between the two locations developed because of the transition. I was becoming more confident in using shared rides. Thus, I was in agreement. While there was a deadline to transition, I did it a month ahead of schedule. I acted not only because I felt confident enough but also because I wanted to do it overall.

In the most part, this change was one of the biggest, in my opinion. It was the Segway to many changes that came down the line. It made it much easier to handle those changes. I was not as stressed as I was in the past about the past practices regarding my transportation needs. My life had begun to get much better. This improvement happened because I became more independent in my transportation. It wasn’t as detrimental as it was in the past or as stressful to me.

Many things have happened over the years. They show that change is sometimes necessary to make things better. This situation was in the past. The change in the transportation was often the result of my meltdowns. Other issues I had at day services also contributed. Now that those issues are hardly visible, I can focus on things. They needed attention for a very long time. I have finally started to rid myself of things that were barriers to moving ahead in my life.

Change is never easy for autistic people. This is especially true when it involves something very sensitive to someone’s functionality. Yet, with the right tools and reassurance, it can be proven that things can work out well. If we do not run away in fear, we can embrace change. Anxiety often makes this difficult. Still, by being patient and kind to us, embracing change becomes possible. By giving ourselves grace, we find that things that seem scary can eventually be beneficial for us.