April Reed Writes In
April 26, 2026–Dear Will’s Place,
Hello, and happy Autism Acceptance Month! Shout-out to those of my fellow Will’s Place employees who, like myself, are on the autism spectrum! And, for those who celebrate it, Easter also happened this month, on April 5. Did anyone in the Will’s Place family do anything to celebrate Easter? As a student at a Catholic-founded university, for me the holiday occasioned a brief break from classes, during which I returned to Skokie. Over the break, I went to Will’s Place three times on April 3 (how’s that for synchronicity?). First, my mom and I went there to eat. Soon after that, we returned for interviews with Joey the cameraman, and Chef Michael’s wife, Sarah, as part of a video that will be shown at this year’s Will’s Place benefit concert on July 9. And finally, that evening, I returned to Will’s Place to make collages for that week’s community night, joining Julia, Zayne, Gustavo, Christian, and more. Good times!
Since coming back to Marquette, one big-ticket item in my workload has been an assignment for my Foundations in Theology class, where I had to read a book called The Return of the Prodigal Son: a Story of Homecoming by Henri Nouwen and write an essay about it. My progress with that paper was interrupted by my loss of access to the digital copy of the book that I had been using, but fortunately, an institution on campus called the Faber Center for Ignatian Spirituality had a paperback copy of the book, which they generously let me borrow. I’ve also been working on a 30-page movie script for my Writing About Film class, and on the third draft of my screenplay for Script and Story. In addition to these projects, I’ve had to study for my final exams in Professional Public Speaking, Media in Society and Foundations in Theology. Those exams will take place in the first week of May, before I return home for the summer on May 8. Plus, for a couple of classes, I need to complete final reflections about what I’ve learned.
In a lot of ways, April has been a great month for me. CBS-58, a local news station, did a story about my soon-to-be podcasting professor and his team of Marquette students (including an acquaintance of mine), who film Marquette sporting events. They’ve even recorded games for ESPN, it seems! Another highlight was visiting a bookstore within the Milwaukee Public Library. All those sprawling shelves full of interesting library materials–and then it turns out there’s a secret nook with even more! Am I the only one who thinks we should try to get the Skokie Public Library to do something like this? Then, on April 21, I had the opportunity to meet with Laura Abing, a copy editor for Marquette whom I came across on LinkedIn, at a café on campus. Mrs. Abing was incredibly friendly, encouraging, and so generous as to share career advice (and the contact information for one of her colleagues with me). Plus, she’s a fan of The Simpsons–and of our old friend, Al Stewart! Finally, on April 23, I was one of the students who received Highest Academic Honors at the Diederich College of Communications’ Honors Reception. My mom came to watch, and I had the opportunity to introduce her to some of my professors, who were also at the Reception. After the ceremony, my mom stuck around while I went to a class, and we had dinner together at Sorbensen’s, a restaurant and bar near campus. That place has good burgers, although I wish their parking lot wasn’t on a hill. Maybe this is just because I’m from the very topographically level state of Illinois, but I personally feel that you have to pick a lane between having a hill or a road.
Unfortunately, other parts of April have not been so great. For one thing, Earth Day was this month, and here at Marquette, I’m getting the feeling Earth might not be happy with us. There have been two tornado warnings at Marquette this month. One was on April 14, while I was in a campus shuttle van with a friend; we had to wait in the dining hall of a residence hall across campus from ours until the warning expired, and then it was raining hard by the time we left. Another tornado warning came our way on April 18; fortunately, this time, I was in my own residence hall, so all I had to do was go down to the basement (along with several other people who live in my building) until we heard that things were safe again. Even when nature is giving us peace, Marquette has become beset by irritations in our own buildings. A fire alarm went off in my residence hall on the evening of April 13 (apparently someone burned something in the kitchen), forcing us to evacuate the building. At least two different buildings on my campus have had broken elevators this month. And at one point, the dishwasher in the dining hall of my residence hall was apparently not able to wash the plates and silverware enough, forcing the dining hall workers to put out plastic silverware and paper plates instead.
I heard from my mom that Brad got a shout-out on Will’s Place’s Instagram account. Congratulations to Brad! I hope one day, I can visit Japan, so I can come back to Skokie and talk to Brad about it. And I received Joanie’s email on April 24 with the sponsorship pitch and donation form. I’ll keep a lookout for people who might be able and willing to sponsor or donate to our summer concert. I can’t wait to come back home for the summer in May and see everyone again! While I’ve been looking for a second job in order to earn more money for college, I will still be returning to work at Will’s Place during the summer. Looking forward to being able to catch up with everyone in person!
See you soon,
Reed Larson-Erf