Dear Will’s Place,
Happy October! I learned this month that October is actually Down Syndrome Awareness Month. I’ll start off by thanking everyone in the Will’s Place community who has Down syndrome for everything they do to make Will’s Place a more fun, successful workplace! Like last year, I’m trying to make sure to watch horror movies every weekend in order to get into the Halloween spirit. That includes Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (in spite of the twist ending being common knowledge, it’s a well-paced, captivating thriller); The Black Phone (not for the faint of heart, but the ending is cathartic as all-get-out); and, my favorite of all, Freddy Vs. Jason (the real question is, which one of them could beat Michael Myers?). In addition to those movies, I tried to finish Joe Hill’s horror novel NOS4A2, which I started last month. Unfortunately, I gave it up–I kept being drawn towards other books. Nevertheless, I’m determined to finish an entire book before the end of 2026–it will be the last of the four books in total that I’ve made it my goal to read this year.
On October 22, I returned to Skokie for Fall Break and joined the rest of the Will’s Place crew to cater the D219 teachers’ conference at Niles North High School. The catering shifts might have been tough, but it was amazing to see all my friends at Will’s Place again! When we drove to Niles North that Friday, to get the tables and food set up, I got to have a brief reunion with many of my old high school teachers, as well. Outside of work, I took the opportunity to relax and spend time with my family. My brother Griffin and I watched the horror movie Re-Animator together, and I visited the Skokie Public Library and Aw Yeah Comics. The day before I returned to Marquette, my family took a walk in the woods together, and saw comedienne Maria Bamford at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts, the same place where we have our summer concerts. Speaking of concerts, I even had the opportunity to attend Johnny Burgin’s blues concert at the new Skokie Theater, where I took the stage with a couple of coworkers before the show to talk up Will’s Place. While I was there, I saw a poster for the stage show Monsters of Memoir, which would be performed at the Skokie Theater on October 30. Unfortunately, that date was the week after my Fall Break, so I couldn’t see the show myself–much though I wanted to. If anyone from Will’s Place saw Monsters of Memoir, let me know how you liked it!
Despite ironically falling on the week before something I would really have liked to see, Fall Break was a necessary respite. It brought an end to Marquette’s midterm exam season, whose workload, combined with the regular college grind, hit me like a ton of bricks. I had two exams to study for, two essay-style assignments to write (I had already finished a third for my Statistics class), and a podcast episode to help make. Will’s Place and college are similar in that they both require me to work hard; the difference is, in college, the work isn’t confined to shifts that end. And, as I alluded to in my August column, the demands of college can be more intellectually punishing than those of Will’s Place. The next time you’ve had a long day and you’re counting the minutes until the end of your shift, just remember that you do not have to read Plato’s Republic.
In addition to my classwork, I am now beginning the journey to find an apartment where I can live next year. I’m planning to share an apartment with a couple of other members of the On Your Marq program. Part of the process of finding housing at Marquette is passing a Housing Quiz, which allows you to receive a waiver for the security deposit that you would normally have to pay for a university apartment. That quiz proved to be an incubus for me–it took me four tries to pass. The thought of having to move from a dorm to an apartment is a bit terrifying for me, but I’ve gotten some advice from my therapist that makes it feel more bearable. Besides, there was at least one part of the apartment-finding process that I enjoyed. On the Sunday before Fall Break, my mom and dad visited me at Marquette so we could tour university apartments together; even though I would soon see them for Fall Break, it was so rewarding to spend time with my parents, as well as Griffin, who was already on his own Fall Break, and drove up with my parents to see me. While my family was at Marquette, we checked out a life-size model of a Dalek (a monster from Doctor Who) that can be seen in the Engineering Hall at Marquette. A couple of very generous people even let us into the building, allowing us to see the Dalek up close, and my dad to take some pictures of me with it, like the one above.
Jadon and I got that article written in the Marquette Wire about our Doctor Who Club! Unfortunately, as of this writing, the article hasn’t proven the draw for prospective members that we hoped; our next strategy is to put posters around campus advertising the club. A former teacher of mine, who’d encouraged me to start the Doctor Who, recommended that we do something for Doctor Who’s upcoming anniversary on November 23 (although I think I’ll be home once more, for Thanksgiving Break, at that time).
In addition to Doctor Who, as of this month, Jadon and I have come to share another interest–the parodic musical stylings of “Weird Al” Yankovic, whose Oct. 17th concert at Milwaukee’s Fiserv Forum we attended together. When I was younger, I would never have been able to stand the sensory agony of a concert like that. As it was, the music could get too loud for me (forcing me to cover my ears), and the performance ran longer than I expected, but it was still a great time! Al cycled through most of his repertoire that I know, from “Dare to be Stupid,” to “Party in the CIA” (my favorite song of his), to even the Captain Underpants Theme Song! Many others in the audience paid homage to Al with outfits resembling his, like Al’s iconic Hawaiian shirts. As Jadon and I were waiting in line to get into the building, I even saw a couple of people with tinfoil hats, which I thought was a reference to the music video for Al’s song “Foil.”
I saw on the Will’s Place website that Maliah has left the staff. I’m sad to hear that she won’t be working with us anymore, but I’m so glad that she found her work at Will’s Place to be a valuable experience–and proud that she is training to become an EMT! Maliah, I bid you a fond farewell and all the good luck in the world! I have another break in the Marquette school year (Thanksgiving Break) in November, so I’m looking forward to returning then and seeing you all. Alternatively, if you want to make the trip, you can visit me in Milwaukee! I remember Michael joking to me, at the end of this past summer, that folks from Will’s Place could drive up to Marquette and stay in my dorm. To be honest, I kind of wish that would happen–it’d be really meaningful to me to be able to show folks from Will’s Place around and introduce you to my friends here. Visiting me might not actually be very feasible, but I would still welcome your texts, emails, and assorted other communiques. See you all in November!
Until next time,
Reed Larson-Erf