My dream job growing up was becoming a lawyer. I am a very righteous kind of person. I seek justice in everything and believe in things that are right. I've always felt that right is right and wrong is wrong and I'm always going to choose the right side even if that means going against someone that I love. It won't mean that I don't love them but right is right and wrong is wrong.

My bachelor's degree is in Criminal Justice (I named who I thought would be my last child Justice). I finished my degree when I was 27 because I chose to start a family very young in life. My middle son was about 6-7 years old by then. I had already been working and going to law school just didn't seem like the right fit at the time. Long story short I settled for an executive assistant job at DCCCD. It was around that time that my middle son was in 2nd grade and his teacher came to me at the beginning of the year and flat out told me "Amber, I don't know how he made it to 2nd grade. He can't do xxxxxx but it's amazing because he knows xxxxxx." I knew from the start that something was different, but his Kinder and 1st grade teacher didn't feel anything was different. And I TRUSTED them.

That was a young naive mistake. When this teacher told that she didn't know how he got to 2nd grade we all kicked it into high gear, me, her, and the principal as well as countless others. ALL at GPISD. He was diagnosed with High Functioning Autism. Because of his diagnosis he has received the BEST care and interventions at school and home to ensure that he is a successful student. Here he is 9 years later and is exceeding beyond most of his classmates and finishing college courses. That experience changed everything for me. I literally could not pursue my masters (which I was doing at that time) and knew I was being called to teach. Thankfully, while working at DCCCD and I was able to get my teaching certification for FREE! To this day I keep in contact with that teacher (she was also my daughter's teacher 2 years prior) and many of his previous teachers, counselors, phycologists, therapists, principals, diagnosticians, and countless others. They taught me how important it is to have a real relationship with parents and students, and I make it a priority to do that. I hope to one day move into special education particularly helping the older students transition into adulthood. 

I have no regrets in my decision and I'm thankful for whatever the reason it is that my son Jorel is Autistic because he's AMAZING. 

Shared by Amber Mendoza