As my child goes from summer camp, school and now graduation, we come upon the most difficult time in a child's disability, the first job. Although my daughter has babysat in the neighborhood and made lots of money,the economy is such that those jobs are few and far between now, as more people are staying home. Plus I might add more children are looking for these types of jobs. At the lovely age of 17 my daughter has started looking for the "summer job". I tried to have her start early before the college students start to emerge! Actually she did very well, people were accepting her applications in March. She wanted to work in the restaurant environment, not exactly what I wanted. My ideal job for she and her disability was the local day camp which she had gone to for many years and my son attends. How convenient, she knows the lay of the land, very important for children with NVLD. Although she felt she would be bored, she did put an application in. I also complied with the restaurant environment. I know my daughter and I were toying with whether we tell people upfront about her disability and quite honestly I'm still up in the air about it. I wasn't quite sure how her first experience was going to be. Well she got a call to work at the restaurant as a bus girl. Okay, it's fast paced, and she can expend all her energy. Well on her first day, she was to trail the current bus girl. I get a telephone call to pick her up 3 hours after she got there. The manager did not feel she was a fit for busing. My worst fear has happened, my heart bled for this child. Her first job where she really wanted to excel. When she got home she and I talked. It seems that she asked too many questions, for the table numbers, unsure of how to cut bread, the manager felt she had too much energy and was asking too many questions. When my daughter picked up that the manager was getting irritated, she confessed and told her about her NVLD and told her " I ask a lot of questions and it takes me longer to learn" please be patient with me. So now we confessed to the disability. Was this wrong, I feel that she did the best thing, she tried to explain why she was asking questions. Yes, she was very disappointed, and hurt. Does she only get 3 hours to train and learn? We spoke for a long time and I asked her if she wanted to go back, she was unsure. The manager said she would call her the next day and maybe she could do to go orders. I told her that she should tell the manager that she would like another chance and see what happened. The manager was supposed to call her on a Friday, today is Monday and she finally called her to speak with her. I don't know what the outcome is but I know that my daughter is making the correct decision for herself. I could have called and inquired to the reasoning behind her leaving early, but this is my daughter's destiny, she has to pave her own way and really fight for what she wants. I never thought it would be so difficult for her. She has had a difficult time in school learning and now the world is posing the same obstacles. My greatest hope is that she can cope with the world and how much a stigma disabilities are.