Legend of Zelda: Reengaging with the game after a long break.
Cars: Interest in types of cars and cars from specific countries.
Porsche 911.
Mazda Miata (1990) - notable for having "eyeballs" (pop-up headlights).
Techie AI things: Interest in technology and artificial intelligence.
Chrome Music Lab: A fun application to play with.
Books: Bringing books to school, including a Legend of Zelda book related to Breath of the Wild.
Movies: Studio Ghibli films (anime genre), such as:
Howl's Moving Castle
The Boy and the Heron
Personal Strengths and Advocacy
Being a nerd: Embracing being a nerd as a way of being smart.
Advocacy: Actively caring about causes and participating in protests.
Attended a protest against the current president with a sign saying, "Leave my school alone."
Recognizing self as "really cool" (opinion).
Progress in Self-Regulation and Emotional Control
Keeping body safe: Improving in maintaining physical safety and self-control.
Therapy: Acknowledging the help received from a therapist.
Learning techniques like taking deep breaths and "stop and think."
Advice to Younger Self
Message to past self (Luke from 05/08/2024): "Just keep going. You're gonna get a lot better really soon."
Learning from actions: Emphasizing the importance of learning from one's actions.
Debrief process: Acknowledging progress in not fighting the debrief process, recognizing its good outcomes.
Future Goals and Areas for Improvement
Reducing upset feelings: Aiming to get to a point where getting upset is rare, especially at school.
Managing embarrassment: Recognizing that feeling upset at home is more comfortable and appropriate than in front of peers.
Taking ownership of reactions: Demonstrating increased awareness and control over reactions, with confidence in the ability to calm down.
Overcoming inner saboteur: Working to stop the inner voice that says, "You can't do it. This is too hard."
Current Triggers and Annoyances
Annoyance trigger: Getting annoyed, particularly by peers.
Sound sensitivity: Previously annoyed by sounds like sniffing or pencil sharpeners (less of an issue now).
"Bullying": Using the term bullying to describe situations where peers don't want to play the same games, take breaks, or exclude from play, which feels hurtful.
Different interests: Annoyance when peers want to play something different, like beatboxing, which is found silly.
Happiness and Excitement Triggers
Airplanes: Interest in airplanes.
Rare cars: Fascination with rare cars.
Improved Self-Awareness and Regulation
Awareness of time and place: Improved awareness of when and where to share specific interests.
Holding thoughts and deferring sharing information to a more appropriate time.
Handling rejection: Understanding that "not right now" doesn't mean never.
Handling not being called on: Demonstrating improved patience and emotional regulation when not called on first in class.
Previously, not being called on first would result in physical reactions like banging on the table and scowling.
Taking redirection: Accepting feedback and redirection without resistance.
Social-Emotional Learning and Perspective-Taking
IEP Excitement: Expressing excitement for the upcoming IEP meeting.
Constructive Taking: Learning about constructive taking/perspective-taking: considering situations from others' viewpoints, especially during disagreements or problem-solving.
Thinking about how situations might have looked or felt to others involved.
Considering what others might have been thinking or feeling in the moment.
Differentiating between facts and feelings, and providing evidence for claims.