“Work The Problem.”

The Oscar-nominated film, The Martian, is one of those movies I enjoy watching over and over (and I have…and will again), but there are two moments in the movie I use every day to motivate me and focus my drive to make our Autumn Hills Village project a reality.

In the first of these moments, the crew encounters an unexpected challenge in attempting to rescue a fellow astronaut (Mark Watney played by Matt Damon). “Keep it together, work the problem” is the directive from Commander Lewis (Jessica Chastain).

The second occurs near the end of the movie as the rescued astronaut Watney now settled back on Earth begins teaching the next cohort of astronaut candidates:

“It's space. It doesn't cooperate. At some point everything is gonna go south on you, and you'll think: this is it. Now you can either accept that or you can get to work. That's all it is. You just begin. You do the math. You solve one problem, and then the next one, and then the next. You solve enough problems and you get to come home.”

I like both of these exchanges because they help remind me that while what we are doing is hard, the challenges we will face can be overcome if we work the problem. Solve one problem, then the next one.

And to round out my trifecta of movie references, failure is not an option for the work we do to support the adults with intellectual or developmental disabilities that we plan to serve with Autumn Hills Village. We have to be successful, to get our Life Academy and day program launched, to build our Community Inclusion Center, to move these awesome adults into an innovative housing community designed for them, and to provide the opportunities for them to live their fullest lives possible.

OK, so what are the problems we have to solve in 2025, you ask (I heard you )?

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