The individual limit themselves
Well it's that time of the year again, for me at least. The one 'holiday' that I hate the most is this Monday, being my social coordinator visiting my house to talk to me. Honestly, I wouldn't have a problem with her coming over since she's more supportive then all my aunts and uncles combined, but the thing that sets me off is the kind of reports that she does. Whenever I sneak in to my mom's room when she's at work to find my report since she doesn't like it that I read the report for whatever reason, the coordinator always puts something wrong on my IEP that gets me so angry. The bigger problem is the fact that they can't change or edit my report after the final draft, so if something she writes is wrong, people are going to read complete lies. Moving that aside, the topic that I'm going to talk about today, is that the individual limit themselves. This might be my first conversional blog that I write, but bare with me as you read the following paragraphs.
My math teacher told us the other day, you can be the smartest student in school (how ironic that I'm one of them), but if you don't give effort, you won't go that far. While this is certainty true, I gave this meaning a bigger extent. When I was younger, I had a serious issue with trying new foods. To this say, I still have trouble trying new foods, but it wasn't as serious as before, because part of that reason was because I made my part to change. My mom gave me a plate filled with slices of watermelon, which I hated at the time. My mom kept telling me to at least take a small bite of the watermelon, but I kept nodding my head and refusing to take the bite. At least after several failed attempts, my mom gave up and placed the watermelon slices back in the fridge. When people say that no matter hw dumb or stupid you do something to reach a goal, my story as to how I ate a watermelon was so weird since I had a dream that night, being that I tried a piece of watermelon and it tasted like cotton candy. On the bright side, it worked and the next day, I quickly woke up and walked out the room, completely avoiding my mom and sister who were sound asleep. (My mom had a night shift and my sister typed a rigorous essay that night). I walked over to the fridge, grabbed the slices of watermelon, and placed them at the kitchen table. I swear, my heart was beating when I was going to take the bite off the watermelon. Although the taste wasn't as good, I still fell in love with the watermelon and I ate the entire thing. Of course with all the excitement that I had thanks to the watermelon, I ran towards the bedroom and I began to shake the bed that my mom was on to wake her up so I could've told her the news. She said "It's 8am what do you want?" I got her hand and dragged her to the dining room, where I showed her the watermelon skin. I made up for making her wake up early by showing her that I have tried a new type of food. She quickly got a change in expression as a few seconds later, she's hugging me with all her happiness. My disability didn't limit me from trying new foods, it was my actions.
Another way that my statement holds up goes back even further, to when I was around nine years old. I used to have a fear of fireworks, because of how loud they were. As a result, my parents would keep me indoors every fourth of July and they would lock all the doors, and windows so the sound of the fireworks going off would dissipate. I hindered them from going to firework shows or to family gatherings, so they would make me feel better. One fourth of July in particular, I accidentally left one of my toys outside, but I couldn't open the door because the sound of fireworks were going off. I couldn't go outside even if I wanted too, because my fears kept getting in the way. I kept telling my mom to go get my toy from outside, and every single time that my mom would open the door, I told her to stop because then she would let the noise out. She eventually got annoyed of this and told me to figure this out on my own before walking away. Around 10:30pm came by and the sound of fireworks began to diminish. I knew that I wouldn't make it through the night without my toy, so I opened the door ever so slightly. Halfway open, I didn't hear any fireworks going off, so I assumed that I was in the clear. I opened the door and I quickly walked towards my toy. Just as I was about to grab it, I saw many fireworks go off around me in the sky. I yelled and covered my ears, thinking whether I should've grabbed my toy or head straight towards my house. After seconds of hearing constant fireworks, I uncovered my ears slowly, and said "nothing is happening to me." At that moment, I knew that I accomplished something new. With my ears uncovered, I grabbed my toy and ran back to my house. Once I closed the door, I was so happy that I wasn't afraid of fireworks anymore. I told my mom the great news the next morning, and she was just as happy as I was. This improvement led to my first fireworks show at Grand park (google maps anyone?) the following year, and instead of me covering my ears, I was watching every single firework go off before my very eyes.
Sure, these two milestones are great and all, but these two combined cannot top what I accomplished way before these two, self-defense. By now you guys should know that no student in my high school knows about my disability (not even my friends) because of how well I can mask it. Of course, it wasn't this way before, since in elementary school, I had to use four retries. By retires, I mean begging my mom to switch me schools because either I wasn't making any friends or I was being bullied by other, neither which were my goal. I don't remember my first elementary school or why I got switched from it, but I do remember my second school perfectly. I only lasted the second half of kindergarten there because of my dumb actions. I would run around class (I was in a special ed setting back then) and the other kids would do their work. During lunch and nutrition, I would always run towards the cafeteria to be the first one to get food. Because of this, I got bullied just a month away from summer break. I switch to an elementary school that was in a different city as a result. My third school, was better in certain ways during 2nd grade rather than 1st. I bet all of you guys remember this school, because it's the school where I mainstreamed out of the special ed classes and I was extremely happy to start 2nd grade outside of the cage (in that school, the special ed kids were separated by the normal ed classes by a fence, or cage, however you want to see it).. Unfortunately, I wasn't bullied, but I made no new friends whatsoever, and nobody ever talked to me, because my dumb teacher told everyone in the class in the first day of class that I was special ed and I mainstreamed, since he saw me as some sort of laughingstock. Anyways, my last school was the best one, since not only did I learn to keep my disability a secret and learn to self-defense, but I met my best friend Jake there.
In the end, my past experiences made me evolve into someone that I never imagined I would be. I learned to stand up for myself, despite others saying otherwise. I learned that my disability doesn't define me, nor how I'm supposed to act just how people expect autistics to. I am unique in my own way, and no matter what it takes to finally have people accept me and others, I will continue to share my life story with you guys. I hope you guys enjoyed my blog, share it with your friends and family, comment if you have a question or concern, and follow me so you can stay updated.
My math teacher told us the other day, you can be the smartest student in school (how ironic that I'm one of them), but if you don't give effort, you won't go that far. While this is certainty true, I gave this meaning a bigger extent. When I was younger, I had a serious issue with trying new foods. To this say, I still have trouble trying new foods, but it wasn't as serious as before, because part of that reason was because I made my part to change. My mom gave me a plate filled with slices of watermelon, which I hated at the time. My mom kept telling me to at least take a small bite of the watermelon, but I kept nodding my head and refusing to take the bite. At least after several failed attempts, my mom gave up and placed the watermelon slices back in the fridge. When people say that no matter hw dumb or stupid you do something to reach a goal, my story as to how I ate a watermelon was so weird since I had a dream that night, being that I tried a piece of watermelon and it tasted like cotton candy. On the bright side, it worked and the next day, I quickly woke up and walked out the room, completely avoiding my mom and sister who were sound asleep. (My mom had a night shift and my sister typed a rigorous essay that night). I walked over to the fridge, grabbed the slices of watermelon, and placed them at the kitchen table. I swear, my heart was beating when I was going to take the bite off the watermelon. Although the taste wasn't as good, I still fell in love with the watermelon and I ate the entire thing. Of course with all the excitement that I had thanks to the watermelon, I ran towards the bedroom and I began to shake the bed that my mom was on to wake her up so I could've told her the news. She said "It's 8am what do you want?" I got her hand and dragged her to the dining room, where I showed her the watermelon skin. I made up for making her wake up early by showing her that I have tried a new type of food. She quickly got a change in expression as a few seconds later, she's hugging me with all her happiness. My disability didn't limit me from trying new foods, it was my actions.
Another way that my statement holds up goes back even further, to when I was around nine years old. I used to have a fear of fireworks, because of how loud they were. As a result, my parents would keep me indoors every fourth of July and they would lock all the doors, and windows so the sound of the fireworks going off would dissipate. I hindered them from going to firework shows or to family gatherings, so they would make me feel better. One fourth of July in particular, I accidentally left one of my toys outside, but I couldn't open the door because the sound of fireworks were going off. I couldn't go outside even if I wanted too, because my fears kept getting in the way. I kept telling my mom to go get my toy from outside, and every single time that my mom would open the door, I told her to stop because then she would let the noise out. She eventually got annoyed of this and told me to figure this out on my own before walking away. Around 10:30pm came by and the sound of fireworks began to diminish. I knew that I wouldn't make it through the night without my toy, so I opened the door ever so slightly. Halfway open, I didn't hear any fireworks going off, so I assumed that I was in the clear. I opened the door and I quickly walked towards my toy. Just as I was about to grab it, I saw many fireworks go off around me in the sky. I yelled and covered my ears, thinking whether I should've grabbed my toy or head straight towards my house. After seconds of hearing constant fireworks, I uncovered my ears slowly, and said "nothing is happening to me." At that moment, I knew that I accomplished something new. With my ears uncovered, I grabbed my toy and ran back to my house. Once I closed the door, I was so happy that I wasn't afraid of fireworks anymore. I told my mom the great news the next morning, and she was just as happy as I was. This improvement led to my first fireworks show at Grand park (google maps anyone?) the following year, and instead of me covering my ears, I was watching every single firework go off before my very eyes.
Sure, these two milestones are great and all, but these two combined cannot top what I accomplished way before these two, self-defense. By now you guys should know that no student in my high school knows about my disability (not even my friends) because of how well I can mask it. Of course, it wasn't this way before, since in elementary school, I had to use four retries. By retires, I mean begging my mom to switch me schools because either I wasn't making any friends or I was being bullied by other, neither which were my goal. I don't remember my first elementary school or why I got switched from it, but I do remember my second school perfectly. I only lasted the second half of kindergarten there because of my dumb actions. I would run around class (I was in a special ed setting back then) and the other kids would do their work. During lunch and nutrition, I would always run towards the cafeteria to be the first one to get food. Because of this, I got bullied just a month away from summer break. I switch to an elementary school that was in a different city as a result. My third school, was better in certain ways during 2nd grade rather than 1st. I bet all of you guys remember this school, because it's the school where I mainstreamed out of the special ed classes and I was extremely happy to start 2nd grade outside of the cage (in that school, the special ed kids were separated by the normal ed classes by a fence, or cage, however you want to see it).. Unfortunately, I wasn't bullied, but I made no new friends whatsoever, and nobody ever talked to me, because my dumb teacher told everyone in the class in the first day of class that I was special ed and I mainstreamed, since he saw me as some sort of laughingstock. Anyways, my last school was the best one, since not only did I learn to keep my disability a secret and learn to self-defense, but I met my best friend Jake there.
In the end, my past experiences made me evolve into someone that I never imagined I would be. I learned to stand up for myself, despite others saying otherwise. I learned that my disability doesn't define me, nor how I'm supposed to act just how people expect autistics to. I am unique in my own way, and no matter what it takes to finally have people accept me and others, I will continue to share my life story with you guys. I hope you guys enjoyed my blog, share it with your friends and family, comment if you have a question or concern, and follow me so you can stay updated.
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