Dr. Mitch (Happy B-day Max)

Dr. Mitch (Happy B-day Max). 

Hey guys, welcome back! Yesterday was a very important day. “Why was it important?”,  you might be asking. Well, yesterday was a very important friend's 23 birthday (round of applause). This person, let's call him Max, is a big reason that I am going to be a teacher, as well as a reason of why I am so awesome and outgoing.

When I was diagnosed with autism and changed to a school that could better accommodate me, I was nervous. It wasn’t an all-consuming nervousness, it was just this little nag in the back of my mind telling me not to go to this school. Honestly, I think I would have done it with any school because I had never been the “new kid” before. But I wanted to go more than the nag didn't want me to go. On my first day of school, I walked in with no idea what was about to happen. I walked into my first class, and shortly after Max came in. We started to talk and we became instant friends. I walked out of that class with my confidence at 100% and I started to make friends all over the school.

Now as I touched on previously, sometimes people with autism can have inappropriate and often violent outbursts. These outbursts happen when the autistic person is overwhelmed in one form or another (it's too loud, why can’t I make friends? etc...). In my opinion, the less you understand the world (lower functioning), the more outbursts tend to happen. I was impacted by  the behavior issues that were bound to happen at this school, the school had a group of staff members called behavior support (basically the school’s police). If a student had an outburst the behavior support would come and restrain the child, so they could not hurt themselves or others. While I have always understood why they had to restrain people, it was still difficult to watch when it happened. Fortunately it never had to happen to me.

I worried for about a month that I would have to see one of my friends restrained, until one day, it almost happened. I walked into school early one morning and in the hallway another kid was yelling at Max, and calling him names. I told the kid to stop, but then he went crazy. A  member of behavior support was summoned and the kid was restrained. The kid kept cursing and calling Max names. Max started to yell and charge the kid, who was now restrained.

I made a split second decision, and cut Max off. I told him to look at me and take deep breaths. At first Max started to explain why he thought what he was doing was right. I was able to understand where Max was coming from, but I also understood why he couldn’t attack. With a little convincing, I was able to calm him down.

Max gave me the nickname, “Dr. Mitch” and the story spread throughout the school. As a result, the students started to look up to me, and the teachers trusted me with more and more responsibility. Frequently, I was called out of a class because behavior support knew that I could calm Max and others down. Eventually, I actually felt like I was more of a teacher than a student, and I fell in love with that feeling.

Max and I remained close friends during my four years at H.L.C. Unfortunately, when I went to high school we kind of grew apart. I just went to help him celebrate his birthday on Sunday, and I’m really hoping to start hanging out with him again. Thank you for everything, “Max” hope your birthday was fun!

Have a greattastic day everyone,

J. Mitchell Ulibarri.