Know you are Loved

Know you are Loved

As many of you may know, last Monday was Mitchmas. What’s Mitchmas, you might ask… well, that’s what I call my birthday….don’t judge me, lol.

Over the summer two of my four “sisters” were in Colorado. August, the oldest, went for a summer job as a camp counselor. Arden, the second oldest, got a full-time job as a sonographer. Now because August was at a camp, she didn’t have WiFi a lot. As a result, I only face-timed/called her three times over the whole summer. 

About a week before she came back, August asked if we could facetime, I said yes and I started to walk upstairs to so we could talk. Mom asked me where I was going, and I explained. 

We talked for about an hour, about all the crazy things that had happened to us over the summer. As she continued to talk, I laughed harder and harder. When we were done I went back downstairs into the kitchen. 

On the countertop was mom’s phone, and as soon as I walked past it she got a text. I would have walked right past, except I recognize the name immediately. It was Arden.

“Mama,”  I asked, “why are you texting Arden?”

“Oh!” she exclaimed grabbing her phone from the countertop, “I asked her what was going on upstairs  because you were going crazy!”

When I went to bed that night I started thinking about the events of the night and realized something was up. I had told mom that I was talking to August specifically… mom would not have texted Arden to figure out what was going on because Arden didn’t know. But I kept my mouth shut (which admittedly is out of character), and moved on with my life.

Every year Arden makes a birthday video for me. It’s a collection of pictures and videos from the past year, and all the adventures we have been on. On Monday, Arden emailed it to August and me. August hooked her computer up to the TV, and August, Arlo (the youngest sister), Arlo’s best friend, and I sat down to watch. (Our other sister moved to Florida, but we face-timed Arden).

The first four minutes were pretty standard for a birthday video, but then Arden came on the screen, and started talking. She explained that she had gathered video clips from people who have been touched by my life, telling me why they love me. They were people in my family, to people in my brother’s band, to a former student, even S.M’s mom and brother made an appearance. It was awesome!

I’m not gonna say I didn’t know I touched these people’s lives, but I didn’t really think about it. I’m writing about this because everyone could have one of these videos made about them. Everyone touches someone else’s life in some way. Know you are loved by everyone around you!

Have a Greattastic Day

J. Mitchie Ulibarri

Not a Disability

Not a Disability

This is less of a blog and more of an acknowledgment of a change that has happened within my blog. A total shift that you may or may not have noticed. This may be an obvious point that I'm making, but I do not feel comfortable continuing to write this blog until I know for a fact that everyone understands this change. 

My autism diagnosis was at the end of sixth grade. Being diagnosed was awesome because I finally had an explanation as to what was making me so different. On the flip side, I wasn't completely able to understand what was going on because I was diagnosed so fast, and was just thrown into this new world. It was all very surreal, and though initially, I was able to accept myself, it still took me a good couple of months to completely adjust to this new way of life. No one was able to tell me, what autism really was when I was a kid… it was just sort of the way life was, and I didn't think it really needed an explanation.

As I've stated before, my brother Ryan eventually caught up to my grade level, and this combined with a few other circumstances caused me to try to cut autism out of my life. I went my entire high school career pretending I wasn't autistic.

I had an internship at my old school, Our Lady of Peace (Olp), for about three years. During my second year, I worked with the English teacher for 6-8th grades. My internship started after Christmas break. I went to the school and asked the teacher what book I should read so I could help teach a lesson on it. He handed me a book called Mockingbird. 

The book is about a girl who has to deal with the traumatic loss of her brother. Her brother was her eyes to the world because she has (just by pure coincidence) Asperger’s Syndrome. For those of you who don't know Asperger's is a “milder” form of autism, and it is technically the kind of autism I have. I say technically because it is an outdated term, now covered under the term Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). I will go into more detail on that in a later blog.

When school started up, I told the teacher about my diagnosis and ASD. He suggested that before they start the book, I give a lesson explaining why Asperger's is outdated. The day finally came and I stood in front of the class and gave my lesson. Doing that lesson, and explaining what autism is helped me to re-accept autism as part of who I am.

When I started this blog, the main idea was to help people and their families navigate the new world that they have found themselves in. The problem was I was still out of touch with the autism community at the time. I've come to realize that autism is a lot more… I don't want to say mainstream, but I can't think of any other word… Autism is a lot more mainstream then it was when I was diagnosed. There is a lot more information on it. As a result, this blog has evolved into something else. It's more just the story of what I'm going through day-to-day, in spite of being autistic, in spite of feeling like I'm not good enough. I've realized that Autism or any learning disability, you name it, is only a disability if you let it be a disability. I mean if I can even think about going to Japan, I’m 100% sure nearly any kid who Is “disabled” can do whatever they want to do in life. I do plan on writing articles about autism every once in a while, but the main moral of Rules for a Greattastic Life is “if I can do it… so can they/you.”

Have a greattastic day

J. Mitchie Ulibarri 

Japan part 2: Chance of a Lifetime

Japan part 2: Chance of a Lifetime

I have had a rough summer. It all started about a month and a half before finals week. I met this girl, and we started doing a lot of studying together. No matter how hard I tried, and no matter how much help both this girl and my family/friends tried to give me, I just couldn't get it. I started doubting everything about myself. 

At last, I took my final test, and passed…if only by a little bit. As summer started I was really thinking that maybe college wasn’t for me. I didn't tell anyone what was going on because I was afraid that admitting these fears would make me a failure. But then a month ago, the summer picked up.

As you may recall, Cousin Simple played in Nashville. The show was awesome and they got a lot of recognition (more on that later). Directly after Nashville, my family went on a vacation with my cousins. I was home for 4 days and I went to Florida to see my friend. As a result I was on a travel high, and I was feeling better then I had felt all summer. Unfortunately, that was going to come to an end. 

As soon as I got home all these fears came back stronger than they had been before. I was in tears every single day last week, because I had no idea what I was going to do. I talked to my family and one of my “sisters”, Aspen. I was also writing and praying a lot, but I was still freaking out.

Last Monday I went out to my “sisters” house because Aspen had been locked out, and Arlo (the youngest of my “sisters”) was not home. We walked into the kitchen, and on the counter was a note from their mom. It said “Out to lunch with Renee!” We had totally forgotten that her family was back from Japan for the week!

About an hour later, they came back to the house, and happy tears were shed by everyone. We told her how the older girls with doing in Colorado, and how they were coming back at the end of the week (more on that later), so she would be able to see them on Friday with the kids. Eventually the conversation switched to how I was doing. 

Aspen looked at me, curious to see what I would say. I decided I might as well say something, so I told them everything. When I was done talking, Renee said, “You know I think you would be a good teacher at the schools in my area of Japan.” I kind of laughed her off at first… I mean, think about it, it is a really funny concept: Me, a person who barely knows what he's doing in America, cut loose in Japan. But she started talking about it and I think it would be really cool.

So this next semester I'm going to be learning Japanese on my own, and bettering myself! I know that there is a lot of risk in doing this. I understand all the things that could go wrong, but if I don’t try, I know I will regret it for the rest of my life! However, in the event that it just doesn't work out, I do have a few other things ready just in case. I will keep you guys informed when I get more information.

Have A Greattastic Day!

J. Mitchie Ulibarri

Japan Part 1: Piano

Japan Part 1: Piano

Music is a huge part of my life. My brother is in a band. I'm always singing, and of course I do a lot of work with Sam's Fans. My exposure to music started when I was in kindergarten.

My “sisters” had a piano in their house. When they got old enough,  they started taking lessons. Because our families were so close at the time, and because I wanted to do everything they were doing, I asked my mom if I could take lessons from the same person. My parents agreed, and Ryan and I started taking lessons. 

The teacher and I did not necessarily see eye to eye. I didn't really have long attention span. It definitely wasn't long enough to actually take time to practice. Every single week, I wouldn't practice enough, and she would become livid. She would roll up my music theory book, hit me on the head with it and yell, “Shame on you!” This woman did something amazing, she almost single-handedly killed music for me. 

Fortunately, I didn't have to wait for Cousin Simple or Sam's Fans for music to come back into my life. My “sisters” had gotten a new piano teacher. Her name was Renee. Renee is from Japan and she's one of the most talented pianist I've ever met. The best part was that she had baby girls, and my “sisters” would watch them for discounted lessons. When my “sisters” and I started hanging out again, they convinced me to take lessons from Renee. 

I would help my “sisters” watch the kids, mostly by being their constant entertainment. Over the years my “sisters” and I started to consider those two kids like part of our family. That's not even to mention Renee. Let me just explain how awesome of a person she is. 

One of the first things I loved about her is when it came to lessons with Renee she would ask me what songs I wanted to learn, as opposed to just going through some book. Secondly once I learned a song, she let me arrange a new version of the song. The icing on the cake though was her last Christmas recital.

When I was a kid…who am I kidding, I'm still a big fan of Doctor Seuss!!! My favorite character that he created is the Grinch. Around the same time we were trying to plan what songs I would play for the Christmas recital, we found out that Renee and her family would be moving back to Japan in 2 months. I wanted to do something big…you know, send her off with a bang. So I asked her if I can play “You're Mean One.” Of course she said yes, but then I took it a step further. I asked her if it would be okay, if I dressed in costume as the Grinch… She said yes! 

I was scheduled to perform last and I was giddy with excitement. About three people before I was supposed to perform, I went to the bathroom and changed into my costume… When my name was called, I walked in and I've never been more confident in my entire life. The audience loved it! The recital was amazing to me! Renee was an incredible piano teacher, and friend, and I would not be where I am today, both creatively or confidence-wise, if it wasn't for her.

To be Continued...