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 I say technically because it is an outdated term, now covered under the term Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).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 He suggested that before they start the book, I give a lesson explaining why Asperger's is outdated.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