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Believe

4/1/2014

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Originally published 3/13/14

When I moved into my new dormitory a while back, there was a guy there I hadn't met before. We started talking about autism and I told him about all my advocacy and mentioned my sister was on the spectrum. Then he told me that he'd peer mentored a girl with autism during orientation. He went on and on about what a really cool girl she was and how she was so awesome. Suddenly I froze. "What's her name?" I asked. "Caley," he replied. And out of nowhere and much to his surprise, I hugged him, a complete stranger, on impulse. As I was hugging him, I whispered, "That's my sister."

What made this moment so beautiful wasn't that he thought Caley was cool, although that was also great. It was that it came during a deluge of negative talk, a time where well meaninged people, professionals and laypeople alike, kept insisting that Caley would never go to college, that she'd never succeed. Not for any reason other than the fact that she's autistic. And here he was, telling me that he'd met her at college and thought she was awesome and doing really well there. I cannot express to you my emotions in that moment - but I think you can imagine.

What I'm saying in this post, is just believe. Believe in the competence of anyone you know on the spectrum, even when others don't. Because they're far more competent than society would have you think. -Creigh
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    About Creigh

    I'm a college student who grew up with my Autistic younger sister, Caley. I've got a bachelor's degree in Psychology and I'm currently studying for my Master's in Speech Language Pathology.

    Neither of those, however, have given me an understanding of autism. All of my understanding comes from learning from the many autistic people that I know. As a result, I have a very different outlook on autism than most, and a burning desire to tell the world what I've learned. This blog is one of the many areas in which I attempt to do that.


    *Note, none of these make me a professional, so advice I give is not professional advice.

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    Starting about in March 2014, all of these posts are originally published on Autism Spectrum Explained's Facebook page, and later reposted here for archiving purposes and easy access for ASE readers, including those who don't use Facebook. 

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