Inclusion and more

I was recently accepted to live at 29 Palms and be part of the First Place Transition Academy through Southwest Autism Research and Resource Center and I thought I'd write a blog post about my feelings about being accepted to be part of the community at 29 palms and to be part of the First Place Transition Academy  Excited: I feel excited to be part the community at 29 Palms and part of campus life at Gateway Community College. I cannot wait to live with my roommate Amelia and get to know her better. She is from Dallas, Texas and we only met a few weeks ago but I feel like e share a lot of the same interests including a love for Disney movies.   I am also excited to live with my friends Jake Scott and Baylee Barradas. Jake went to Chaparral High School and I got to know him as we were in some of the same classes until I graduated from Chaparral in May 2014. I got know he had a passion for the Chicago Bears football team. Ja...

When I was in kindergarten, I was diagnosed with autism. Autism makes it difficult for me to make new friends, accept constructive criticism and deal with change. Because of my disability, I had no friendships with my peers. Kindergarten and all of the grades after it were a challenge for me because of the lack of friendships.  When I was a freshman at Chaparral High School one of my teachers Alicia McGovern told me about our Best Buddies chapter. Best Buddies instantly piqued my attention because of its mission statement which is to create opportunities for one-to-one friendships, leadership development and integrated employment for people with and without disabilities.  When I attended my first chapter meeting I hid behind a large group of students as I did not know a single person. I remember just wanting a friend.  During my sophomore year, I was paired in a one-to-one friendship with my peer buddy Elaine Helt...

When I was in kindergarten, I was diagnosed with Autism. Autism makes it difficult for me to accept constructive criticism, adapt to change and be flexible and to appropriately socialize with my peers. Autism is becoming an epidemic.  One in ever 68 children are diagnosed with autism.   These are SIX (6) things I want people to know about Autism  1.  We are people People with autism are people and just because they are slow doesn't mean they are NOT people.  They can achieve their dreams. For me I have dreams of living on my own, taking elementary education classes to become a teacher in the future, being selected as one of the Buddy Ambassadors who is selected to speak during the Closing Ceremonies of the Best Buddies Leadership Conference and finally I have a dream of getting married.  2.  I’m a concrete thinker. I interpret language literally. For people with autism,  concrete is a way of thinking. People w...