From humble beginnings coming of age nearly two decades ago, it can be hard to imagine the things that I am doing and the blessings that I have in my life. Sometimes it is by trial and error that you learn things, but it is just when you as a person become too comfortable doing the same thing continually and you must keep learning, growing, and expanding.

It can be hard to imagine what 2024 is going to be. I am doing so many things in 2024 that I never thought that I would have thought that I would be doing two decades ago. Sometimes we need to have a push in our lives to have that initiative to step out of our comfort zone and do what is needed to be done for me to grow to where I need to be and understand that there is purpose to life after many years of not believing so.

As I have said time and time again, autism is a spectrum disorder. All that are diagnosed with it function differently, but I believe that if individuals are given the opportunity for them to be able to communicate and learn, then they too can learn, grow, and expand. When I was first diagnosed 25 years ago, my family Was not very hopeful of a future for me. Thankfully, I have proved so many people wrong about how successful I can be.

Everyone learns in different ways. Through much psychotherapy and day service in the past two decades, I have grown into the man that I am today. There can be interest in doing things that initially make one feel uncomfortable, but sometimes there needs to be a push from those that are providing care or treatment Traditionally,  our loved ones and supporters worry about us when we step outside the box and do things that are out of our comfort zone, but if you never try something, it will never happen and you will never grow.

It took me nearly three times in 12 years before I lived on my own. Yes, I had a setback, but I knew I had to live on my own and now that things are settled, I couldn’t imagine my life any other way. My next step was announced yesterday, but it will not take place for some time. Nonetheless, I could realize that I needed to take this step because I knew that I needed to because I was literally seeing the same thing in the same place it is happening and I could imagine the possibilities, yet I was stuck in the same way that things have been for a very long time.  

It can be hard to imagine that when a really big change happened in how I traveled for work and day service took place a month ago that my anxiety kicked up into high gear. Now, I couldn’t imagine why this wasn’t done a long time ago. This situation has allowed me to see the light at the end of the tunnel that I needed to see for some time when there seemed to be no way that I was going to grow any more. I was honestly thinking about regressing because my anxiety had overridden my thoughts about a serious change.

Being able to see the new change in motion has allowed me to be more optimistic about my future and that I will be able to continue to live independently in the community, just as society has intended human beings to do. Not having that push alongside the support of my treatment team and support system. I am growing to be my own individual self and not have to continue to rely on myself. Yes, there is more work to do in life in other aspects, but having the ability to know that I can learn, grow and expand my mind more provides me more hope in the future and more opportunities to live my best everyday life in the way that I want to.