For a long time in my life I wasn't directly affected by autism. I knew it existed, but beyond that I couldn't tell you much about it, and to be honest I didn't think about it often. As time goes on you can't help but notice the increasing amount of studies, news stories, and sadly cases of bullying that has brought autism into the lives of many people who were on the outside like myself. Social media has done a lot to spread the awareness of Autism like never before and continues to make strides every day, enlightening people with information they didn't know before, but we need more exposure.
Two years ago, I met an amazing girl. She is intelligent, beautiful, and extremely caring. Early into our relationship she told me that her brother Alex had been diagnosed with autism. At first I was a little worried, I thought what does this mean, is she also different now by association? It only took me a few seconds to realize how ignorant something like that sounded and wanted to learn more about autism to be more understanding of the situation. I've met her brother Alex many times now. Our time interacting together is brief, usually just a quick hand shake and he runs off laughing. (I get that a lot) From the little time we have together it's clear that Alex's mind and body is filled with all sorts of energy, emotion, curiosity, and heart. That's when I realized there's nothing to be worried about. Alex is as human as I am and he deserves that the world - including myself - understands that.
I don't think enough people understand autism to know how to feel about it. I'm building this community to try and change this. There are already hundreds of amazing charities that exist for autism, and this isn't meant to compete with them, or be better. I wanted to take another angle at it because I believe the more information out there the better. The more people can learn about autism, the more they'll understand the diagnosis.
If this site can teach even a handful of people to express more compassion towards a person who has been diagnosed with autism, or donate a couple of bucks to an autism charity, then I'll consider it a success. Thanks for visiting, and listening!