Then & Now #AutismAwareness2026
2008 I journaled about misunderstandings.
About what people thought autism looked like—
eye contact, labels, assumptions,
whether he would ever leave home.
“What? Autism? No way…”
they would say
because he looked too happy
too bright
too not what they expected
And I remember standing in that space
between diagnosis and disbelief
trying to explain something
I was still learning how to understand
He was two.
And I was trying to see the future
while also trying to stay in the now
Google searches
therapy notes
early words of hope…and fear
braided together
I journaled about systems trying to define
what I only knew as him
I was trying to translate a language
no one around me could yet understand
And now it is 2026
He is 19—almost 20
No theories
No guesses
Now it is real life unfolding in motion
It is him walking into the dining hall
choosing for himself
deciding to stay at school
for Easter break
It is a mind still quietly
beautifully
crunching numbers the way it always has
It is college
on his own
in a dorm life I once only wondered about
in terror
Some days he thrives
And also struggles
and both are real
and both are his
And as always—
he is himself
the himself God created
for a purpose
What has changed is not the label
or the questions
or even the challenges
What has changed is me
Because autism, as I’ve lived it,
was never really about understanding a diagnosis
It was about learning to see a person
support a person
love a person
as he grew into himself
And somewhere along the way
I stopped only trying to understand him
and started learning
to see him
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