Tag Archives: individuality

The Importance of living a Self-Determined Life

Self-determined language is very important for any one to know that any one can identify themselves the way any one feels comfortable with. Self-determination is also a way to be involved with our own life, our own feelings, our own conversations about us, and not involved with anything any one influences us about.

Emotional abuse can hurt a lot when people turn to us when saying or referring to our way of being as if we are not even human or we need to take medications to pass for a particular specific person’s individuality. This does not allow us to be our own individualistic self. Though, sometimes some people need to take medications regardless because of the ableism or emotional abuses affected by the way life immensely becomes too overwhelming. When this happens, any of us can become very anxious and seem disturbed since we are seen as being out of control. However, society creates this in individuals from the standards of a general normal that they want everyone to pass as.

We need to just live our life through the way of who we are, what we individually believe about who we are, and what we feel about our own life. This allows us to know that our life is what we want self-determinedly.

What we feel and what we do, is only a part of our being. When we move forward, we bring on not only what we want in our present situation, we bring on the past life we have lived too as a continuous spectrum of time and diversity in the human race.

We need to Remember our mission through what we are here for by what we can do for ourselves. The community needs to always remember the identities we all want for ourselves individually as part of self determination.

As an Autistic who also is very different from the general mainstream norm, society needs to understand that individuals are really individualistic as part of what makes us a part of the human race. The human race is exceptionally individualistic which is so diverse, so unique, so simple yet complex, so continuous though building on each other like legos, and everyone really is a spectrum of who everyone really can be. As an individual person, if we meet one human being we’ve have only met one human being.

While any one lives on this planet today, we can all think it’s hell or heaven depending on our experiences with our feelings while being involved with family, friends, and the broader world community. It depends on the feelings now that we feel before our body becomes too old; thinking of negative or positive feelings that determines our destiny. That’s what makes up heaven!

Everyone has their own spirit and their own feelings for our own space (or boundaries) to protect our own self of how we were first created in the world. This way, no one could ever feel like they can barge through who we are and our identity. The many things we built up for ourselves, makes up our own life in the world that we want to contribute to, to become the person we are destined to become.

Sometimes it takes a long time (as it did for me and for others) to think about the things we are destined for as we become way too influenced in our life to think of ourselves. Humanity is beautiful. It does not have to be too stressful, anxiety provoking, or even a way to pass for someone else’s normal. It’s who we are, what we want, and how we want to live it.

Self-determination is what builds our life now for even the future of our own
self-determination. It’s our own choice and no one else’s. We decide through our own spirituality of what makes us human, but ultimately what makes us a part of the universe.

If we make or give good, we get or receive good back!

Let’s make it a good life 😄

Love to my family, friends, and the broader world communities,


TheamazinJ

My Disability and Music paper from “Disability and Embodiment”

The song that was attached to a YouTube video a few years back was recently deleted, but intrigued me. The song tried to lift the barriers that the medical model of disability conveys. The song used was “Individuality” by the U.K. band, Area 7. Some thought provoking words were “The years go by, you find that nothing comes easily. And the world is full of people tryin’ take you down.” This really spoke to me personally as well as who I have interacted with in the disability community especially in the Autistic community. The song really helps us accept our own self since we need to have less self-doubt, less influence from others, and more of our own identity. This song is more about post-structuralist social model of disability because it does not speak about impairments rather about striving to be the best we can be.
To me, the song tries to convey something Jim Sinclair wrote about in his “Don’t Mourn for Us” speech when he wrote, “We need and deserve families who can see us and value us for ourselves, not families whose vision of us is obscured by the ghosts of children who never lived…But don’t mourn for us.” (Sinclair pg. 9) I feel Jim Sinclair’s quote really compliments this song.
A paper by Steven Van Wolputte, explores several authors in his paper where he reports, “Or, as Mead (1974) notes: We cannot be ourselves unless we are also members…He pointed out that a self is a social structure and process that arises in and from social experience, that it involves the body, and the self – …” (Van Wolputte pg. 261) These words from the article and song reminded me how people like myself in the disability community feel today from non-disabled people in society. I have felt society needs to understand people in the disability community and people who seem different. We are members of society too who need to identify the way we want to be represented. Instead people typically don’t see how disabled people like myself can live full successful lives. We are always made to feel odd and different. These lyrics from the video, immediately made me feel this should be everybody’s anthem while going to school and growing up. In 2nd grade, I met with the school psychologist, who told my mom I would not be able to graduate high school, learn to be my own person, and live a fulfilling successful life.
In an article by Loja, Costa, Hughes, and Menezes, I further determine why the song is so powerful, “[Disabled individuals] confront physical and attitudinal barriers and stereotypes about their capacity for intimacy and configure themselves in ways that challenge centuries of oppression, refusing to internalize ableism, demanding recognition for who they are and what they want to become.” (Loja pg. 198) This empowers me to build my life even through the vast ableism I have faced in my life, and create who I am from all the struggles I have overcome as a part of society.
The song from a post-structuralist social model shows us what being an individual is; “not being so vain, not being so proud, but rising above,” (from Area 7) the intellectual standards society tells us what we can be, to be ourselves. Van Wolputte states, “It is therefore important to distinguish between, on the one hand, the self as an embodied process of self-making, of becoming (the body self), and on the other hand, the socially sanctioned self-image or representational Self.” (Van Wolputte pg. 262) People need to stop and think about the broader scope of humanity and how any one can be an individual.
Even though I didn’t know I was Autistic in 2nd grade, I did know I was disabled, which led me to feel society’s perception of the disabled. We need help and support to fight for our own individuality to build our confidence, and to fight back from society’s perception of disability.

Works Cited

Area 7 – Individuality Lyrics | MetroLyrics http://www.metrolyrics.com/individuality-lyrics-area-7.html

Sinclair, J. (1993). Don’t mourn for us. Our Voice. The newsletter of Autism Network International, 1(3).

Van Wolputte, S. (2004). Hang on to your self: Of bodies, embodiment, and selves. Annual Review of Anthropology, 251-269.

Loja, E., Costa, M. E., Hughes, B., & Menezes, I. (2013). Disability, embodiment and ableism: Stories of resistance. Disability & Society, 28(2), 190-203.

Individuality by Area 7

They always said that you would never be anything.
Everything you tried to do was just a waste of time.
But you believed you could do anything you wanted to.
You made your mind up and you never looked behind.

Don’t let them try to tell you how to live your life.
Don’t let them hold you back, don’t ever change your mind.

Individuality – Be proud of what you are
Individuality – Don’t let them cut you down
You can be whatever you want to be,
But don’t change yourself for society.
Don’t lose your Individuality.

The years go by, you find that nothing comes easily.
And the world is full of people tryin’ take you down.
Don’t ever turn your back on anything you’ve ever been.
You don’t need to prove yourself to anybody else.

There’s no room for second best, no second chance, don’t fail the test,
Gotta rise above the rest, gotta try to make your mark.
You don’t need to be so vain, no need to act so proud,
Follow the trends, don’t ever stand out from the crowd.

Do you really care what other people think about you?
Does it really matter what they do or what they say?
You’ve fought too hard to let them throw it all back in your face.
When their opinion never mattered anyway.

Do you really know you?

It is important to know yourself to be able to sense your desires, your strengths, and your passions for whatever is worth it in your life. People don’t really quite understand many things in life in regards to their own persona.

Many people don’t realize what it takes to become a person. They don’t realize their individual qualities and want to be someone else. You should not let any one influence you to be something you don’t want to become. It also doesn’t matter what other people including family tell you to fall in love with either. For example, if you fall in love with a woman who is a different culture than you.  If you love somebody for who they are and they care about you, it should not matter since faith is what counts. Religion is not faith. The two are different altogether. You do not need any body to pray for you and no body is closer to faith more than the next person standing next to you. Every body is on the same level trying to gain their spot in heaven.

Next time you go to pray, say your own words with your own feelings rather than what other people have written or said. It is okay to listen to what others say and read what others write because every body has a say in this thing called ‘Life’.

People speak in many different ways, some are vocal, some are writers, some are artists, some are technologists in medicine, some are surgeons, some are photographers, some even film with cameras with moving action…   Most importantly, we all have a voice in some way or another. Please don’t be the voice of another.  Let every one speak for themselves.

Again, “Nothing About Us, Without Us” by the ASAN (Autistic Self Advocacy Network).

Think about what you want to achieve and what you want out of your life, but never be jealous and be someone you are not.

(I have something special TODAY! Posting soon about it)


posting again soon,

OUT, J

Forget who you are

Asperger or Neurotypical, Forget who you are for just a moment in time to think about what this world is all about.  The world looks all gloom now.  Find your way in this world to end the doom and gloom because the doom and gloom will eat you away like a tar and feathers all over you.

This world has turned into doom and gloom, but it doesn’t have to be that way for any one of us at all.   We just have to prove to everyone and the eternal one up there that this world is very precious to us and not to be taken for granted.

Yet every single one us including myself takes this world for granted every aspect of the gift of planet Earth.

For example, has anyone of you lived your life to the fullest yet.  My granny claims she has though she has many issues and problems of her own that she cares not to admit to.

Yet, people tell me to give her a break since we don’t know how much longer she has to live.

There are so many things in this world that need to be done such as budgeting your money, for us aspies its to be as neurotypical as possible since most of this world is neurotypical.  Even though we are comfortable with our aspie self, we have no choice but to be as neurotypical as possible.

For NT’s and Aspies to live together, aspies need to adapt since NT’s are the majority, and majority always rules unfortunately.

Aspie ways are seen as quirky and weird, and in order to avoid a segregation of aspergia and neurotypicaland, the eternal one only wants every one to live together in harmony.

No matter what the outcome is, no matter what happens in this world, it will always be neurotypical and adaptations of the world of aspie needs to be done to fit in with the rest of society.

That is why some aspies tend to have meltdowns and can’t handle the world anymore because they do not know how to live without being aspie.

Reach out, reach out aspies and live your lives as a person who reaches for your goals in life so that one day when you are old and grey, you get to know that you are still an aspie who has adaptated as much to to the world as possible to get what you want out of it.

That means cleanliness, hygiene, trying hard to listen, earning a living or continuing to earn a living, budgeting your money, and paying closer attention to social cues and facial expressions no matter how hard it is for you and I.

And for neurotypicals, pay more attention to the aspie community making sure that they adapt to some neurotypical behavior that is beneficial to the aspie because what I observed about neurotypical behavior is that it can be very damaging for an aspie to watch since neurotypicals can tend to misbehave and get in trouble.

anyway, gotta get going,

out, J

NeuroDiversity for all!

Aspie, Autism and anything else on the spectrum is NOT an epidemic it is just a way of life and  NT’s need to help us adapt to the world.