Wednesday, February 8, 2017

Speak up

Aloha peeps! 

We are done with the first week of February and that also means we are close to the end of Chinese New Year for 2017.

Am writing today to just shed some perspective on certain thing that was on my mind today. 
I've just completed my last class on Autism. I must say, I am really glad that I am done. I love that we ended with one of the best teachers in the college which was great. 

Throughout my 2 years working in the special needs field, I felt that I learned a lot about special needs especially about autism. But I guess one can never learn enough. I watched a documentary entitled Living with Autism by BBC Horizons hosted by Uta Frith who spent the past 50 years trying to learn about autism. (Kindly click on the hyperlink and watch it yourself). 

It is indeed enlightening and it really sparked me to share this out as the stigma and discrimination that they face, even with teachers who are learning about special education are immense. Perhaps it's really a wake up call for me to start shedding positive light on these unique group of individuals whom I've always hoped to become when I was younger in order to clear the misunderstandings people have on them. 

After some deep thoughts about not going anywhere in my life at the moment, it sparked me to realize that one of the reasons for my inability to move from where I am is that I am not making any stand or actively doing what I truly believe in.... Still figuring out what it is, but one has to start somewhere. 

So I decided that it will be to talk and share to others about what I know in terms of the environment and also individuals with special needs. 

This is also the same for those who are ranting and talking bad about the political and economic situations in  and out of our country. Talking about them and just go 'Oh well, what can we do?' proved that whatever discussion that has taken place is invalid as no actions were done in spite of the heated debates going on. To be honest, I am one of those people and all those negative talking are not helping. Whatever I am doing, there must be some sort of action that contributes to those angry and tired talks, be it a protest, sharing a statement, create our own ideas on what can improve the situation and act on it might help because feeling helpless, gets one nowhere. 

Other than that, another recent thought came by when V was questioning about how one can turn into a totally different person overnight. From someone closest to you into someone who's cold and aloof. When it was being said the first thing that came to mind is that, perhaps the person was blind, there were many times the someone has been aloof or uninterested, but they are just blinded to it. I guess people don't just turn cold and aloof overnight, but rather, after a LOOOOOOONG contemplation and struggling in a relationship, going back and forth in their minds whether they should stop this sort of struggle and finally decided, that very fine day, that they will stop everything there and then. It is a decision made, rather than people really change one fine day. Well, that's what I think and how I rationalize this mind boggling question that I too questioned myself sometime back, but hopefully it is something that helps makes sense of the 'suddenly turned cold' situations. 

I shall talk more soon. 

If any of you are bored, the Super Bowl's half-time performances are pretty entertaining. 
Makes one go, 'Wow, how can one cope when there's some much going on stage'


♫ Million Reasons - Lady Gaga



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