by Raquel Arnold

Created on: August 01, 2010   Last Updated: August 09, 2010

At the age of twenty, I have had individuals twice my age scoff when I mention what I life I've had. "Your life?" They exclaim. "You've barely even lived a quarter of your life!"

Perhaps it is my own fault for not clarifying that while I am fairly new to adulthood, I have learned more than I ever would have imagined. Without the following influences in different stages of my life, I believe my personal growth would not mean nearly as much as it does to me.

Childhood

As the youngest of four children, I did not have the opportunity to bond with my two oldest siblings thanks to an age gap of ten and five years, respectively. Luckily, I had another sibling who was little more than eighteen months apart from myself. His name is Christopher. Before I explain what is so special about Chris, I should also mention that at age two, Chris was diagnosed with severe Autism. I would also like to mention that I never noticed growing up that he was different from any other child our age. While he didn't and still does not possess the ability to clearly communicate verbally, he was a physically healthy and happy child. I remember times where my other two siblings would go out with friends on the weekends and it would just be Chris and I, chasing each other around the coffee table and finally collapsing in a fit of laughter.

As I got older, I am embarrassed to admit that I was not always so warm and friendly to Chris. In fact, I was downright bitter at times. The older Chris got, the more difficult it was to take him in public. Because of this, our family was never able to go on vacations and rarely had an outing that lasted more than a few hours. Between the ages of six to as recent as seventeen, I went through a range of emotions where I blamed everyone but myself for thinking such nasty, hateful things about my sibling. I blamed him for not being as cooperative as he could have; I blamed my parents for not doing attempting to do things that "normal" families do, despite the complications that would arise from Chris's behavior. The older I got, the more angry I became that we — or he — could not and would never be "normal."

It was not until one day that I walked past his bedroom that he changed the way I look at the so-called definition of what normal is forever. You see, my brother has a favorite movie: Disney's Pinocchio. Even at the age of 19, Chris still enjoyed watching it. That day, he was far from happy. As I opened his door, I watched as he sobbed, head

• 1
• 2
• 3
• Next Page >>