Being Autistic: Vulnerability and Self-Acceptance

This is a powerful message from Victoria Handy who is a member of the Rotary Disabilities Advisers Group and the Rotary Club of World Disability Advocacy. "We don't choose to be autistic; it is who we are," she says. " I have got to get to the point that I care about myself. I have to go on living for so many people who look up to me. I have to go on fighting for so many people who need me too." "Noone gave you the right to take away who you are. Say it if you are hurting, say it if you are scared. And if you feel that you are weak, say it." "Autism is a huge lifelong changing journey." "It is easy to forget who we are when we try to remember what we have to be. It is easy to forget what we want to do when we try so hard to keep it at the same time as what everybody else is doing. It is easy to forget just how much we mean to ourselves because we are out looking for approval from someone else. And it is easy to forget just how much we mean to someone else. It is easy to forget but it takes a strong amount of courage and sacrifice to remember who we are and to live that truth." For more information on the Group and the Club write to rotarydag@gmail.com