One person’s ‘everyday moment’ is another person’s small victory. Carrie Cariello is the mother of an autistic teenager who has many of the latter. Recently, she penned a powerful open letter on the topic.
Global (04 June, 2023) — In a society where most of us have been raised to strive for the exceptional and productivity is valued more than peace, what happens to the people who fall outside these man-made margins by no choice of their own? What about the achievements that no one applauds, let alone sees?
People who struggle with mental health know how the very tiny things can feel like massive victories. The battle that ensues to show up to the office when you have chronic depression, the ability to quell anxiety even if it’s just for one conversation, or figuring out a new hack to get through daily ADHD struggles.
When we think about the neurodivergent community and especially Autistic people, everyday moments are often unsung achievements.
Recently, the author of ‘What Color is Monday?’ Carrie Cariello—whose son has Autism—took to social media to pen her thoughts on the achievements we don’t praise, and it’s challenging the way people perceive what’s deemed an achievement.
Here’s What Cariello Said:
My son Jack has autism. He is nineteen.
Jack has never crossed a stage to accept an award for the Honor Roll, or Most Valuable player, or winner of the spelling bee.
The truth is, there are no awards for the very things he works so hard to accomplish: regulation, flexibility, language, tone of voice, executive functioning.
There is no award for wearing a shirt with an itchy tag, or staying calm in a thunderstorm, or learning how to work the stove.
Kids like my son are often judged by their mistakes. They are viewed through the lens of their worst moments.
Tonight, in this space and in this time, let us honor those whose accomplishments often go unseen.
Let us celebrate the quirky, the complicated, unique, the unsual.
The out-of-the-box thinkers, the game-changers, the tender-hearted.
I’ll go first.
This is Jack.
He is my son.
I am fiercely proud of him.
by 