LOVEING THE LITTLE THINGS

Written by: Caili Misner

      Throughout my twenty years living here on this earth, I have learned many lessons either through my own experiences or by watching the experiences of others. But from all the lessons I have learned, one lesson stands above the rest and that is to love the little things in life. This lesson began in the year 2005, during this year my family was going through something, that literally took the world we knew and flipped it on its head or at least  it felt like that any way.

 That year of 2005, my family had found out that my sweet little five year old sister Megan had AUTISM. So many questions rushed through our minds on what this thing called autism was and how it would affect my sister Megan growing up. Well my family learned fast and hard on what autism was, what we learned and heard from our excessive research and from what experts or doctors had to say is that my sister Megan could have difficulties in social interaction with people; trouble with verbal communication which would result in fits and tantrums if she was not understood or did not get her way. Plus that she would have repetitive behaviors, no sense of humor, and a lack of empathy.

There were times when I found my sisters autism to be quite noisy and very scary, to put this into perspective and have it in a way where it’s PG for you, my dear reader. When my sister would throw a fit, let’s just say that not all words were appropriate and lady like. But there was this one time while she was throwing a fit and yelled the most appropriate thing  and what it was I will never forget, she yelled  “Oh my darn it!”  When she throws fits, I either leave the room or put my headphones on. But sometimes it would get so noisy in fact that it sounded to me like a bunch of angry cats put in a metal trashcan that was rolled down a bumpy, rocky hill during a hail storm.

Other than my sister’s fits being very loud, how it looked was a different story. Cause every time my sister threw a fit, I  saw it as if she was an angry elephant on a rampage going through the busy streets of New York City and would hit anything or anyone that was in her way or in close distance of her. Now if there was an angry elephant going through the streets, it would make  total sense for the police force and animal control to block certain areas of the city so the elephant doesn’t hurt its self or others and to make sure it goes to a safe enclosure when it can be safe and have time to calm down. This is the same with my sister Megan, whenever she throws a fit she starts hitting everything and everyone in sight which can be a danger for her and others; my family has to work together as a team and usher my sister safely to her room so she can calm down.

  Other times I found my sisters autism to be very hilarious, because there would be times when she would say the most random silly things that it would make me laugh so hard that I couldn’t breathe sometimes. There was this time in my sister’s life where just about everything and everyone was a color, like she would randomly go up to people either in the store or when people came to visit us and she would ask them “Are you purple?”  There was also another time where my sister Megan had a fascination with baby dolls and every year on her birthday or Christmas, I would ask what she wanted and every year it was the same thing “I want baby doll” she would answer this so much in fact that now my sister has a total of 30 baby dolls.

There was also a time when my sister was trying to figure out what fat was and would ask my mom and me out loud in fact, if that man or woman was fat and we would either tell her that it wasn’t nice to say or we would just ignore her if she kept on repeating it. There would also be times when my sister Megan would copycat or parrot what I would say when I would be talking to my friends or mom and dad. In these moments when she would do that, I would tell her to just be quiet, mostly all she would do is just laugh very loudly at me and say “sissy want me to be quite, I’M TOO LOUD!”  Now, to think the doctors said she would have no sense of humor.

 There were some times I found her behaviors odd or just plain silly, like when my sister had a favorite movie she liked to watch, she would want to watch it over and over again. So much in fact, that I now know almost every line of every movie I ever watched with my sister.  Then there are the moments with my sister, that I cherish very deeply and those are the moments whenever were just lying on the couch quietly next to each other watching a show or when she gives me high fives and says “we rock” every time we score five stars on Rock-Band. When I look back at those moments in my life I began to laugh and think how irritated I would get when she wouldn’t be quiet, or behave like a normal sister should, then I stop and think about those moments when I really enjoy having her around and glad that she’s not normal.

What does the story of my sister being diagnosed with autism and me having to live with it, got to do with loving the little things in life you may ask when reading this? Well to put it simply for you. It’s this, besides the throwing of occasional noisy fits and the randomness of words that would come out of my sister Megan’s mouth. There were many things; small things that everyday people seem to take for granted sometimes that my sister didn’t know how to do. Like brushing teeth, eating with utensils, getting dressed by her-self. These are just to name a few on the list of little things.

My sister Megan, who is now a teenager, has made a lot of progress since the time she got diagnosed with autism.  There are the occasional fits, but they are not as bad as they used to be when she was little and sometimes I have to remind her to use her fork or spoon when eating. But all in all, my sister has grown to be quite the social butterfly and is the shining star at her school. Every day that I spend with my sister, is a day where I love the little things more and more. I am so proud that I get to live with an extraordinary person like my sister  and get to watch her grow  into the little lady that she is becoming today, because of  my sister I have learned to love the little things, not just in my sister’s life, but mine as well.