Brown Side Of Autism

One thing Delaney and I enjoy doing together is going out and trying different foods. This time, we decided to switch things up and try Mediterranean food at Habibi, and I was definitely curious to see what I was going to think. For my meal, I ordered a beef wrap. I can’t remember the exact name of it, but I remember the important part—it was good!  😂  The beef had a lot of flavor, and everything inside the wrap came together really well. Delaney and I also shared some fries, and I have to give Habibi credit for those because the seasoning tasted homemade. They weren’t just regular fries with some salt thrown on them. The seasoning gave them their own flavor and made them even better. We also had some chicken and Mediterranean rice. Now, when I first looked at the rice, I thought,  Hold on, this looks like Spanish rice!   😂  But nope—it was Mediterranean rice. It had that similar look to me, but it went really well with the chicken and gave me another chance t...

Recently, President Donald Trump once again brought autism into the national conversation while discussing childhood vaccines. He suggested that giving children smaller doses and separating vaccines could help bring down what he described as the “epidemic” of autism. As an autistic person and autism advocate, hearing autism continuously described this way is frustrating. I was diagnosed with autism when I was three years old. I was nonverbal when I was younger. I had challenges growing up, and even today there are things I experience differently because I am autistic. But I am not an epidemic. Autistic children are not an epidemic. Autistic adults are not an epidemic. We are people . Whenever politicians talk about autism primarily as something that needs to be stopped, prevented, or reduced, I wonder where autistic people fit into that conversation. Where are our voices? Where are our experiences? Where is the discussion about making our lives better right now? Instead of cons...

Today, my mom and I went to lunch together after my doctor’s appointment at Hamot for a ct scan for my chest, which was supposed to be today but ended up getting rescheduled for next Wednesday. So, my mom and I had ended up going to McDonald’s for lunch after. As for my routine, I used to go get Tim Hortons for a vanilla ice coffee and some Timbits, but that was last year. This year, I had switched things up, so what I used to get at McDonald’s was a Big Mac meal with a large fry and a Sprite, but today I got something different. Today, I had gotten an original crispy chicken sandwich with a medium fry and a Dragon Berry Red Bull energy boost drink, which was really good and I’d give it a 10 out of 10. The chicken sandwich was really good. I thought somebody’s auntie was back there cooking. 🧑‍🍳 It tasted so good it made me fall asleep eating it in the car! 😂👌🏽 Thebuns were toasted and grilled and buttered up. 🆙   David Gillespie  

One of the things we value here at The Brown Side of Autism is giving a platform to stories that help people better understand autism, disabilities, and the families who advocate every day for their loved ones. Today, I want to highlight someone I connected with through TikTok, Marissa Sorocco , and her book, Just Like You . Marissa is the mother of two children with special needs, Madison and Tyler. Her experiences as a mother have given her a firsthand look at both the beauty of raising children with disabilities and the challenges that can come when society does not fully understand or accept people who are different. Her daughter Madison, who is nonverbal, was one of the biggest inspirations behind Just Like You . Through the book, Marissa shares an important message: having a disability does not make someone less deserving of friendship, inclusion, understanding, or respect. Looking Beyond a Disability Something that stood out to me about Marissa’s story is her desire to chal...

Now here’s Part 2! 🤣 On Saturday, August 16th—see, it wasn’t even my birthday yet—I was celebrating all weekend like I had just dropped my first album. 😅 I was acting like I had just gone to the Super Bowl or something! From Thursday to Sunday, I was already getting myself together. I bought the Bow Wow sponge brush, twisted my hair, and even bought some blonde hair dye because I told my mom and my brothers that I was about to be on my Chris Brown ish. 🤣 I didn’t get to dye it blonde yet because I want to wait a little while until the brown grows out and my natural color comes back more. Or I might just go ahead and do it. Who knows? 😂 But enough about that. Let’s get down to what happened. My mom and I poured some tequila and wine as we celebrated another year of life and me being blessed to see 29 this year. Mind you, I was still tipsy from the day before! 😭 After a few laughs and a few sips, I told my mom, “I’m feeling it already again.” She said, “Really?” I said, “Ye...

  On my birthday on August 17th, I celebrated another year of being here on this Earth—alive and breathing, and feeling younger and healthier nowadays. Older women have been messing with me on Instagram! They won’t leave me alone. 😔 I can’t get wifed up yet. They need to know how to cook rice like my momma first! 😂 But anyways, the first thing I did to celebrate was on July 26th. I went out to eat with my family at Perkins for lunch. I had pancakes, eggs, hash browns, and some coffee. My stepdad had hash browns, bacon, sausage, and pancakes, while my mom had broccoli cheddar soup and a turkey club sandwich. Then, on the 15th, my brother, his girlfriend, and I went to Celebrate Erie to see Arrested Development, a hip-hop group formed in Atlanta in 1988. They’re known for promoting a spiritual, Afrocentric, and socially conscious alternative to the hardcore gangsta rap genre. They performed some newer songs along with some older ones before playing some of their biggest hit...

As you might have noticed or seen me doing on Facebook recently for about a month or two, I’ve been engaging in “freestyling” or rapping on my social media platforms. I’ve titled it “motivational uses only” because I’m trying to inspire people to put down their guns and contribute to a more positive and peaceful world. The recent events that have unfolded in our city and around the globe have had a detrimental impact on our children and our community as a whole. To be honest, the music I used to create was quite negative until my mom encouraged me to change it in a positive direction. Growing up in the church, I recently recorded a church rap titled “Spend That Praise.” It’s a remix of a popular song that everyone knows on TikTok by Yung Miami. This song has garnered some positive views and I hope it reaches out to other people in the church community. My mom and my older cousin loved it, and even one of my church deacons who supports me expressed his appreciation for the positive ener...

  On July 26th, my mom and stepdad went out for breakfast at Perkins. One of those days, we went to Bob Evans and Applebee’s. On Thursdays, we go out on our outings, which is my stepdad’s favorite. We usually go out together to eat or do something fun during the day, like get ice cream or, if we were hungry, we would get a sandwich or something from McDonald’s or DoorDash for a quick bite for dinner. I’m very excited to go outside with my family because I get to be in the community and experience and explore different areas and people. It’s been really fun and interesting to see different places and cultures, like I have seen in master barbers that I never thought of seeing in real life and only on television. I think it’s important for someone on the spectrum to go out and be in the environment and see what the world is like. At least try to meet some good people and make some good friends along the way. As much as I’m trying to do it, there are as many more fun places to go to an...

  Yesterday, me mom, and my stepdad   Went on a family outing to the peninsula.  We drove around the pavilion and went to Beach 8, where my mom parked in the dirt road. My stepdad and I got out of the car and went to the beach to sightsee while we were driving around the bayfront to our destination. We ended up seeing some wildlife, but only just some geese 🪿 drinking water from the pond beside us. We were hoping for more animals like rabbits or frogs 🐸 to come along the way, but they weren’t really there this time. It was a lot of fun, and it was a lot of people that were down there at the beach today. Some were riding around in some rented e-bikes, and some were on some boats and canoes 🛶 paddling or doing their daily walks/jogs getting their exercise in. Then I saw the lifeguard riding around on the 4-wheeler, which I thought was pretty cool. Then my stepdad was sightseeing with his big binoculars that look like fishbowls. I mean, it looks like he could see through ...

  On Saturday, August 1, my brother David and I went to Cinemark Tinseltown to watch  Spider-Man: Brand New Day . As soon as we walked in, the line for popcorn and candy was packed with people, which showed just how excited everyone was to see the movie. I’ll be the first to say it—this movie was an 11/10. It was absolutely amazing! Before we went into the theater, the staff handed everyone a pair of 3D glasses. Watching the movie in 3D made the experience even better because it felt like the characters were jumping right off the screen. One of my favorite moments was when Peter Parker was talking to Jean (I think that was her name). During the scene, he hugged her and turned his back to protect her by taking a bullet. That was a powerful moment. Right before that, there was an incredible fight scene where Spider-Man was battling the clan, and it was easily my favorite action sequence in the movie. The choreography, visuals, and 3D effects made it even more exciting to watch. ...