Autism Awareness Tidbit #16

The days before our wedding were a little stressful, as is true for anyone.  Genius that I am, I got married the day after my last day of school during my first year of teaching.  Epic.

During this time, my hubby and I were going to have his birthday dinner with his out of town relatives.  He parked the car, and we exited.  A woman got out of her car and the following conversation ensued:

WOMAN: I can't back out.

SCOTT and JOLYNN [look at each other, puzzled]: Excuse me?

WOMAN [seemingly more annoyed]: I can't get out!  You parked your car there, and I can't get out.

[Important note: We were in a parking space, as was she.  Our space was perpendicular to hers.  There was LOTS of room.]

SCOTT: Would you like me to back it out for you?

[SCOTT, seeing that this conversation would continue and realizing the peril OUR car was in, moves our car so WOMAN can get out.]

We went to dinner and shared our odd little escapade.  One of Scott's aunts then chimes in with "Oh honey, she might be sick."  Seriously? She was going to side with the woman who clearly should no longer have a licence (or maybe should not have had one ever)?  She's going to add to my wedding stress with a guilt trip? 

Now that I am a little older, I understand her need to be a buzzkill, as it was a funny story to share.  What she was saying was that in situations such as these, you might always be dealing with a person who is "all there."  There could be reasons for their actions or words.

That has stuck with me, particularly when it comes to kids and parents.  Case in point, the young man who just rode his bike ever so slowly in front of my moving automobile on the way out of Arby's drive through.  This was followed closely by the young man who rode his bike slowly across GE at Veteran's (one of the worst intersections in Bloomington-Normal) to go into the Walgreen's lot on a Saturday afternoon.  Both of these gentlemen made some seriously bad choices, but they were seemingly oblivious.  At one point in my life, yelling, sarcasm, and interesting facial expressions would have ensued.  But now, all I could think was, "Does he have something wrong with him?" or "Oh honey, he might be sick," to put it in southern Illinois terms.  Today's tidbit: please consider, when rushing to judgment over the actions some people make, there could be a backstory, like autism, that you may not be considering.  We need to treat everyone like they "might be sick."  The world would be a kinder place.