Chicken Soup for the Christian Teenage Soul by Jack Canfield

Author:Jack Canfield
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, book
ISBN: 978-1-4532-7694-5
Publisher: Chicken Soup for the Soul Publishing
Published: 2010-08-08T16:00:00+00:00

My Superhero

To love another person is to see the face of God.

Victor Hugo

Everyone has a hero—someone he admires, who has had an impact on his life. My brother, John, is my hero. He is the most compassionate, sweet and funny person I have ever met. John is also mentally retarded and has a developmental disability known as autism.

I used to be ashamed of John when I was little. When he first started talking, he had a hard time with pronunciation and understanding the meaning of words. He called me May-Me for most of my childhood because he could not pronounce Amy. As John grew older, his language ability gradually increased. I went from May-Me to Amy, and hammer burgers became hamburgers.

Now I rather enjoy John’s mispronunciations and mixing of phrases. For example, instead of “eagle-eyes,” John called himself “four-eyes” once, and rather than getting something “off his chest,” he prefers to get things “over his back.” Instead of people getting their ears boxed, John thinks people get books put on their ears.

When I was younger, I was embarrassed by John. He used to gallop around in stores talking to himself, flicking his ears and putting his hands in his mouth. He had a hard time swallowing and would have drool running down his face. John was very loud, and it seemed to me that he would always find the quietest moments to talk.

All I ever wanted was a normal brother. I would look at other brothers and sisters, see their relationships and turn green with envy. Why did my brother have to be so different? I was very self-conscious of what people thought. I felt as if the entire world was laughing at me because of the way John was acting. I was outraged at times that I could not have a normal brother.

John has changed significantly over the past eighteen years. As he grew older, he became social and adopted an upbeat and positive attitude. John began to see things for what they really are.

Most people feel sorry for John, and they feel as if they should be the one helping him. John, however, does not even see that he has a problem, only that there are problems out there that people need help with, and he wants to help. If my mentally handicapped brother can have so many problems of his own, overcome these problems as if they are nothing and want to help others, then surely I can overcome obstacles of my own.

The siblings of an autistic child can have many reactions to the amount of attention the autistic child receives. Some feel as if they are not receiving enough attention and may become superachievers to get their share. I hate to admit it, but I definitely fall into this category. I feel the need to excel in everything I do. I cannot help but think that this comes from having a disabled brother. I do not feel it comes so much from the need for attention, but instead from the need to do it because John cannot.

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