An Alternative Life Perspective

Hi everyone! I hope you all are doing well and had a great week. Today I want to talk the life perspective growing up with Cate has given me, which I think many other families can relate to.

In today's society, you are expected to get up early, go to school or work for 8 hours, exercise for 1-2, eat healthy, spend time with your family, have a clean house, maintain the beauty standard, and we are expected to do this every single day on repeat. Everything around us moves so fast and life has become a race: who graduates first, who gets married and has kids first, who gets a job first, etc. It feels like everything is swirling and spinning around you so fast, but Cate has taught me to just slow down.

Cate has taught me that life is about the little things and to appreciate what someone can do vs. what someone can not do. Cate has taught me that something as small as a laugh or a smile are victories. I have learned that I need to focus on what other can do rather than what they can't, and even the same thing goes for myself. I look for the little things in life and I appreciate and recognize things that most would overlook. I celebrate the moments where Cate even just looked at me and smiled or pressed her talker button. I treasure someone smiling at me on the running trail or someone holding the door for me at Wawa. Cate has shown me that the little things are the big things. Life is flying by and looking for the little things has made me so much more grounded and appreciative of the present.

Cate has taught my entire family what it is like to define your own normal. Our life is not society's norm, and I would not want it any other way because the way I look at the world is so unique. People think that having a sibling with special needs is sad and something that should make you feel bad, but it is not. You are provided with this unique way of life and are given an alternative way to look at the world. If Cate did not have special needs, I would be a completely different person. She has made me into the person I am today because of the lessons she has taught me.

The way I look at life is completely credited to Cate. She has taught me that the little things are the big things, and that ability is always before disability. As many challenges and obstacles I had to deal with growing up with Cate, the life perspective she has given me outweighs everything, and I love her for it.

--Alex

PS. Even as I read this out loud to my mom, Cate was giving me a look over her shoulder that said, damn right I told you that. The little things :)