The Most Life Changing Advice I Ever Recieved

Sometimes, it is a good thing to look back at our past and see what lessons we have been taught. Today, I am going to discuss friendship. Growing up, friendship was a vague concept. I didn't really have friends much of my life. To be honest, people could treat me however they wanted, and if they gave me attention, then they were my friend.

This was problematic, of course. One of my "friends" from elementary school was a bully. He would punch me in the stomach during recess and tell me that he was doing this to help make me stronger. I believed his every word, and so I thought of him as my friend.

Finally, in high school, one of my teachers noticed a "friend" that was taking advantage of me. By this time, I was becoming a little more mature and started to understand people a little better, so I knew they were disrespectful, but I thought it was okay to be treated that way. I felt that most people were mean, and it was normal to have people walk all over.

Anyway, my teacher pulled me aside and told me that this "friend" did not respect me. The teacher told me of many, many things this student was doing that was just wrong, and then my teacher said to me the words that would forever alter my life: "Choose your friends wisely," she said.

From that point on, I realized that it was not normal for people to treat me with disrespect. I thought it was normal, but because my teacher told me that was unacceptable, I knew to not allow people like that in my life. Even though, I'm autistic, I am careful who I let be my friend. Personally, I would rather be alone and not have any friends than to have someone that treats me like trash.

I know of many autistic people who have abusive friends or are in abusive relationships. We either want the attention, don't understand people, or think what is happening is perfectly normal and this is how people behave, or it's a combination of all three. Today, I am here to tell you, that many great people exist. I know because I have met them.

Today, my words of advice are to "choose your friends wisely." Don't put up with crap!

Thank you for reading today's blog entry. I wish all of you a most awesome day of awesomeness!