My name is Lita, and  I have had a great opportunity to grow up with a 14 year old Autistic sister whose name is Tara. She was diagnosed with epilepsy at the age of six months, at the age of 2 with a learning disorder, and at the age of 8 with Asperger's, an Autism spectrum disorder.
           

Being her older sister has had its ups and downs and sometimes patience; you have to be able to align your mental process on to the level that her’s is on. When I  help my 9 year old brother with homework I also have to align my thinking process with his so I can relate to his thinking process, so I can find out how to explain things in a way he can understand. That is what I have to with Tara as well, due to how she learns things. When we are trying to show Tara how to do a certain task we first need to show her how to do it a couple of times. For example, while doing chores I will have Tara with me, and depending on how focused she is I will have her tell me what steps to take; after several tries she can usually do the steps on her own. Although Tara went to the same school that I did until I started my freshman yearl, she was not able to learn the same things that I did because she was autistic and spent most of her time in a life skills class with other students that later became some of her best friends.

When I was going to school with Tara whether it was in elementary school or middle school, there was always a group of people who would make fun of Tara .An even larger group of people who were her best friends no matter what grade they were in. They would always say “Tara has such a great personality and is so brave, I wish I could be like her”, so being her big sister it always made me happy when people would accept Tara for who she is. I remember one day one of Tara’s teachers walked up to me and told me that there were some kids in school that were making fun of her, so when the group of boys were all eating lunch, I slammed my hand on the table they were sitting at and loudly said “you guys are a bunch of inconsiderate boys who don’t care about anyone except for yourselves and each other!”. One of the boys shouted “hey, who are you?”, so I said “I am the older sister of Tara the girl you’re   talking smack about”. And it was at that very moment that I realized I wasn't as quiet as I thought I was, as the whole cafeteria was silent. With all eyes on me and my heart on the floor, I made my way out the door, And when I left so did most of the people who adored my sister.

As one women by the Name of Teri Garr a famous american Actress and Singer once stated “ When you hear the word ‘Disabled,’ people immediately think about people who can't walk or talk or do everything that people take for granted. Now, I take nothing for granted. But I find the real disability is people who can't find joy in life and are bitter.” I can relate to this quote as well as Tara because all of the dislikes and rude comments go through me first. I strongly believe that if you are a person that will “ Dislike” someone because of his/her disability that you spend some time to think about how bad they feel and how much criticism they get and will continue to get throughout their lives.