Today is my first anniversary at Steemit and I am taking this opportunity to re-introduce my myself. This may seem a bit odd but I am doing this for two reasons. My first introduction was too brief. Secondly, during my one year at Steemit, I have grown as a person and so I am introducing to some extend a new me.

My Journey Towards Positivity

I just celebrated my 56th birthday in May and one of the most profound life changing event in my life was the diagnosis of my son Jonathan as autistic and my journey with him. Jonathan was born in 1990, a year after my marriage with Roselind. We named him Jonathan, meaning gift a from God as we did not plan for him. Jonathan was born a normal baby and for the first four years of his life he developed normally and met all his development milestones. He was active and talkative and was able to speak both English and Mandarin. In 1993, Roselind continued to do her Masters at Malaya University in Kuala Lumpur and Jonathan was with me in Kuching. Jonathan was cared by a babysitter who happened to our neighbour. For that one year, I looked after Jonathan when I got back from work and during the weekends. In 1994, Roselind was able to in Kuching most of the time as she did her thesis from home.

The year 1995 was a turbulent year and a turning point for us. By now Roselind has finished her Masters and around this time we discovered that she was pregnant. Since Jonathan was 5 years then, we decided that it was time for him to go to kindergarten. Jonathan was very close to the babysitter who cared for him since birth. Therefore he had a hard time adjusting to kindergarten. At the same time, being the eldest and only child, Jonathan was very jealous that he would have a sibling who would compete with him for our attention. During this time, Jonathan’s behaviour changed drastically. He became difficult to manage and would often throw tantrums. When Victoria was born in December, Jonathan became even more jealous and more difficult to manage.

Jonathan was in and out of countless nurseries, playschools and kindergartens. His hyperactive behaviour was unacceptable and he was expelled from one place to another. He could stay between 3 days to a month at the most. No one had a clue as to what was happening to him. From a talkative brilliant boy, he gradually deteriorated to a point when he was not able to say a single word. He would get on an exercise bicycle and chanted gibberish language which we could not understand. Well meaning friends and relatives tried to offer explanations for his odd behaviour; some saying that he was possessed by spirits. We took him to various doctors who could not even tell what was actually wrong with him.
Between 1995 to 1997, my wife and I were going round in circles, trying to find what was happening to Jonathan. We had initially thought that Jonathan was having adjustment problems to having go to kindergarten and being a brother to Victoria. We knew then that something was seriously wrong with Jonathan but despite all our efforts we could not figure out what. That was one of my lowest point in my life, wondering and worrying what is wrong with Jonathan. In a way, my wife and I felt that we had lost Jonathan, the bright and talkative boy.

In 1997, Jonathan was sent for hearing tests in Kuala Lumpur. We had to fly him there. It was on one of these visits that we met a mother who recommended us to see a child psychologist. She diagnosed him as having late onset of autism, something which we were never exposed to. We went on the internet and researched on autism. At the same time, we got in touch with other parents with autistic children. Together with two other parents, Roselind and I founded the Sarawak Autistic Association in 1998 when Jonathan was 8 years old. The pro-tem committee meet in our house, Roselind was the founding President, I was the founding Vice-President, the other two husband and wife teams were the founding secretary and vice-secretary as well the founding treasurer and vice-treasurer respectively. We pooled our financial resources together and recruited our first teacher Mina who happened to be Jonathan’s kindergarten teacher. Of all the kindergartens that we sent to Mina was the only teacher who was able to manage Jonathan. Mina was sent for training at the National Autistic Society Of Malaysia (NASOM) in Kuala Lumpur. After her training, Mina taught 3 autistic kids at the house of one of the parents. The Association had started out from scratch, with practically zero resources but since then it has grown by leaps and bounds. Now the Association (it’s name has been changed to Kuching Autistic Association) has its own two buildings and more than 80 children with autism received their education and therapies there.

The educational block of the Association
Image Source

Jonathan diagnosis made it easier for me and Roselind to work with and help Jonathan. Through Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA), Jonathan was able to re-gain part of his speech. Now he can speak simple sentences although his vocabulary is rather limited and a lot of times he still does not speak clearly. Jonathan still goes to the Kuching Autistic Association for vocational training. Our journey with him continues as autism is a lifelong disability. Presently we are working with him to produce paintings.

It is not easy to get Jonathan to sit still but we hope that he will do more art work

The most important lesson that I have learned is that we have no control over what life throws at us. But we all have a choice on how we choose to respond to the situation that life has put us. We can moan and groan, feel sorry ourselves and complain that life is not fair. Or can we pick ourselves and ask how we can help ourselves and others who are in the same situation. That to me is one of the most powerful lesson that I have learnt. I need to appreciate the silver lining in every cloud and this is my journey to positivity. So for those of you who are facing tough times now, know that you can act to make your life better.

Spreading Positivity One Post At A Time

When I first joined Steemit one year ago, I choose the username @positivesteem as I had a positive outlook towards life. However I wasn’t too sure what I should write about. I wrote some poems, my experiences with my autistic son and my experiences at Steemit. I looked at what topics are trending and to some extend tried to imitate some of the more popular authors here. Upon reflection, I discovered that I enjoyed writing positive posts, posts that can inspire and motivate others and posts that are able to give hope to others. That defines who I am as a person and thus this has become my identity, branding and much more than that my calling. Therefore I am the motivational blogger and my mission here is to spread positivity one post at a time. I sincerely hope that my posts will able to inspire and motivate others. In that way, I will have achieve to some extend my mission.

Even as I am on my Trans-Mongolia Rail Adventure, I am distributing my Steemit name card to whoever I met. I tried to share with time what Steemit is all about and how they can benefit by joining Steemit. Therefore this is not only a holiday for me but a Steemit trip as well. Now I have more than 1,000 followers and my journey at Steemit has been very enjoyable because of the supportive community here.

At the largest freshwater lake in the world, Lake Baikal, Siberia

Do check out my previous posts

Trans-Mongolia Rail Adventure:Exploring The Beautiful Flower City Of Irkutsk, Siberia
The Trans-Mongolia Rail Adventure: Horseback Riding In The Wilderness of Mongolia
If Life Is About Memories, What Kind Of Memories Are You Building
Off The Beaten Track: Exploring The Hutongs Of Beijing

Spreading positivity one post at a time.
Charles

If you like my writing please up-vote, share and comment. Please help me to spread the message of positivity and support on Steemit by resteeming this post.