I have learned that I am much more powerful than I have ever dreamed.
When I was growing up in the world of autism, I thought my life was nothing more than being told what to do. My highest lifelong dream was to be lucky enough to do whatever I wished whenever I wanted to, just as others did.
Living with my parents well beyond the age when others left home, I didn’t seem to any find places to call my own. Time after time, I sat and watched my friends load up on bedspreads and make their way into the world.
If you live with people who own the living space, they make the rules.
The wonder of traveling opened my mind to how others beg for a glimpse of America, land of great choice and power. I’m fully aware that we may be a young country, limited in great wonders of the world, only having a few hundred years of monuments to our freedom.
Yet we bring more light to the power of choice than any place on Earth. I can vote and make my voice heard better than in those lands that make others both openly and secretly long for the power inherent in our lovely and troubled country.
This Fourth of July, hold these truths in your heart and mind: our flag mostly symbolizes a land where we possess the greatest power to turn the tide of mankind.
And if I ever finally get my way, we will.
