{"id":121144,"date":"2020-01-21T11:06:31","date_gmt":"2020-01-21T16:06:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bestbuddies.org\/?p=121144"},"modified":"2020-02-25T16:03:41","modified_gmt":"2020-02-25T21:03:41","slug":"best-buddies-fights-loneliness-and-lengthens-life-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bestbuddies.org\/josiahjonesoped","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Stop Saying The R-word&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wpb-content-wrapper\">[vc_row][vc_column][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-121147\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bestbuddies.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/1c92919a-d289-4923-81fd-c6626c01eedf.sized-1000x1000-1.jpg\" alt=\"Josiah Jones headshot\" width=\"1000\" height=\"522\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bestbuddies.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/1c92919a-d289-4923-81fd-c6626c01eedf.sized-1000x1000-1.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/www.bestbuddies.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/1c92919a-d289-4923-81fd-c6626c01eedf.sized-1000x1000-1-150x78.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/>[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]&#8221;I have autism. It\u2019s a very mild form of autism, but enough to have had a large portion of my early childhood spent in special education. I always remember moving back and forth between the room in my elementary school where the special education occurred and the classroom where all the other \u201cnormal\u201d kids were. And a lot of times when I was with a lot of different people, I always felt embarrassed. Not as much for things I did, but for who I am. I felt embarrassed for being. I remember distinctly how much effort I felt I had to apply to understand social situations and condition myself and some of my quirks just to not need intensive special education anymore. But even today, I still feel like even if I live life how I normally have, I will always know that I\u2019m different.<br \/>\n&#8230;<br \/>\nI understand, at least in the interactions between friends that I overhear, people often use the word as a synonym for \u201cstupid\u201d or \u201cdumb\u201d or \u201cslow\u201d or to describe actions that aren\u2019t the smartest and likening it to the level of someone not neurotypical&#8230;But it hasn\u2019t become desensitized to me, and using the word always takes me back to the idea that I\u2019m different.<br \/>\n&#8230;<br \/>\nFirst, as I said earlier, I have a very mild case of autism, so I don\u2019t want to try and make any of my personal experiences with autism a universal representation of everybody with ASD. It\u2019s a spectrum. \u00a0And secondly, as someone that is on this spectrum, I encourage you, \u00a0please stop using the r-word.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Sincerely,<\/p>\n<p>Josiah Jones<\/p>\n<a href=\"ricethresher.org\/article\/2020\/01\/stop-saying-the-r-word-sincerely-someone-on-the-spectrum?fbclid=IwAR0JeZXdyfco0rddXY-YjK9rj4Q2W5Fg0rKfkKObc6H6aUAua3Jb6whJExE\" class=\"hb-button hb-default hb-default-button no-three-d\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"-webkit-border-radius: 2px;-moz-border-radius: 2px;border-radius: 2px;\">Read the full article<\/a>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;&#8230;As someone that is on this spectrum, I encourage you,  please stop using the r-word.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":81,"featured_media":121147,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"blog-news-single-post.php","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[82],"tags":[1835,160,704,1834],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.4 - 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