April and Autism Awareness

Hope everyone had a great Easter Sunday and a fun day today.  It is April 1, which means the start of a special month for me:  It is Autism Awareness Month, the month were we do our best to support those who are a part of the Autism spectrum.  It hits close to me, as many know, because I have Asperger's Syndrome, or High-Functioning Autism.  Last year, I posted a video on my Facebook Timeline about a former MLB player who has two sons with Asperger's.  I would like everyone to watch it (even if you have watched it before), as it is very important to learn about the situations people with Asperger's have to deal with.  Follow the link:  http://msn.foxsports.com/video?videoid=b01b3910-5409-4c33-9367-5925b64a127c&src=v5:share:sharepermalink:uuids&from=sharepermalink

But this month is for everyone who is affected by Autism and not just Asperger's Syndrome.  I've only been concerned about my disability, but for anyone interested in learning about other forms of Autism or just learning how to help those on the spectrum, visit www.autismspeaks.org.  Also, because of my condition, I am not as social outside of my house than I am, so I may not see most of my friends when I do go out, but that does not mean that I want to keep myself away from you all.  So if you would like to have a conversation, the best way to do that is to follow me on twitter (@theploofer) or get in touch with me on Facebook.  That way, I can get in touch with many of you through social media.  Thank you in advance and I hope to hear from a lot of you real soon.

Finally, I watched a special documentary on the 30-year anniversary of the greatest Cinderella teams in College Basketball history:  Survive and Advance.  The film was about the 1983 North Carolina State Wolfpack squad, led by Jim Valvano, who won nine straight "must win" games to become national champions.  I recommend you all to watch that film if you can...it's a great documentary about a great group of people.  In 1993, "Jimmy V" was at the end of his fight with terminal cancer, but was at the first ever ESPY awards and delivered one of the most enthusiastic speeches of all time.  I will share the entire speech to all of you another time, but I want to leave you by sharing a quote from that speech that I hope all of you can understand:

"To me, there are three things we all should do every day. ... Number one is laugh. You should laugh every day. Number two is think. You should spend some time in thought. Number three is, you should have your emotions moved to tears, could be happiness or joy. But think about it. If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that's a full day. That's a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you're going to have something special."
-- Jim Valvano