Thankful

I was sitting in my Epidemiology class, just jotting down notes, minding my own business. The professor started telling a story (for reasons that escape me) about her first job after college. The first place she ended up working at was at a mental hospital, where she worked with severely autistic children. Her description of them was that they needed to wear helmets because they would bang their heads against the wall.

Story time: When I was a kid (think ages one, or two), I used to bang my head against things. And people around my mom told her to get me tested for autism. She said  that she wasn't willing to pay such a large amount of money to find out if I had a disease that couldn't even be cured.

What would have happened if I had been tested? What would have happened if I was born thirty years earlier? Twenty years? Ten? I don't know for sure. I still wonder if I'll go get tested when I'm forty or something, and find out that I'm autistic. Wouldn't that be wild?


But for now I'm just thankful.

Thankful that I'm able to function at a capable level.

Thankful that I have the privilege to be attending such a great school.

Thankful that I have such great friends.

Thankful that I can have fun.

Thankful that I can be happy.

Thankful to be alive.

Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.   -1 Thessalonians 5:16-18