The Christianville Spirit: The Completion is Just The Beginning

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Encourages

January 27, 2016-TCS # 483

So, My Readers! I am going to Tell You a Story, but In a Different Way than You are Expecting. You are Expecting Details of What I am about to Mention, but We are not going that way. So, You Know that saying, “We Don’t Meet People by Accident, They are Meant to Cross Our Path for a Reason” and That is So True. It is Only by Destiny, I like to say. It is Funny how after 21 Years of Knowing Lynee in Some Odd-and-End Way, I finally met a Part of Lynee’s Family. Yes, I was Impressed with Jona, She would be a Very Good Friend. This Meeting also, to say the least, changed me. Well, Actually It changed all of us, My Mom, Myself, Jona, and Lynee’s Entire Family. Funny How that happens isn’t it? You See, In Everyone’s Lifetime, There are People and Expectations that completely change Our Life. Some Changes are Simple, Miss Bachman (My Teacher from Elementary School, hehe! Yet another Untold Story!) taught me a lot of Things including a Fun Way to do Math, known as Multiplication Rhyming and Touch Math; Miss James (Another Elementary School Teacher, She deserves ALOT of Credit) She thought Me how to Write, as well as Many Others that I probably should mention in Another Newsletter. But, Some People who Change Your Life are More Deep and Meaningful. There is also The Expectations that Changes Your Life, Sometimes You go into a Situation, sort of like a Movie. That is a Good Way to Explain This. Here is an Example. Sometimes, If You will, You watch a Preview (or in This Case, The Preview is in Your Mind) and You Think either, “Oh, That may not be a Good Movie” or “That looks like a Good Movie!” Sometimes, The Good Looking Preview is not always a Good Movie and Sometimes, It is a Good Movie. Sometimes, You see what You think is a Good Movie and It ends up being a Terrible Movie. On The Flip Side, What May not be a Good Movie, turns out to be The Best Movie You have Ever Seen. Sort of like What I felt after seeing Disney/Pixar’s Inside Out.  So, With that said, The Idea of Meeting Lynee’s Family, in My Head, was a “Movie” that I was a bit Curious and Not-Sure-At-The-Same-Time, If I wanted to see that “Movie” or not. I had an Idea of What The Meeting would go like as well as The Stories that would be Exchanged just because of My Point-Of-View of Everything with Lynee. The Truth is, though Everyone, No Matter how hard They try, They have that Curiosity but, also a Pre-Thought Notion of How Something will go. So, To Say The Least, Meeting Jona was like seeing Inside Out, I did not expect it to be such a Good Movie but, It Actually was a Great Movie. And, that is on Both Sides, I am pretty sure, She had the Same Feeling about The Movie She was going to see. I don’t think of It too often, but People do tell me. With Me having PTLS, New PTLS Family Members come to see My “Movie” and They are not sure, It could be Great or Not-So-Great but, They take a Chance either way and They come to find, that Yes, My “Movie” is better than They had Hoped. All in all, I Guess It is all about Perspective, and The Want, as well as Curiosity to want to Meet New People because You never know Where the Track (or “Movie”) may take you. The Point is to Just Do It! I did and I look forward to a Long Friendship with Jona and Family.

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. You never what could happen in Life. Go see that “Movie”.

The Christianville Spirit: Completion of An Untold Story

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Encourages

January 20, 2016-TCS # 482

Gather Around My Readers! Gather round’! For I am going to Tell You A Great Untold Story of My Life. Now, To tell you The Truth, The First Part of This Story at this Point is not really “Untold” but, For Alot of People now reading This Newsletter, It is. But, It is not about that. This Time, My Readers and Friends, This Story actually has What I now refer to as A Completion of This Story. Now, The Way I tell Stories is not always conventional, which can get me in Trouble sometimes, Because I want to tell the Current Side of The Story, but then I feel the need to Tell The Background Story and then, that has a Back-Background Story, You get The Idea! Next Thing, You know I end up Losing Attention because The Story goes too Long and People often have either Limited Attention Span or Limited Time, None The Less, Onward with My Story. I am sure that You have seen me mention about a Girl named Lynee. My Veteran Readers know this already, but It gets Good I promise you! I am going to use a Re-Run with a Few Tweaks of This Story to make sure that I don’t forget anything. 

As You Remember, Lynee was a Girl back in Elementary School that I had the BIGGEST Crush on. I like to say that it was The First Major Crush of My Life. But, More than that, Lynee and I were Very Good Friends. We hung out at School, We played Together (or at least I think), But Most Importantly, We understood each other. We were Friends back in 4th Grade, If You can believe that! Because I did not know how to Handle Crushes, Whether You should call them or not, or Just see Them in School. I was not as Social as I am now. I remember once that I snuck open the Elementary School Phone Book just out of Curiosity to see her number and Where She Lived. My Childhood Friends, The Herricks and Barsis, always lightly picked on me about My Crush on Lynee. “Lynee, Lynee, Lynee!” they would say and It made me blush. I fell pretty hard for her, in a Child’s Mind like Mine. I think it came from the Fact that You know Someone is nuts about Someone Else when You mention that Person’s Name and You just Can’t stop Smiling (or Blushing). So, Where is The “Untold Story”? Well, This is Part of It. After 4th Grade, Lynee only stayed through 5th Grade for a Short Time and then had to Move Away for some reason. I was pretty upset about Her moving away, Thinking that I would never see her again...But, To My Surprise! I saw her again in High School, in 10th Grade, 11 Years Ago. I was so Excited that She was back! Little did I know, that it would be The Last Time I saw her. Now, When I think of This Story, It makes me Cringe a bit in The Way that I handled It. But, Here It goes! So, I was sitting in An Aqua Science Classroom and The Teacher was doing Role Call. The Teacher called My Name and I said, “Here.” and, then The Moment that changed it all, The Teacher said, “Lynee”, followed by a Voice in The Back saying, “Here”. I was shocked! I thought, Lynee? Doesn’t that sound Familiar. It took a Moment to Register in My Head and then, I flipped out inside My Head, thinking, “Lynee! I knew Her back in Elementary School! I had the Biggest Crush on Her” I turn around and sure enough, There She was. I had to Look Back Several Times to Realize that It, Indeed, Was Her. It was Crazy because The Last Time I saw Her she had to Move Away and I was Very Sad that She left. And, At this Time, She was Grown Up too, Very Different from The Last Time I saw her but, Still as Beautiful. It took several days for Me to walk up to her and Tell her who I was. Each Day I would see her, I would be too nervous to talk to Her. But, The Whole Crush Thing along with The OCD Obsessions came back too. I did have a Second Childhood Friend that sat behind me, Hayley. Hayley was a little easier to Re-Introduce Myself to. One Day, The Teacher told Us that we had a Little bit of a “Free Period”. This was My Chance, I Thought. So, I got up the Nerve to go talk to Her. “Hi, Lynee” I said Nervously, “I’m Christian.” “That’s Great” She said. Probably thinking I meant, Christian like The Religion. I Said, “It’s Me, Christian. You Know, Elementary School!” Memories on Her Side flooded back, She got excited “Oh My Gosh!, Christian!” and then, We hugged. We reminisced for a while about How both of us where doing and To My Surprise, She told me that when She first Saw Me, She too thought, “Wait a Minute, Is that Christian?!”. I then, told her that I had the Biggest Crush on Her back in Elementary School. Now, This Part gets a little blurry and Sometimes with Good Reason because It is Cringing, thinking about it. I could have sworn that after I said that, I walked away a Short Second to go back to My Chair and She called me back. She asked if I would like to go on a Date with Her. I thought, “Whoa! I’ve never been asked out before!” I, Of Course, was a bit curious as to Why. She told me that She too had Feelings for Me, She too had a Crush on Me back in Elementary School. Now, At This Time in My Life, Socially, I did not know how to handle someone asking me out. And, I told her that I would ask My Mom if It was Okay. Then, I said, “Well, I’m sure she wouldn’t mind” and She WAS Going to give me Her Phone Number to call her but, I of course, told her that I would call her, Referring back to that, “Elementary School Phone Book” segment of The Story. After That, I forgot to Call Her but, I think I told My Mom about it. After That, She didn’t show up in That Classroom. Hayley did though but, Lynee didn’t. I wondered what happened to Her. the Teachers could not tell me Where She Went because of Privacy Laws. I was Sad that I didn’t see her anymore. Later down the Road, In December of 2010, in Looking around Facebook for My Childhood Friends, I wondered to Myself, “I wonder what Lynee is up to Now?”, I tried looking at Facebook, but In these Days, You have to Know Their First and Last Name, and Possibly Their Middle Name or Nickname. In School, Unless You asked You only knew Their First and Last Name. I checked Myspace too, I remember that She had One. After Searching Everywhere I could think of on The Internet for Her, I came upon a Very Sad Search Result, It was an Obituary. I had found out that She passed away in May 2008 and I found out 2 Years after She had Passed Away. At The Time, When I found out, I had Remembered that A Lot of People did Death Hoaxes (like what gets passed around on Facebook) and I Say The Following, Respectfully, I thought It was a Joke and I really hope that It was! I could not imagine Her being gone. Problem was, I did not know what She currently looked like. I asked My Mom about it and She said that Yes, It was Lynee. I was Shocked! I wonder about it now, if Just Maybe, I was One of The Good Parts of Her Life and in an Honest Truth, I hope I was. About a Year or so, After I found out about Lynee’s “Homecoming”, I felt The Need to Write a Letter to Lynee’s Family telling them that I was Sorry for Their Loss as well as Explaining The Background Story of How I knew Lynee. So, Here is The More Current Part of This “Untold Story” and This is Where It gets into The Untold Segment. So, Last February, I decided that I wanted a More Current Picture of Lynee, The Only One I had was a Very Old One of Her way back in Elementary School. So, My Mom and I tried looking for How to Contact her Family. My Mom found A Lady named Jona (I have mentioned her a Few Times) Who was Lynee’s Older Sister. We found that She knew a Photographer that We knew. A Connection, Destiny! My Mom introduced Herself using that as well as Again, The Background Story of How I knew Lynee. Needless to Say, I have been talking to Her on and off for The Past Year and I figured that After a Year of Knowing Her, I would think that Lynee would want us to Meet, hence The Goal of The Year. Well, I am Happy to say that This Weekend, We are actually going to meet Jona. Oh and The Letter that I wrote to Them, They had Read It and They Cherish It Deeply! When I found that They did get My Letter, It took a Minute to Collect in My Head and When I realized it, that gave me Chills. With That, We can say that My Untold Story of Lynee will be Completed! The End. All in all, You never know what might happen if You reach out and Talk to Someone that Is a Part of Your Life Story and, Jona will now and forever be Part of My Story.

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. Sometimes People walk in Your Life to Spark Your Heart and Remain as Angels with You Forever.

The Christianville Spirit: Dents in Independence

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Encourages

January 13, 2016-TCS # 481

So, My Readers, I have been Watching This Interesting Show that I want to Tell you about. When I was first told about This Show, I was told that It was a Documentary about People with Down Syndrome. Thinking that It would be a Documentary, sort of like that of Catfish, I thought it would be a Sad Look at Those who Lived with Down Syndrome, but It actually was not. You See, It actually was a Reality/Documentary Show about The Day-to-Day Lives of Young Adults with Down Syndrome. It was Very Interesting to watch and See some of The Similarities that They have in Terms of Morals and Values, Not so much in Physical or Developmental versus Those with PTLS. Before This, I always thought that Down Syndrome Adults were completely different than Us PTLSers. In Other Words, I thought Down Syndrome was one thing and PTLS was another. It is only in The Sense of Genetics that it is in and Health Issues are Just different. But, In The General Sense, They are like us. I saw a lot of Common Themes, The Guys wanted to Get Married and have Girlfriends, While The Girls wanted more of a Baby and Getting Married. Hmm, just like PTLSers. They do have struggles like with Jobs, Irrational Fears, and of Course, The Biggest One, Independence. Watching This Show really made me realize all the similarities us Special Adults have, We are generally Happy People, and that We all struggle with Wanting Our Dreams to come true, but Don’t Realize The Toll (In My Head, I picture a Toll Booth that does not always have Passes to Get Through) to Get to Their Dream or To What They want in Life. In My Case, I want a Job that is Geared toward My Interest, which is Geography, All while having a Moderate Speed-but-Predictable Style of Work. Like The Down Syndrome Young Adults, I do want to Find My Soulmate and Get Married (Not sure about Proposing and Wedding with My Anxiety though!), I hope to Live in a Nice Place with My Soulmate, Near My Mom and Brother, The Smith Family, and Some of My PTLS Family as Well. But, The Toll to pay, or at least I would believe is Independence or At Least, Some Independence. I mentioned about This in My New Years Newsletter and I thought that I would mention about that. You See, Independence to Me, I need Enough that I can do some things on My Own, should anything happen to My Mom; I also need it for My Own Benefit. So, that Brings to What I call, “The Dents”, What are The Biggest Dents in My Independence? Other than My Anxiety about it, that plays a Big Part in it. The Biggest Dent, I would say, has to be Grooming and I struggle with it a lot. Shaving is a Big One! You See, Due to My Motor Skills and Lack of 3D, It is Hard to correlate My Hands with What I see in The Mirror, It is in Reverse which confuses me. It is like Shaving in Literal Reverse. I can cover the Top Half of My Face on My Own (from Sideburns-Chin-Sideburns) with a Bit of Patience, but The Bottom Part, Not so much. It bugs me to Shave The Bottom (South of Chin to Adam’s Apple) because It feels funny to me, It hurts a bit but, not in a Painful Way, if that makes sense). Usually when I am at Home, I shave the Top part and What I can of The Bottom, If We are going out, then I need My Mom to shave it. Like I mentioned Last Week, There is usually Two Options, either to Let It Grow into a Beard or Remove it via Laser Hair Removal, which is Very Painful and has to be Done more than Just Once. I would Love to just be put to Sleep and then, Do It so I don’t feel it. Now, Of Course, We have tried Every Razor that I have thought of, From Electric to Straight. I tried shaving once and that was with a Straight-One Blade Razor at My Dad’s Mom’s (We called her “Bella”) House once. I tried it, it got stuck, I panicked, and Ripped A Little Skin off on My Face. It was not Pretty, A little Funny to describe it now though! The Next Dent is My Nose and Top Half of My Face, for Some Reason and I have never mentioned this to Anyone before, but My Face gets really oily and My Skin starts peeling, It looks like Chafing, sort of. We try to put to Lotion on It or Wipe it with a Cleaning Pad, and It works sometimes but, Usually My Face ends up looking Red and The Peeling starts again. It is Weird and Very Hard to Explain. Leaving The Dent of Grooming Section, the Next Dent is Driving/Transportation. You See, My Reaction Response Time is Not that Fast and Therefore, I would be a Danger to those on The Road as well as Those on The Road would be a Danger to Me. If We lived in Smaller Town where People knew who I was, then, Maybe I could Consider Driving. Many PTLSers have Attempted Driving but, For Their Safety, They had to stop. I can say that I do know somewhat of How to Drive. I have Driven a Go-Cart that We had in My Childhood, I even drove My Brother’s Car in Our Neighborhood once and That was, to say the least, Interesting. So, I would need someone to help me with Getting Me Places. One of Things in The Show that One of The Young Adults struggled with, was Counting Money and That is Not Easy for Me either. It seems like People with Special Needs across The Board, are Very Literal, so Math is not a Strong-suit, unless That is, It is Applied to Something in Their Life, that is relatable. Geography and Numerology are Relatable to Me.  I would need a Bit of Help with figuring that out. As Far as Grocery Shopping goes, I can figure out What Item is in What isle it is in, but in terms of Complicated Things like Expiration Dates and The Cost comparison in Ounces versus The Total Cost, I would need help with. The Next Dent is Cooking, for The Most Part I can make Meals with a Microwave or Crockpot. But, The Oven or Stove, scares me that I will burn Myself and I don’t want that. I would need to Someone to help me make Prepared Meals to put in The Freezer. Other than That, I am pretty Independent. I can Dress Myself, Feed Myself, Do The Laundry, Clean The House, and Take Care of the Dogs. All in all, I might have a Few Dents but, I am generally Independent.

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. Born This Way is Not only a TV Show, but It is How I see Life.  

The Christianville Spirit: Happy New Year 2016

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Encourages

January 6, 2016-TCS # 480

Welcome Back, My Readers! I would Love to Welcome You Back to Another Excitingly, Beyond Awesome, Great Year of Inspirational, Thought-Provoking, and Yes, Encouraging Newsletters to Come. But, First, Happy New Year and Welcome to 2016! Wow! Can You believe that? 2016! It seemed like it was just yesterday that It was 2010! I am hoping that 2016 will be The Best Year Ever and I hope that Yours is too. I Believe that 2016 will be an Encouraging Year! By The Way, The Credit for The Year’s Tagline is PTLS Member, Roselle Hollard because She claims that My Newsletters are Encouraging to Her as well as Many PTLS Members. So, This Year, I believe is about Goals. So, that comes with a Question. Oh Boy! My PTLS “Brother”, Tyler would say. Don’t Worry, I ask The Best Questions. So, What are Your Goals for 2016? Is It to Get an Awesomely Paying Job? Have Kids, Maybe? Get Married? The List goes on. Here are My Goals for 2016, So other than Hoping for a Great US Presidential Election (Because We need a Leader President!) and Hoping that The 2016 Olympics in Rio De Janeiro goes well (They didn’t choose The BEST Place to have it). The Water is Very Trashy and Crime is Big down there. But, It is The First Olympics to held in South America. Other than that, I know that I say this Every Year, but I hope to finally meet My Soulmate, “The One”, and Have True Love. I am at an Age where I should start thinking of Settling Down because At This Age, Typical People are starting to find The Love of Their Life. It is a Good Thing and Not-so-Good thing but, Thank God that People are getting Married later in Life, like Late 20s into 30’s. I, being Old-Fashioned, Think that One should be with The Love of Their Life by at least 29 or 30. Plus, The Sooner that happens, then We can have lots of Adventures. Have Fun, While You are Young! Most People will say, but What They mean by “Having Fun” is not My Version of Having Fun. To Me, It means to do Stupid Things while You are Single, Mess with Women’s Hearts (to put it lightly) and with a 50/50 Chance of PTLS, that is NOT Going to happen!; Do Things that are either Immature or Something so Stupid that it might Kill You. But, I am not into that kind of thing. I plan on Having Fun, once I am settled. By That I Mean, Me and My Wife will go on Lots of Trips and Adventures. See The World, Marvel at Things, and Enjoy Time Together. I do hope to Travel more and with My PTLS Family growing and Everyone wanting Us to come to Said Place to have a Gathering/Mini-Conference is bound to happen more often after The Result of Stockholm. It is not Solid yet, but We will be going to Stockholm again This Year. I do Truly hope to Meet more Members of My PTLS Family that I have not met before or have been waiting to Meet (or They have been waiting to meet me). This Year in My Newsletter Goals, I am going to continue to work on My Newsletter Site and a Bonus here, This Year, I will get to 500 Newsletters and THAT is a Milestone of It’s Own. In October, That will be when I really started Writing. You See, My Very First Newsletter was in November of 2005 and then, I did not write again until October of 2006. It is Weird, I know! After October, I started Writing more often. In Personal Goals, I hope to become a bit more Independent and hopefully, Get Rid of The Hair on My Face, then I don’t have to shave it. But, I have heard that It is VERY Painful via Laser Hair Removal, Wish that There was another way to do it because The Option of growing a Beard would bother me. But, The Shaving is probably The Biggest Dent in My Independence. Other than that, I would need a bit of Help Grocery Shopping, I can separate My Laundry but, The Complicated Settings on The Washer and Dryer are of Concern. I would need someone to get me Places unless I use The Bus or Uber, but that is a Little Risky. I really hope that My Mom and Brother find The Love of Their Lives too. My Mom needs a Understanding and Loving Guy. One Person told My Mom that She will meet that Person This Year! My Brother needs Someone who will Encourage Him (See What I did There!) to do His Art and Stuff like that. Finally, Like I said in Last Week’s Newsletter, I do hope to meet Lynee’s Sister, Jona This Year. We met Last Year online but, Have not in Person yet and I am pretty sure that Lynee herself would want that for Us. So, Those are My Goals, My New Years Resolution, If You Will. All in all, I hope that You have a Good Year as well as I do.

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. Happy New Year, It will be Encouraging!