The Christianville Spirit
The Spirit that Keeps Giving
March (Marzo) 31st, 2021-TCS # 725
Hej, My Readers! In Case You are wondering, This is How You say Hello in One of My Favourite Languages, Swedish. In Sweden, When Greeting someone, You say it Twice. “Hej Hej” and Best of All, It is Pronounced like saying “Hey” twice.
You Know, I feel like I have been kind of Flaky with My Newsletter Releases lately. I write some Newsletter and then, I take off. Write some more and Take off. I feel like I have taken off many times since The Beginning of The Year. Then again, I have been coming down from Some Pretty Unprecedentedly High Anxiety. To Explain It in Short, Imagine that Your Worst Enemy hacked into Your Computer, Because You know that Your Body is like a Computer. They hacked your Email, Hacked all Your Passwords, Found all of Your Fears, and Then Downloaded Weakness-Detecting Viruses into The Computer creating Anxieties that would never Rationally Bother You because You enjoy Them, and then Release them. Yeah, That is what I have been through Since January. Unusual Panics, Increased Stimming, Intrusive Thoughts (I call them “Curiosities”) High, and Of Course, Eating in “Smidges” (in other words, Very Small Meals).
I laugh in The Back of My Mind now, when I see Weight Loss Commercials or Hear of People wanting to Loss Weight. I’ll tell ya how to Lose Weight! Add Every Anxiety You have and Add More Unknown Ones too! Eat in “Smidges” for about 2 Months. I guarantee that You will lose 20 Pounds quickly! Call it the “Very Anxious PTLSer Diet”. It works, Guaranteed! Oh and Then, Let’s Add a 3 Small Kidney Stones over Your Mom’s Big Birthday! Yeah! Now, We’re Talking!
Anyway, Regardless, I had My Mom and My Dear Friend, Deb to help me through All of This. I will tell you, It is Strange feeling calmer than I was but, Not Quite all the way better yet. Anyway, Enough about that!
Well, It looks like The Month of March (or “Marzo”, as I like to call It) is coming to a Close. This has been quite an Awesome PTLS Awareness Month! You Guys, My Sweet Awesome PTLS Family Members did a Brilliant Job at Spreading Awareness about Potocki-Lupski Syndrome. For That, I am Very Proud of You! Thank You from The Bottom of My Heart, It means a lot to Me.
Now, I am Sad to say that PTLS Month has come to It’s Yearly Close, but Remember that PTLS Awareness goes All Year Long! So Keep on wearing your Green Every Day, Every Week, All Year Long!
Anyway, on to This Week’s Newsletter! To Close PTLS Awareness Month, I am going to Re-Share a Newsletter that I added to My “Christianville Classics” List (It is on The Lower Right Corner of My Newsletter Site). I am Resharing This Newsletter because it is actually an Entirely Different Point of View. It is actually The View of Myself from My Loving Brother, Michael. PTLS Family Members, They don’t make it be known too much, but They do worry that How The Siblings of PTLSers feel about Being The Sibling of a PTLSer. I am here to tell you, My Brother views me Very Greatly, but You will have to read on to Find Out How! Without further a due, This is The Christianville Classic “My Brother’s View on Me”!
This Newsletter was Originally written on June 2oth of 2012 (Refer to Newsletter 305). Hope that You Enjoy what My Brother has to say!
So, Now that I have written Last Week on My View of My Brother and you enjoyed it. Well, now your really going to enjoy this! It’s the long-awaited Newsletter on how My Brother views me. This idea has been in My Head for a while before I finally decided to do it. My Mom and PTLS Family Members had always wondered about My Brother how My Brother felt about me having Special Needs and Having PTLS (or dup.17p11.2, as it used to be called). The idea came when one of the PTLS Members suggested that I should do a Newsletter on My Brother and his view of it all. I mean, considering that I mention him a lot in My Newsletters, people start to wonder about him and how he deals with it. It took a while at first, getting the nerve to ask him to do this, and even the idea of what questions do I ask? Because first off, I didn’t know what to ask him or even more unnerving, what would he say? So, I sent out a post on Facebook to PTLS Members on what questions they want answered and/or curious about and I got quite a few responses about what they want to know. After reading a couple questions, I thought, “Man, these are deep questions” and “I’m not sure if I really want to know about it or not.” So, then came, “How do I do this? A talk? Dictation to My Mom? or an Interview?” Well, long story short, I asked My Brother about it and he said, “We’ll do an interview” and finally, after a while of asking him (because both he and I kept forgetting or it wasn’t the right time of day,) He sat down to answer the questions. He finished it yesterday and it’s ready to go. First, I want to thank him and let him know I appreciate his honesty and willingness to do this. So, Get Ready Everyone cause here’s the interview. As a note: the Bolded Questions are from the PTLS Family Members and below it are Michael’s Responses. So, as they say in Television and Radio, Roll it!!!!!
TCS: When you were about 10-13 years old, can you tell us as a sibling how you felt when your bother had an aggressive outburst? Did you truly understand what was going on with him?
Michael: For as long as I have known him, which is practically my entire life, he has never had an aggressive outburst. For the most part if he ever got really upset he would get more emotional. He would work himself up and start crying. There would be the occasional times where he would raise his voice but nothing that could ever be put as an aggressive outburst. At that age I had already seen him do things like that before so I wasn’t to worried about it. I just figured that he was more sensitive to things then I was, I never really linked PTLS to his sensitivity. I also figured out by then he was extremely stubborn and if he didn’t want to do something, he would put up quite a fight. Which would also cause him to get upset.
TCS: How did having a sibling with PTLS effect your life both good and things that were difficult?
Michael: Well growing up, nobody knew what PTLS was including myself. I was told that my brother had special needs and I just took that as the literal sense. I never considered him special or different though. I treated him like my bother with no exceptions and restraints. Naturally I picked on him and gave him a hard time. The one thing that I did do growing up was take on the role of big brother. I looked out for him and tried to teach him things. Christian has also taught me a lot growing up with him. I learned from a young age that people in the world see things differently. There’s nothing wrong with looking at the world differently and having a sense of individuality. Everyone goes through highs and lows, it’s how you deal with the situation that makes the difference.
TCS: How do you deal with your peers asking questions about your brother?
Michael: Honestly, when I was younger I can’t really remember to many people asking about him. I think the main reason was that he was always pretty friendly to everyone. No one really could tell just by meeting him that he had special needs. After a while of getting to know him or seeing him then they might ask questions. I’m always proud to tell them what’s up. I just tell them that he has this rare chromosome duplication and he was forth to be diagnosed with it. After that, some people keep questioning and are really interested others just move on to the next order of business, whatever that might be.
TCS: PTLS kids need a lot of attention/ extra help. Were you ever envious of this?
Michael: Nope. If anything when I was younger I found it annoying and frustrating. Not that he was getting more attention then me or anything like that, it was just because I was ready to move on and progress while Christian was still trying to learn.
TCS: As a sibling was there a time say around preteen where you were embarrassed when you were out with the family?
Michael: Not really.
TCS: What did your mom do to help you understand Christians PTLS?
Michael: I think that the best thing for me was learning patients and acceptance. I was taught that not everyone learns the same way and each person is different. Some people require more training on particular topics. Really that advice goes for everyone and didn’t segregate my brother from other people. It didn’t hurt that my mom likes the medical field and could give me facts and explain information easier to me.
TCS: When did you realize Christian was different?
Michael: I don’t think there was really a point of epiphany where all of a sudden I knew he was different. Living with him and growing up together, you just kind of known as life. Its really the same as getting to know anyone else, you hang out with them enough you learn things about them. All it takes is some powers of observation.
TCS: Growing up, can you give some examples of things you showed him how to do/ taught him?
Michael: Ha ha ha!!! When I was seventeen or so I let Christian drive my car down the neighborhood street. That was exciting to say the least!! I taught him how to play video games and things like that. To recall everything I taught him would take some time. I just try my best to show him and explain to him anything that he has questions about and would like to learn about. His memory is pretty freaky. He can recall all sorts of random stuff. If others put in the effort and energy to teach him, he can learn anything.
TCS: Do you feel any angst or nervousness about being Christian’s guardian later in life?
Michael: I suppose so, it is kind of nerve racking. I’m not stressing out too much though. We get along great and for the most part he is pretty self-reliant. I am confident in my self and my abilities to overcome any obstacle that dares to stand in front of me. Ha ha ha! But for real, I have known about being his guardian for a long time now, so I’m mentally ready.
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So, I hope all of this helped to answer your questions on Siblings and My Brother. It was quite surprising to hear some of these because I didn’t expect it. Well, you know, I guess it’s like they say, “You’ll Never Know Until You Ask”, simple as that. This whole interview turned out to be more fun than I thought it was going to be, but then again, I didn’t know. I mean, you know, how much someone loves you but, sometimes, every now and then, you might be curious as to how much that person loves you. As for me, I know that My Brother loves me and understands me, and I love him so much for that. All in all, I say it a lot, but I’ll say it again, My Brother, Michael, is Awesome!
Hope You had a Great PTLS Awareness Month! Next Year is The 15th PTLS Awareness Month/Day. Be Ready!
Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. Be Seen in Green All Year Long!
