Ms. R is a 7th-grade Math Teacher. She teaches 2–3 classes. She loves to read, travel, and teach. But what is she like on a deeper, more personal level?

Everyone has challenges in life, especially as a child. We don‘t fully understand life, what is fair and what‘s not, and why things are how they are. As a young child, Ms. R particularly struggled with this as she grew up with a sister 2 years younger than her who (unknown to both of them at the time)  would remain a kid forever.

Ms. R was only 8 when her little sister Rose was diagnosed with high–functioning Autism at the age of 6. Rose struggled to communicate, follow directions, and react appropriately when something didn‘t go her way. Because of this at a very young age, Ms. R was forced to be more mature than most her age. She constantly had to adjust her behavior and compromise her needs so Rose would not get upset. As a young child Ms. R didn‘t understand why she had to put Rose’s needs and wants before her own, she just knew that it didn‘t feel very fair.

Everyone at some point in their lives has to sacrifice what they want for the good of other people. Sometimes you do it willingly and it makes you feel good about yourself; other times you do it because someone forced you to. Being forced to sacrifice what you want for someone else when you don‘t want to is not a good feeling but it happens a lot in life, especially when you grow up with siblings. This is because you are constantly with each other living, sleeping, eating, and playing and it is impossible not to have a conflict of interest when multiple people are constantly around each other. However, as humans, our brains help us reason through arguments and keep our emotions in check which helps man small conflicts not morph into giant fights. So what would happen if our brain couldn‘t do that? How would the surrounding people be impacted?

Because Rose’s Autism caused her to struggle with handling her emotions properly when she didn‘t get her way her family was constantly adjusting themselves to prevent her emotions from spiraling. Being a young child during this Ms. R was already having to adjust and compromise because disorder aside sibling dynamics are still sibling dynamics, and they require compromise and sacrifice. But because of Rose’s Autism, these dynamics escalated quite a bit. From a young age, Ms.R thought that this wasn‘t fair, and even as she grew to understand that it was not Rose’s fault she still thought it to be unfair. It wasn‘t until after high school when she began to realize, “how privileged [she] was to not to have the same struggles as [her] sister.” The importance of Ms. R’s story is that you should never take for granted what you have and what you can do (even the simple things) because many people would kill to be able to do them.