Thread by @MrLiveWrite

How a deaf, autistic kid defied the system to live to his full potential and follow his dream

( + 4 lessons to learn)

>>>Thread <<<<

This is about me

It put my soul into this, so before moving on, I'd greatly appreciate if you go back to the first tweet and retweet it

Let's get into it

I was born with rough beginnings....

I was a late birth, and I came out with a crushed skull...

At 9 months, I couldn't hold my own head up or crawl...

Luckily for me, a specialist separated my overlapping plates making my skull an almost normal shape

I didn't start speaking until 3...

After some tests, the doctors realised I was 90% deaf.

I was living in my own silent world.

The doctors gave me grommets, which were used temporarily to support my hearing while my ears developed.

I remember when one of the grommets came out of my ear, I asked my mum "Where's Wallace?" (she always reminds me of this moment)

Thanks to my slow development, I got labelled as autistic

In the UK, where I where I grew up, mentally labelled kids go to a 'special' school...

A 'special' school is filled with mentally labelled kids who only have interaction with other labelled kids

It's like being labelled crazy and being put in a mental asylum - you're forever considered crazy and society will treat you differently

My mum was having none of it

She fought for me to go to a normal school and interact in a normal school environment
Up pointing index I'm so glad she did this

She had some help to do this. As she explained to me in this message below

Autistic people tend to struggle to communicate ideas they have

I could do maths easily at school. But I could never explain it to my teacher.

Apart from that, I was a normal kid who made friends and just wanted to have fun

By the time I was a teen, I was no long labelled as autistic and my hearing had fully developed

My mum had set me free

She once said to me "if you had gone to a 'special' school, you would have thought that was your world and the way you are meant to be"

Now I'm teaching English as my main job, taught Mandarin Chinese on the side, and help people improve their twitter content

I've lived in China for 7 years and will continue my dream next year: travelling the world

That's a complete turn around from my rough beginnings

4 lessons to learn from this:
1. Your past does not dictate your future

I could have played victim
I could have used my labels as excuses

I didn’t...

I focused on now and the future and made the most of it

2. When society gives you a label, it's a form of control

You are your own person, with your own story. You are free to be who you want to be.

Don't let labels restrict you.

3. The people who you interact with impact who you turn into

This is also true as an adult:
•If you're around successful people, you'll pick up their success tendencies and habits.
•If you are around negative people, you'll be negative too.

Be selective with your company

4. Appreciate what you're parents have done for you

There are times you may disagree or argue with your parents. But, be aware no one is perfect.

Your parents did a lot of things for you that you probably aren't aware of (I wasn't aware of some of this until I was older)

If you've read this far I really appreciate it

Just remember, you can live a life of abundance and no label can hold you back

If you enjoyed this thread:
follow @MrLiveWrite for more content
retweet the first tweet

https://twitter.com/MrLiveWrite/status/1456568907301625857

P.s. i just noticed an annoying mistake in this thread

Up point index = 👆

This is a moment I wish twitter had an edit button 😅