"Yes my brother Kobe is Autistic. But it does not make him stupid. Yes he has behaviors that seem strange but that does not make him strange. Yes my brother has Autism, but that doesn't define him as a person. Kobe is smart, Kobe is caring, Kobe is unique, Kobe is Kobe. I wouldn't want him any other way. I think being raised around an Autistic has made my family the people they are today. We look at people and we do not judge, because we understand that not everybody is the same. We look at Special Needs people and we do not see them as less than, we see them as people. We learned people are more than what they are diagnosed with. Being raised around an Autistic we learned unconditional love, and we learned the uniqueness in the world. And we learned how to stand up for people who cannot stand up for themselves .We learned a lot of things. And I don't think any of us would change it because of than the lessons we have learned being raised around an Autistic"

That is something that I posted on my Facebook almost a year ago. And those words are so true and so filled with love and compassion for my older brother.

My older brother Kobe is on the Autism Spectrum, he is considered mid-functioning because he has some communication skills (He has ecophilia so he only repeats things). Over the last few years, we have worked really hard to get him to communicate on his own and very slowly but surely he is.

1. Unconditional Love

My brother Kobe has taught me a lot of lessons in life, lessons I don't think I would have learned otherwise. He taught me what unconditional love is because I love him and I know he loves me no matter what.

2. Stick up for those who can't stick up for themselves

3. Happiness

He taught me that you can make any moment happy with just a simple thing.

4. Strength is not the absence of weakness

He has taught me that even the strongest people have moments of breaking down. And he taught me many more things, and he continues to teach me valuable life lessons.

My brother Kobe hasn't only taught me valuable lessons.

My father had this to say on Facebook almost a year ago:

"I don't blame your children for staring at my son and his behavior. I also do appreciate your attempts to get them not to. It's just heartbreaking though because he can see it, and does not like it.. he's weird, but he's not stupid." And in asking him recently he had this to say, "That's easy, he's taught me how to see the world through the eyes of innocence. How to appreciate the simplest of things. He's taught me how to get out of myself and empathize with another person, and to put their needs ahead of my own. He's taught me not to take life too seriously. But most of all, Kobe has taught me to embrace myself as I am, quirky and weird, uncool and irrational. We don't have to fit into society's mold. We are awesome!'

In asking my older brother, Jerrad, he had this to say about what Kobe taught him, "That anything in this world can be overcome with the right guiding hands."

In asking my twin sister she had this to say, "To view life in a different perspective. Though many see the glass as half empty or half full, to view it as just a glass. The showing of empathy in a way not otherwise known. To show empathy even when others don't or are incapable of doing so."

In asking my brother Jacob (who is my Kobe's one on one aid at school and lives with him) he has this to say, "Patience, very much so, sacrifice, compassion, the importance of spreading awareness of something that is more serious than made out to be, brotherhood, real unconditional love, how to cope with depression and more stress than you think you can handle, how to raise somebody, self-discipline and restraint when it's most difficult, heartbreak."

My older brother is one of the main reasons I am a cross-cultural studies major. The person he is and the lessons he has taught me has put the desire on my heart to help special needs children and teenagers bot just here in the United States but all over the world. He has helped me to see that everyone deserves a voice, even those who cannot speak for themselves.

Aspects of my brother Kobe have helped me to clearly see aspects of God. My brother's unconditional love has helped me to see God's unconditional love and that I don't have to try and be something I am not for God to love me. My brother's forgiveness reminds me how God forgives us no matter what we do. My brother having joy in the simple things reminds me that all I need is God to be able to find joy. My brother reminds me often that I do not have to try and fit into society's mold and that it is perfectly okay to be the unique person God created me to be.

So remember this:

Not everyone is the same. God has created us to be unique. Not to judge others. You don't always know the entire story. You never have to pretend to be something you aren't. You never have to fit into society's mold. Find joy in the simple things. Life never has to be as complicated as we make it.