June cover story: Aaron -proud to be me!

“One night, I was looking online for a dating app and something fun to do…. but after joining get2gether, I found myself a community!”

Hello there, how are you all doing? For those who don’t know me by now, my name is Aaron. I’m 19 years old and I have multiple disabilities which I will go on to talk a bit more later in this blog. I have been a member of get2gether since July 2020. One night, I was looking online for a dating app and something fun to do but I found myself a community. It is mental to think that I made a lot of good friends but I have not yet met anybody in person due to Covid-19.

As I said at the start of this blog, I have multiple disabilities. My main disability is cerebral palsy which is a physical disability affecting people differently but for me personally it affects muscles all over my body. They don’t work very well so I struggle to walk and use my hands properly. My eyesight is affected by a time delay from what I see to what my brain processes. My throat and voice muscles don’t work very well so I can’t communicate by speech but it won’t stop me from chatting for Scotland lol! 

I am autistic which for me means I like my routines. I like having dinner at 5pm on the dot every night or saying I love you 3 times to my mum when I go to bed. I don’t like changes at all and sometimes I find new situations hard to deal with.

I also have a moderate learning disability. I was diagnosed at 16 years old which was late because I mimic people and act like I know things. Actually I didn’t and it worried me that I was becoming more vulnerable. My learning disability means I’m not good at recognising money or reading a long book. It also means I struggle with long tasks but I find when it gets broken down into lots of little tasks then I can manage just fine. 

This month is June which is Pride month and a chance to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community all over the world. Pride dated back to the Stonewall Riots in 1969 which was a protest by members of the LGBTQ+ community.  I am a supporter of LGBTQ+ community because I personally believe that love is love no matter who it is and if you feel comfortable in yourself please do not ever let anybody put you down about it. 

June is also Learning Disability Pride which is a week of celebrations across Britain. It’s a celebration of being proud of who we are! In the past years I have come to learn and see that everybody has something to bring to society.

The #BecomingVisible campaign highlights the strong leadership of disabled people. I am very proud to be an autistic and physical/learning disabled man.