Day 19 of Guest Blogging for TSC Awareness

By guest blogger Josh Krischel  (Dwight, Illinois)

Life is full of lessons, as well as people who teach us these lessons, instructors if you will. When reading that first sentence you might have thought of an elder who has given you some words of wisdom, or maybe a code of life your parents always told you to live by. However, when I think of the most important lessons in my life, I don’t think of my grandparents, or my dad teaching me how to mow the lawn. Nor do I think of a single thing I’ve ever learned in school. What I do think of is the much more important things I’ve learned and continue to learn from my two absolutely amazing brothers who have TSC, Adin (13) and Mason (17). Adin and Mason are continuously reminding me to be patient, tolerant, and above all things to just enjoy the many little gifts I receive from God each day. Every morning before school, when I begin freaking out because of my intense issues with being late to events, I just slow down and take a look at one of my brothers and it just calms me down and puts a big smile on my face. Every time a situation such as that arises it always reminds me that I would never, ever, under any circumstances wish for my brothers to be any different from the way they are.

I’ll start off with a quick intro into the life of Josh Krischel. I went to Dwight Grade School for 8 years, and am currently enrolled as a freshman at good old Dwight Township High School(DTHS).  I try to, and am fairly successful at, keeping a 4.0 GPA. I play football and am part of the scholastic bowl and mathletes teams, and I also throw shot and disc for the track team. As well as trying to balance my life between all these activities and school work, just like any other teenager, I also get a bit of chaos thrown into the mix. However a bit hectic at times, I suppose chaos is a bit of a strong word. Considering I don’t know what I would do with my life if it wasn’t how it is today.

Adin and Mason both have very distinct characteristics that make them both a joy to be around. Adin, who is the higher functioning of the two, loves nature, our puppy Keegan, the weather, and always carries around a watch that has little penguins on it that he constantly looks at about every five minutes just to give us the time. Then there’s Mason who is the most joyful person to be around and always seems to have a huge smile on his face.

Now, earlier I threw out a few things I have learned from my brothers and I’d like to talk about those and how they relate to our everyday life, the first of those being patience. I’ve learned over these past 14 years that it really isn’t worth it to get mad over all the little aggravating things in life. Just like the old saying, “there’s no use in crying over spilled milk,” which in our house quite honestly happens more than it probably does in the average household. For the simple reason that Mason, who likes to fill his glass of milk to the very brim, doesn’t have the best reflexes, so he spills quite often. So, every time this happens he just goes to the drawer in our kitchen that we keep the rags in, grabs one, and just cleans up his mess without even a single peep. After watching this happen I often sit there and just think, if my autistic brother, who is very easily upset, can be patient like that then why can’t I? The answer to that question is because I can!! Often I mess something up and begin to get frustrated, and then I just think about Mason, and his ability to keep his eyes dry over spilled milk.

Then there is tolerance, which is something I’ve learned from both my brothers. Often when we go out to eat or just have to go to store shopping, my brothers somehow find some way to make me embarrassed or to cause a scene. Well at least that’s how I used to see it. Now, whenever we are out and about and one of the two begins to say some phrase they’ve heard from a movie or something over and over, I just often let them keep on doing it and continue whatever it is I’m doing. However, in the past year or so, I occasionally even find myself chuckling at them, or even joining in quoting Finding Nemo, Cars, or The Wiggles. As far as that topic goes, having the two of them in my life has allowed me to be very tolerant for all sorts of people, whether it is race, religion, or even just personality. I constantly, day after day, am hearing people in the hallways of DTHS, using the “R” word to call someone stupid. I understand when in the moment of using this word these people don’t realize how offensive it is to some people, that or they just don’t care, but regardless, 99% of the time I will stop whatever I’m doing to call the person out on it for the simple reason that it isn’t ok. Just like how it isn’t ok to call someone a “homo” or a “faggot,” it is just as offensive to anyone who cares for someone with special needs to hear the “R” word.

Lastly, the most important lesson my brothers have taught me is to enjoy the little things in life. In our dining room we have a big bay window overlooking a section of our backyard, and every morning Adin will just sit there and look out at the trees and the flowers. However, one morning he seemed very spacey looking out the window. At first I thought he might be having a seizure, so I went over and sat down and asked if he was ok. He responded with just a simple yes.  I then asked him what he was looking at and he said, “I’m just looking at that tree that God made.” Then without a single ounce of hesitation I smiled and looked out the window and sat there for a good five minutes just looking at a plain old tree. This, later in the day, made me realize that I take a lot of little things for granted, and that I need to just slow down sometimes and just take a big whiff of some roses.

If I haven’t made it clear enough already, I love both of my wonderful TSC brothers more than words can describe, and I wouldn’t trade them for anything in the whole entire world. However there is one extremely wonderful, amazing, caring, and loving woman I know that has TSC, and that would be my beautiful mother. She has also helped the cause by molding me into the, not to brag, wonderful young man that I am today (never said I was modest). She has taught me how to be a loving and compassionate person. She also easily undergoes more stress than the CEO of a multimillion dollar company, but somehow she manages to keep us boys in line, and babysit her two-year-old nephew. She is probably the strongest woman anyone could ever have the pleasure of meeting and is probably the biggest inspiration in my life.

So, if there is one positive to look for out of all the troubles of TSC, it would be that TSC carriers are by far the best teachers a person could possibly ever have.

See Josh’s mom’s post here.