[From my Facebook post today.]

So proud of my youngest son – and oh my heart. He was so worried I’d be upset with him for using my email address. I had to assure him I’m not upset, in fact I’m very, very proud, and that his problem solving was awesome.

My son is 18 now and working on his transition into adulthood. He has incredible support through our local independent living center and doing the things that need to get done – like get his California ID and so on so he can volunteer and get a job.

He was very excited that we finally got the paperwork he needs to do this – and he was very instrumental to keep us on point for the next steps, and important dates that needed to be remembered. When I say we, I mean us, his immediate family.

So once he learned he had all the information he needed, the first thing he did was go online and registered to vote. Yes, my baby boy went online and registered to vote. On. His. Own. He had guidance on the process earlier through his person at the ILS, and that evening was able to successfully register.

Only one thing – it wouldn’t accept his email address. So he had to do some problem solving and he used my email address and it was accepted. This resolution gave him great anxiety — he tried to reach me through text messaging with his concerns and even call me through the messenger to confirm this was OK – but I wasn’t reachable at that time. His grandma assured him it would be OK and that I wasn’t going to be upset about it.

It wasn’t until the next morning, time for the school rounds of pick-up and drop-off for his sister, that I found out about his worries and was able to reassure him using my email address was awesome. He seemed very relieved and his worries released. I wished I’d seen his message earlier and been able to communicate and ease his anxiety far sooner.

I told him this: In the years I’ve done advocacy work and used this email address to communicate with others on this activism, this was the best single-use of this email address ever. Ever. And I’m so happy he was able to use it when he had to solve a problem.

My youngest Autistic son is now a registered voter. He has a voice and a vote. What better reason could there ever be to use that email? My mama’s heart is massively proud and overflowing with love.

Oh, and that email address? @ InternationalBadassActivists – Yup, my son is amazing and a badass activist now too. 🙂 ❤

#AutisticsVote ❤ ❤ ❤

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