Latest / Corie Sheppard Podcast / Raising an Autistic Adult with Joy | Josie of Autistically Speaking | Corie Sheppard Podcast

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Raising an Autistic Adult with Joy | Josie of Autistically Speaking | Corie Sheppard Podcast · Corie Sheppard Podcast

• 0:01
  Corie: Welcome to the Cory Shepherd Podcast.
• 0:03
  Corie: My name is Cory Shepherd.
• 0:04
  Corie: Thanks for tuning in.
• 0:05
  Corie: Thanks to everybody who comes here every week and for the people who are new.
• 0:08
  Corie: You have a different set.
• 0:09
  Corie: How are we looking, David?
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_03: Always good.
• 0:12
  Corie: Yeah, these people just tell you anything you want to hear.
• 0:16
  Corie: Thanks to affordable imports.
• 0:17
  Corie: Yeah, always.
• 0:18
  Corie: Thanks to Affordable Imports.
• 0:20
  Corie: Always salute to Conrad and the team at Affordable Imports.
• 0:22
  Corie: Today I want to welcome to the show what I want to call a friendly show.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 0:25
  Corie: I have a long, long introduction, man.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: Go ahead, man.
• 0:28
  Corie: Let me tell you that we have Josie on the show today.
• 0:31
  Corie: And Josie is the first person I had who had reached out to me from social media to say that she likes the show and she's always available for advice and guidance on everything that we do.
• 0:39
  Corie: So welcome to the show.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for having me.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: How are you?
• 0:42
  Corie: How are you doing?
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: I am good.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: I'm happy to be here.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: I'm happy to be in warm, nice shouldn't be cool.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: So yes, I am happy to be home and I'm very, very excited to be here.
• 0:53
  Corie: Wait, when you say happy to be home, you're still called Trinidad?
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's absolutely home for me.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: All right, all right.
• 0:58
  Corie: So yeah, go on there and I was waiting for the absent the first time we're talking about.
• 1:04
  unknown: Really?
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: No, you're not going to get that from me.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: I am 100% Trini.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: But I hold on to every bit of accent that I can hold on to.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: Living living abroad for over 20 years.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: But who I am and who my culture is is very important to me.
• 1:22
  Corie: So I hold on to that.
• 1:23
  Corie: So brothers were in Maryland, knowledge.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: Maryland, yes.
• 1:27
  Corie: And that's where you moved to initially.
• 1:28
  Corie: Yes.
• 1:29
  Corie: Where in Trendati from?
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: I am from Sandy Grandy.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: You know, Grandi people, nice.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: So yes.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: We're cooting from, you know, we're treason from.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: And the list could go on and on.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: You know, sprunt, poser.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: Good things come from Sandy Grandy.
• 1:45
  Corie: We were thinking the other day of having a Sandy Grandy, a month dedicated to Sandy Grandi.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: Oh gosh.
• 1:50
  Corie: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:52
  Corie: Well, maybe you'll just pull it.
• 1:53
  Corie: We can hold this until the Grandy, because some of the people are called there, we're talking to it, or we're talking to some of the people there to come on.
• 1:59
  unknown: Oh, right, right.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: Come on.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: Grandi, yes, yes, yes.
• 2:02
  Corie: So one of the things I have to say that I appreciated when we first spoke was uh one of the one of the things that was real difficult for me was when we started this and the whole front facing thing, and now everybody knows we are, and that there's a little bit off-putting.
• 2:15
  Corie: But the negative comments, yeah.
• 2:17
  Corie: Like I started seeing people saying you're doing this and you're doing that, and we're doing the wrong and thing.
• 2:21
  Corie: And I always remember asking you like, how people deal with these things.
• 2:25
  Corie: And I was very, very surprised to hear that you get negative comments on your page.
• 2:29
  Corie: Yes, I do.
• 2:30
  Corie: And it's autistically speaking, is your page right?
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: Autistically speaking, where we all we have all, you know, just autism conversations.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I feel like regardless of how in life you try to move in a positive light, you always will have people ready to say something to you.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: But the difference with me, Corey, is that I respond.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: I make time for people like that.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: And and the reason is because, yes, my son has a voice, but he doesn't have a voice because he doesn't have the cognitive ability to understand if somebody's being mean or whatever.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: So listen, you have happy fingers, I will give it right back to you.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: I don't plead.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: And and the sad parts about it is mostly people from my country that is be like, yeah, that boy looks slow.
• 3:15
  Corie: And I said, But it's a country, Trinidad, Trinidad, yes.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, what is happening here?
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: But I do take the time though.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: It might be a give me about two hours, but I'm coming.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 3:27
  Corie: So the name of the page is autistically speaking.
• 3:29
  Corie: His son is DeAndre, right?
• 3:31
  Corie: We love DeAndre, okay.
• 3:33
  Corie: We love him.
• 3:34
  Corie: His energy and is it's so infectious.
• 3:36
  Corie: Yeah, it's almost like whatever he's talking about, or whatever he's doing.
• 3:40
  Corie: I just want to see.
• 3:40
  Corie: I just want to hear what's his perspective.
• 3:42
  Corie: Yeah, I find he's wild up my boy, and I don't like that too.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: I do.
• 3:46
  Corie: The man shaved the other day, wilding up the mind.
• 3:48
  Corie: I don't like it.
• 3:49
  Corie: I don't like it.
• 3:49
  Corie: I don't think he realized we're in charge in this equation.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: So we have we have some rules that we follow.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, Andre, when you go get your haircut, don't shave off your face because you have these little bumps.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: So apparently he went into the barbershop and tell the barber, I want to provoke my mom today.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: So from the moment I went in, he is like, can't catch his breath coming out of the barbershop.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, nah.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: So he had planned to do it.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: So this time around, I drop before I drop him off.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: I said, let me tell you something.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: If I pull up and I see you looking like a Siamese scat, you're going to walk home.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: So he was like just dying with laughter.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: But those are the moments I live for.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: You know, because we don't live a typical life.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you know, DeAndre is 20, he's about to be 21.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: At this stage in a typical person's life, you're looking at the end of college coming up.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: I don't get to experience those milestones.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm like, I'm going to create my own milestones with my son.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: And if that means having a conversation and having him bust out with laughter tears, those are the moments.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they were.
• 4:57
  Corie: It's special to see.
• 4:58
  Corie: It's special to see.
• 4:59
  Corie: It's special to see.
• 5:00
  Corie: So just to step back to it, what what made you decide to take it to social media?
• 5:04
  Corie: Yeah.
• 5:04
  Corie: Because I had I had one guest here, uh Glenn Niles.
• 5:08
  Corie: He's the head of the Dunk Syndrome Family Network, and he deals with people all different types of uh well, children at first, he found out his son was born a Dung syndrome.
• 5:17
  Corie: Yeah.
• 5:17
  Corie: And just talking about some of the same things you're saying, like the milestones are different and the adjustments that he made.
• 5:22
  Corie: But I always wonder, and what one of the things that he talks about is like people hide their children.
• 5:26
  Corie: Yeah.
• 5:26
  Corie: And he heard with children with autism as well.
• 5:28
  Corie: What made you decide that you're doing it on social media?
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: So I did my hide my son for the first beginning of his diagnosis.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: I felt ashamed.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it's it's more that culture playing in my head.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: Oh gosh, boy.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: Like she goes all the way up there and she makes a retarded child or a bebe child or however.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: So that kept playing in my mind for a long time.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: Until I said, you know what?
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: Forget it.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: I I have to live.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: So social media came about.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: DeAndre wanted to go on.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: He all his friends had Facebook and TikTok and all of that.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I said to him, I said, When you finish with high school, I'm gonna get you social media.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: I said, but I have to run the page.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: And he agreed.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: And day after high school, he came to me and he said, He don't forget, mommy.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: Remember you on this day, let's just say April 28th, you you promised me something.
• 6:23
  Corie: So straight going to the date.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: Going straight to the date.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: Like he could sit here, ask you what year you're born and day, and tell you you was born on a Tuesday.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: Oh he's that good.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm like, okay, fine.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: So I just I'm like, how can I be different with social media?
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: So many autism platforms.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: But my all I always wanted to create a community here in Trinidad and Tobago.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: So I opened up the page where I was just walking to the barber shop talking, and it started to just go viral.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, holy crap, something, we on to something here.
• 6:57
  Corie: So you just record you all talking on the barbershop.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: You look right, you know, if you don't feel safe, you come back home, those type of things.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: And we went from 1,000, 5,000 within months.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: And the more I post is the more people engage.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: And the day I don't post, I'm getting messages.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: Are you guys okay?
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: Where is Andrew?
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: What do you see?
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, wow, like people want to see more.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: And then a lot of families here started reaching out to me and telling me that I'm giving them hope, you know, and their journey is so hard.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: I created a mom group, a lot of single moms that have kids.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: I have one mom that has three kids on the spectrum.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: So I felt like just dropping some encouraging words to let them know that they're not alone is my mission.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I feel like I'm getting somewhere with it.
• 7:54
  Corie: Yeah.
• 7:54
  Corie: Yeah.
• 7:55
  Corie: Getting somewhere.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, getting somewhere.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: I was looking at the insights, right?
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: And 66% of our followers come from Trinidad and Tobago.
• 8:04
  Corie: Yeah.
• 8:04
  Corie: What's your total following, like on the different places?
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: So we have over 26k on IG and over 17k on TikTok.
• 8:13
  Corie: Yeah.
• 8:13
  Corie: Yeah.
• 8:13
  Corie: And it's engaging.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: And all organically.
• 8:16
  Corie: Right, right.
• 8:17
  Corie: So at that point in time, you're a broad already.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 8:19
  Corie: And but you're thinking about the community here.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: I am thinking about the community here.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: How old is Andrea at that time when you started?
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: When I started, he was 18.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: 18, yeah.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: Straight out of high school.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: And we just started just doing little clips of talking about, you know, driving, talking about him doing chores and all of that.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: Because a lot of people feel once you have a disability, you can't do, you can't live life, you can't enjoy life.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: So I felt like our page and our video started touching people's lives to make them know, listen, you might have a disability, but you can go and take all the trash, you know, stuff like that.
• 8:54
  Corie: Yeah, friends were all listening to Mandra.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, I know.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: One day, you know, I left some dishes in the sink and he knows he needs to wash it, right?
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: But Kirk, my husband, came and he put something, and so he left it back.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, why you, why, why you do the STM?
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: So why Kirk put it there?
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: If Kirk uses it, Kirk needs to wash it.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: But but DeAndre is very, he's very literal.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: Like you can't, there's certain jokes you can't make with Andre.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: You know, like like Caucasian people, he will tell you they are not white, they're vanilla.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: So he he sees things for what it is.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, he don't.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: This little trinilingo we have with dropping jokes, he not for it.
• 9:42
  Corie: Right, right, right.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: Get straight to the point.
• 9:43
  Corie: Yeah, and he's like that.
• 9:45
  Corie: When you're listening to him talk, it's very like direct.
• 9:48
  Corie: Yeah.
• 9:48
  Corie: So those early days are you going through, you have a baby, everybody's happy, it's usually a happy moment.
• 9:54
  Corie: At some point in time, you're looking forward to it and so on.
• 9:57
  Corie: You knew before that he was going to be on the spectrum if when you no, I did not.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I was told in my first trimest trimester that I was going to have a Dong syndrome baby.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, and I needed to consider termination.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: There's any state?
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: Mm-hmm.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: And you could say that.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: This is this is.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, a doctor could advise you to terminate if they think that your baby would not have a good quality of life.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: So I remember going in the car and crying and asking God, why me?
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: Like, why you choose me to have, first of all, let's just start this conversation by saying I was that girl that felt nothing could happen to me.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: So I remember crying and asking God, like, why me?
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: Like, why me?
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: And he responded, Why not you?
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I went home and I told my grandmother, I said, you know, the doctor said I was I'm going to have a Dung syndrome baby.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: Well, boy, who you know, them old grannies.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: Who that doctor think he is?
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: She said, I don't care what you're going to have, you're going to have this baby.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: So the Andre came at eight Pungs Pongs, it's very healthy.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: Progressed cognitively fine up until 18 months.
• 11:07
  Corie: So wait, if if all the way through the pregnancy, you think he's going to be born with Dung's drum and then he was born with the drummers.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you know what?
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: Honestly speaking, Corey, like once I got that confirmation from my grandmother that this baby was going to be okay, I left it as that.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: I never thought for a quick second, oh my gosh, you know, this baby will come out with you know, with this and that.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I just went ahead and had him.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: And um, he was fine up until 18 months, you know, saying one to two words, making great eye contact, playing with his toys, and then all of a sudden, one day, it just stopped.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember watching him, and he was drooling by his mouth.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, what is happening here?
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: He he just got mute all of a sudden.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember taking him to his pediatrician and asking the pediatrician, I said, you know, something is wrong with my son, this old Indian guy.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, Oh, well, you know, he has infections quite often.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: It will affect his speech, so give him time.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, No, I don't have time.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: Can you write me some referrals?
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: And he lingered and lingered, and every day I called that office until I got that referral.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: I took him to a specialty hospital to get his ear checked out, his brain checked out, everything came back normal.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: So here I am, my brain started to go like, all right, what's happening?
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: Now, along this time, I'm starting to suspect something, but again, I didn't want to accept it because I felt this couldn't be my life.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: And then at the end of the um testing, a nurse and a doctor asked me, Have you explored the idea of autism?
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: You know, when you get news and something just lock up in your truth, that was me.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: I said, God, but why me?
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: Like, why are you choosing me?
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: This journey is going to be so hard.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: This baby is mute.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: What am I gonna do?
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: Now, everybody in my country, my family, everybody will say, What kind of child she has?
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: You know, again, that cultural thing playing in the back of my head.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_00: I said, you know what, boy, I had I was teaching at the time I left.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I decided that I would pour everything that I know into my son.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: Signed him up.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: We did a series of other testing, signed him up for programs.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: He started going programs at the age of two half days, and then when he came home, the other half, I will practice what I know with him.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: And I did that up until DeAndre went off to high school.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, it's still well.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: I went back to work once he turned, when once he went into kindergarten.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: But at that time, he was more he could more, he could more fit in, you know, versus his ages of two and three.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: He was very aggressive.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um, he he did a lot of elopements.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I'm taking a shower.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: The time my door closed, the Andrew gone.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: I had to call departments how many times to help me look for this child, you know.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: So when I tell people I went through all the different roller coasters of autism, I did.
• 14:19
  Corie: Yeah, yeah.
• 14:20
  Corie: Yeah.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: But here we are.
• 14:22
  Corie: But you had the experience teaching.
• 14:24
  Corie: I guess that would have helped you in somewhat in terms of staying out of the way.
• 14:27
  Corie: I think so.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: I think so.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: But um, because one of the missions on my page is to be able to help other families, right?
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: Because when I was now starting off on the autism journey, I didn't know what to do.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't know where to go.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: There was nobody I could have asked.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: I just had to jump online and figure it out.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: So I want to make sure that when parents reach out to me and ask a question, I'm able to answer it to the best of my ability.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: So, yes, teaching did be my background did help, but it came with a lot more life skill stuff, like having DeAndre sit.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: DeAndre couldn't sit properly in a chair.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: So I had to train him how to sit.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: So typical things that will be um winning for other parents where they're two-year-old running around talking.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: My life was completely different.
• 15:17
  Corie: Yeah, I would imagine.
• 15:18
  Corie: I would imagine.
• 15:19
  Corie: You hear a lot of people talk about the looking at the children and not talking.
• 15:22
  Corie: It's because it's one of the things that I have a friend whose daughter did they attested on stuff, and she's autistic as well.
• 15:27
  Corie: And that was one of the first things that she noticed.
• 15:29
  Corie: One of the first progress points that they were looking at is that a child would be talking or trying to say words and she wasn't saying much.
• 15:36
  Corie: So you're working with him then to help you.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so what I did, um I sat him in front of a mirror, and I will have him watch how I form my mouth and pronounce the words, articulate the words, and that's how he started copying.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: Because they autistic kids learn best by learning behavior.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_00: So if you practice certain things with them, eventually they will pick it up.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: It's not gonna happen in a week or two.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: It will eventually be picked up by them.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: So he started, you know, pointing at his mouth, showing me.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um, in his early stages, I had to learn sign language because that was his only way of communicating with me.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_00: There is cue cards and sign language.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but you know, I really had to put aside my personal feelings and stop feeling like I need to move around.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: Or I feel like life, I can live life because I have a son with a disability.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: I kind of jump over that quickly because I know that there are certain milestones that we will not get to celebrate, but I wanted to create milestones that when we when we reach there, I'm like, oh my god, Andre, because I'm always cheering him on.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: Like, yeah, yeah, yeah, you could do it, you could do it, you know.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, DeAndre ended up graduating from a typical mainstream high school with a GPA of 3.8.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: Oh wow, yeah.
• 16:50
  Corie: Well, you see it now, like even hearing you talk about some of this now is so distant to me when you see who he is now.
• 16:56
  Corie: Yeah, because one thing I sure about is that sometime around October, November, you could say, Andrew, what are you doing for February?
• 17:03
  Corie: Like, I'm going for carnival.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_00: You know the routine.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: But he said next year he's coming.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: He comes in.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: He said he's coming.
• 17:11
  Corie: Well, David, we have our next one to book for next year.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: He said he don't want to play maths, he just wants frets.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, really?
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, because he loves music.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: So there's an unspoken connection with music and someone on the autism spectrum.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_00: The vibration, it's just a safe space for them.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: DeAndre could sit here and learn a song in an hour.
• 17:32
  Corie: That's general for people with autism.
• 17:33
  Corie: Well, that's there's the other one.
• 17:34
  Corie: Um, most people.
• 17:35
  Corie: Really?
• 17:36
  Corie: Most people, yeah.
• 17:37
  Corie: It's one of the things that makes your page fun and exciting to look at and attractive because he he's whole on to new so like a fetal.
• 17:46
  Corie: Oh my gosh.
• 17:47
  Corie: Yes.
• 17:48
  Corie: But there's Kyle.
• 17:49
  Corie: There was some Kes song the other day.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and actually he grabbed the attention of Kess.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: Right, he did.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, when once I tag them, and I guess they read the caption and they see Soka on autism, they respond.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: And let me tell you, he be on like high horses.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my god, mommy free tongue responded.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my god, you know, and it's just it just makes me happy because culture is so important to me, right?
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like DeAndre advanced so much too because summertime, not because he was autistic or not.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: I used to send him home.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: And my grandparents, he don't like his feet on the floor.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: That's a sensory issue.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: So, but they will take off issues and be like, go run in the yard.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_00: You know, they challenge him with certain things.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: So Trinidad really helped DeAndre to really just fall more in love with the culture.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: And now he's just a soaker man.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, who going to write a song for my child?
• 18:42
  Corie: Yeah, we should work on that.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_00: That's I yeah, yeah.
• 18:46
  Corie: Well, I guess and and it don't take long talking to you to realize that you're rooted in the culture.
• 18:51
  Corie: You love us the same way we love ourselves, yeah.
• 18:53
  Corie: You know, so early in them days, you're playing soaker and stuff as sure around the household, so you're gonna exposure.
• 18:59
  Corie: Correct.
• 18:59
  Corie: You know, I always would assume that people who it's almost like if you had to have a child who's autistic or with any issue, I would assume automatically better you have that child over there than here.
• 19:11
  Corie: So it's interesting to hear you see how Trended influence him or some of the stuff that pushes.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: I recently spoke with a young mom and her son, she's very famous.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_00: I wouldn't call her name, but um, her son is five or six, was not very well for the first two years.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I asked her, I said, what what type of therapy have you been doing or considered?
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_00: She said, I've done nothing.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_00: She said, because when I call policy, they don't pick up.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_00: She said, but what I did was that I went on Google and YouTube and taught myself how to teach my son.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: So I in my mom group, I tried to encourage moms.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, listen, you can't get that therapy, go cut out some pictures, print some pictures, do something that you can do at home to help push your child forward.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's you can't just rely on services.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, services is great.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_00: I'm all for it.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_00: But yes, it begins, you know, you have a saying, charity begins at home.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: I need that.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, those things begin at home and you have to start it at home.
• 20:11
  Corie: Yeah, it's interesting.
• 20:11
  Corie: Like I hear Glenn talk about this all the time.
• 20:13
  Corie: Yeah, he says that people, you know, you have you have your your child, you're almost teaching them all the time by the things that you do and the way you make the household or playing soak or whatever it might be.
• 20:24
  Corie: So his point of entering that here with people who have a child with a disability is like, so what make you feel and go just teach the child to and challenge them to do more things?
• 20:33
  Corie: Yeah, you have a funny story.
• 20:35
  Corie: Same thing you were talking about with wash and wears the other day.
• 20:37
  Corie: You say you break a plate.
• 20:38
  Corie: And he said with Tyrese, sometimes you need Tyrese to text them.
• 20:42
  Corie: He said, You can't understand what he's saying all the time.
• 20:44
  Corie: He says the same thing, he's just like cook.
• 20:45
  Corie: He says, Well, you just want to leave your plate there.
• 20:47
  Corie: So we're trying to tell him it's your fault.
• 20:49
  Corie: You leave the plate on the edge of the thing, and you know it's just interesting.
• 20:53
  Corie: But how nervous are you challenging him in especially in those early days?
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, very I still get nervous to this day.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: I remember when Andre was going off to high school, I felt like who, like he wouldn't do it, boy.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: Like, because children are mean, you know, and I I remember having to pick some fight, pick some fights up for Andre.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember when they sent him off to high school.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, Jesus Christ, I don't think he'll make it.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_00: But he showed me that he did.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we had some bumps along the way, and I want to tell you this funny story about Andre.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: So Andre liked this particular girl.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: This is the Trinian.
• 21:34
  Corie: I don't like where this goes, but go ahead.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: He tried to talk to the girl.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: Hi, how are you?
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: The girl flicked him off like I ain't talking to you.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_00: So Mr.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_00: DeAndre decided that he will put his foot out and trip the girl.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: Proceeds to trip the girl, the girl falls.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_00: And when the girl gets up and send her room to tell him something, he shows her middle finger.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: My guy.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_00: So the teacher call me.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: You need to come right now.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm sitting in this conference room, and part of me just want to laugh.
• 22:12
  Corie: Right?
• 22:13
  Corie: Because I'm like, Is it training you?
• 22:15
  Corie: No.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, is it training you?
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: But it's also like a milestone.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: Like you, you understand, then still is rejecting you.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_00: And so I asked the teacher, I said, but what did she do to him?
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: They can't tell me.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_00: I said, uh-huh.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_00: I catch all you.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_00: I said, so let me tell all this something.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_00: And all they call me out to my classroom to come sit in this classroom, have the facts correct.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: I said, because the Andrew typically wouldn't just want to pick a fight with somebody.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody have to do him something.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_00: So then the PE teacher came in and said, Well, yeah, you know, he was trying to talk to her, and then he flicked, get the Andre in the car.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I couldn't stop laughing.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, I need to correct this child, but I don't know how.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, Andre, you can't.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: I said rejection is okay.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you have to understand.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: You, you know, and then he finally gets it.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, oh my God.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: So it's sort of, you know, again, a winning moment for me, but also I needed, I corrected him.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_00: But instead of a teacher calling and telling me that my son threw in hands, or my son got caught smoking.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_00: Typical things that kids will do in high school.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: I don't get called for that.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_00: I get in call for he flick off a girl or he tried to trip a girl because he liked the girl and the girl likes him back.
• 23:28
  Corie: You know, but it's always a milestone because just that being able to process it, he knows he knows what is happening.
• 23:33
  Corie: Yeah, it's true.
• 23:33
  Corie: I guess he just had to figure out the reaction now.
• 23:36
  Corie: Jesus Christ.
• 23:39
  Corie: That must be fun.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_00: But I wouldn't trade being an autism mom for anything in the wool.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_00: Like even in the very beginning, when when things was really tough, and I felt like, you know, the will was against me.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't know what direction to go.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_00: I take all those things now, and I'm thankful for experiencing those things because it wouldn't groom me into the person that I am today.
• 24:04
  Corie: Yeah.
• 24:04
  Corie: You know, so and we see it because even recently, it's 20 now, you said.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 24:10
  Corie: And I see you doing a like a little short series where you say the different things that you were challenged with recently.
• 24:16
  Corie: Like I think he was you had to go somewhere or go buy something.
• 24:19
  Corie: There's something he had posted recently.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_00: So we try to we we try to let DeAndre have responsibilities.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_00: So we give him a list and he will go into Target and pick up.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_00: He has certain toiletries that he likes.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: Don't buy no dove and secret.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_00: For he will tell you he in one that he wants a particular lotion.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_00: So we try to let him feel like he's in charge, you know, kind of boost up his adulthood.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: And he goes, but the thing is with Andre, he thinks, like, okay, if I go in and this thing costs$20, he gives the$20 and he will walk out.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_00: So he doesn't have the ability to know I need a receipt and I need my change.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_00: You know, so we'll we're working on those different steps with him.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_00: But most of the times now he would go in and order his food for himself at the barbershop.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_00: I'm dropping him off.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: He'd tell me, go back, come back in 20 minutes.
• 25:09
  Corie: Yeah, let him take it here because he won't let any man shape what you want is about time.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, those are the things that I was super fearful for because again, society is very mean, and sometimes most people are not accepting.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_00: And DeAndre will just say what he thinks and may come off offensive to some people.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_00: So I I like to be there sometimes to help, you know, be that person for him.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_00: But so taking the bus, how was that in terms of let me tell you, I didn't know what to do with myself because I felt like I come on social media and I give such good advice, and I'm like, but you need to take this advice.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_00: So the first time I was nervous, but I didn't know there was a second and two because his dad said, Don't tell your mother.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_00: But his dad was tracking him on the phone, um, and his counselor will be at the bus stop waiting.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_00: So this one particular day, his counselor was late.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_00: And if you tell DeAndre 10 05, it better be 10 05.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_00: Don't be a minute, um late.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_00: So he calls me and I'm like, but you're in the train station?
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_00: I said, But what you what what how you get there?
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, Oh, I didn't want to tell you, but I took the bus and my counselor is running five minutes late.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_00: So, can you just talk to me to keep me company?
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_00: So he knows that you know, like if he's in need of something to call us, like where are we when we go to, but that takes years though.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_00: When we go to work, he knows don't touch the front door, don't touch the stove, just warm up your food.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_00: If you feel uncomfortable, call the neighbor, you know, certain things, but those things take years.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_00: Again, I you know, I go back to the point of with they learn by learning behavior.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_00: So these are things that we have to practice with them over and over and over.
• 26:56
  Corie: Yeah, it's interesting.
• 26:58
  Corie: I had an uh aunt, she came back, she lived in New York for years.
• 27:01
  Corie: So she's a babysitter, two children.
• 27:03
  Corie: One of them is was autistic, or it's living with autism.
• 27:07
  Corie: And um she came back here maybe early 90s, mid-90s kind of thing.
• 27:12
  Corie: Wow.
• 27:12
  Corie: And it was the first time the kids got to come and see her.
• 27:14
  Corie: You know, they formed the bond with these babysitters, are all New York and training together.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 27:18
  Corie: So she calls me a day and she said, Well, she has the kids here and she wants to take them to the beach.
• 27:23
  Corie: So I said, All right, no problem, you know.
• 27:24
  Corie: You go, you go to Macrip, you know?
• 27:26
  Corie: Because the boy loves, he loves to swim.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 27:28
  Corie: So I said, all right, cool.
• 27:29
  Corie: Now in my mind, we go in Macrip about 10, 11.
• 27:31
  Corie: Everywhere I go, I ready to go more time.
• 27:34
  Corie: I just know along.
• 27:36
  Corie: And we got to the beach, we hanging out, he went out and he started getting to a routine in the water.
• 27:42
  Corie: Like we went out just a little way and he stood there for a long time.
• 27:44
  Corie: And he did that about five times.
• 27:46
  Corie: Still, he was going to deep waters.
• 27:47
  Corie: Now I frightened.
• 27:48
  Corie: I was like, hey, there's only no Macrip, but this is not Yankee.
• 27:52
  Corie: See, you know, this is real Macquarie.
• 27:54
  Corie: And my creep is fall off fast, it's get deep.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_03: Uh-huh.
• 27:57
  Corie: And then when he got to just where the water, um, his brother said, he said, no, he's a really good swimmer.
• 28:01
  Corie: And I was like, and then he started dipping his face in the water, like for it could have been about 20 minutes, 25 minutes.
• 28:09
  Corie: Just doing it over and over and over.
• 28:11
  Corie: You know, Trinidad, no, everybody watching, and like, mm-hmm.
• 28:14
  Corie: And then he started swimming across the channel.
• 28:17
  Corie: And I do that a few times.
• 28:19
  Corie: That ain't right here, in terms of your stamina, you'll be exhausted.
• 28:23
  Corie: If you make one across your time, yeah.
• 28:26
  Corie: And he did that for it's an heads an hour.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 28:29
  Corie: And they said that that is where he's most comfortable.
• 28:31
  Corie: They say once he gets into water, a lot of different things might he might feel overstimulated in many situations, but water is not one.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 28:40
  Corie: And um, I want to ask you about that.
• 28:42
  Corie: Like, what is that like discovering those things?
• 28:45
  Corie: Because I suppose they know now he's 20-something.
• 28:47
  Corie: But in the early days, how do you figure out the the foods or what lights or what yeah?
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_00: So Andrew was very particular with foods.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, he would only eat dry foods, anything with sauce, gravy, stews, he don't want it.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_00: But the trick to it though, is never stop exposing.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_00: I never stopped exposing the Android to foods.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_00: So it's trial and error, you just exactly.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_00: And um, we for me, I did a lot of like natural consequences.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's either you eat the rice or you eat this or you get nothing.
• 29:20
  Corie: You didn't learn this true dad.
• 29:21
  Corie: You just come out to you, you didn't realize you're living somewhere else now.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_00: It is all light on my eye.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but at that time though, he started realize dang boy, my mom's serious.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_00: Like I'm hungry, so it's either I eat this or that.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_00: And let me tell you, that thing works.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_00: And uh DeAndre, boy, Cory boy, we can't leave no food in the fridge and don't have a name on it.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_00: What?
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_00: He eats every and anything, but again, that took him some time.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um with music though, we discovered he liked music.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_00: Like once we we moved, um he would go in his room and lock up himself, and for hours we hear him singing.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, but noise trigger into this child.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_00: Like, because I asked him one day, I said, How you like this music?
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_00: So he was like, It's just suiting to me, it's just suiting to me, mom.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_00: But he doesn't like unexpected noises, so we discover new things with DeAndre almost every other week.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_00: Something new.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but it's all about learning your child.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_00: You have to know your child, yeah, you know, and even with DeAndre getting to being an official, official adult now, it's like he still functions, uh functions as a 12-year-old, right?
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_00: So, like he birthday coming up, and he's like, I say, What do you want for your birthday?
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you want a cake, you want a cookout?
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_00: He said, No, I want a real party.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm like, What do you mean her real party?
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_00: He said, he wants a setup like young brother, DJ Boot.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_00: You might write eile.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_00: He said, Mommy, and I want real party.
• 31:04
  Corie: So we're thinking about trend party or that's what we were singing about.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_00: I was singing just to have a few people come over and put something on the girl and happy birthday.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_00: No, no, no.
• 31:13
  Corie: Ring dong fat.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_00: Ring dong fat he wants.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, again, discovering.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_00: He loved music and he loved to socialize.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_00: So we had to give him this ring dong fat.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_00: I might call you on Zoom Fett.
• 31:25
  Corie: Yeah, why not?
• 31:26
  Corie: Why not?
• 31:27
  Corie: Let me see if he can be there.
• 31:29
  Corie: It should get a young brother to perform.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_00: I know, right?
• 31:32
  Corie: But it's even interesting when you talk about because I can imagine the patience it would take as parents to just experiment with the foods.
• 31:38
  Corie: Because one of the reasons that that family never came to Trendad to visit her was because they didn't have a pizza at home.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 31:44
  Corie: And they say if there's no pizza, pizzas and KFC was the two things that he would eat.
• 31:48
  Corie: But of course, the KFC here the same.
• 31:50
  Corie: In the same so they had a rough time when they get here.
• 31:52
  Corie: And the KFC, too much herbs and spices.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, because a lot of a lot of autistic children on a whole have stomach problems.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of people don't know that.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, because of the dry foods that they eat and the sensory issues that they have, right?
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_00: So you you see, like with DeAndre, we still have to give him probiotics.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_00: Although he eats everything, I get a lot of questions about what we can give our child to get them moving, their bowels moving, because your stomach is just so bind.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's because of the foods.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_00: But I tell them you have to implement this natural consequence.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_00: It's either you eat this apple or you eat the grape.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_00: What you want?
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_00: What do you want?
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_00: You have to eat because you're not getting this gummy beer if you don't.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_00: You know, then the reward system works, and even with the Andrew till this day, it still works.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_00: That reward system, yeah.
• 32:46
  Corie: It's interesting.
• 32:47
  Corie: Now, when you talk about going by his dad, for instance, you say we have a blended family.
• 32:50
  Corie: Yes, we do.
• 32:51
  Corie: You all work together to make sure that these things is it works 100%.
• 32:55
  Corie: Yeah, 100%.
• 32:56
  Corie: Because I think a father can just be him what you want for the weekend.
• 32:59
  Corie: I do a home right where it is now.
• 33:00
  Corie: I don't um as my wife going out.
• 33:03
  Corie: Say, but eat what you want, yes, just settle yourself.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_00: So the Andre, dad and I we got divorced when he was four, and it was a very tough time for Andre.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I made that decision because my grandmother always reminded me if I am not happy as a person, my son will never be happy, right?
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_00: And especially with the Andre needing a little bit more.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_00: I needed to be 100% happy with myself.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_00: So when I made that decision, the Andre regressed a lot.
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_00: School got into the bus, he kicked the bus, he was doing all these different things until we kind of had to like sit down together and explain to him you have two homes and mommy and daddy love you regardless.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_00: And that's how we started to just come to terms with it.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_00: But yes, DeAndre, we my married my I met my husband when DeAndre was about eight.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um, DeAndre's dad remarried to a wonderful um woman from Senegal.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_00: So at first it was a little rocky, but when it comes to DeAndre, our co-parenting, we put aside all personal feelings and we just focus on Andre.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_00: Because that is our only child for his dad and for me.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I see, I see.
• 34:16
  Corie: So he must be lord and all this attention.
• 34:21
  Corie: I usually see when you all have get-togethers, they have they have other children, they have a bunch of other people around, just like nieces, nephews, or just yeah.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_00: I have a niece and a nephew, um, and even they know so much.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_00: My nephew, if you ask him to this day, he'll tell you Andre has autism and I will take care of Andre.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, he's like, when I become an NBA player, um, he calls me Titi.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_00: Andre could live in my house.
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and my niece, even though she's two, she knows when she's um going up the steps, she tells everybody, Shh, Andre in his room.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_00: He doesn't like that unexpected noise.
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, so even though that they're so young, we're training them to know that you know he has a disability and we have to make some adjustments.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_00: That's a blessing, though.
• 35:03
  Corie: Yeah, it's a blessing, and I'm sure it's a lot of work.
• 35:05
  Corie: Them things don't happen.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah.
• 35:07
  Corie: Them things will happen just like that.
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes, you know, my niece loves to go in Andre's room and he will pick her up but be like, it's time for you to go.
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_00: You gotta go.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_00: Go meet your mom.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, enough, enough of it, enough of it.
• 35:21
  Corie: Yeah, I appreciate that you spend the time to connect with um with our Trinidadian community on these things because it's something that I've seen just in maybe doing this too and talking to more people, where in a lot of ways, I guess we advanced in the way we build community here, we embrace one another.
• 35:40
  Corie: But I feel like in some ways we're well behind on how we treat people who are even remotely different, if they're marginally different from people.
• 35:48
  Corie: Yeah.
• 35:48
  Corie: So you feel like you get good feedback from people here who look at the page and follow you and ask for advice as well.
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I feel like Trinidad and Tobago has accepted us.
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I feel like they are just ready for us to do more, and I'm excited about it.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_00: Even though living in these states for so many years, this is my home, and my people matters to me.
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and I know what it is to be in a position of not knowing what to do, where to go, or or just to have things, you know what I'm saying?
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_00: So I want to be that person.
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_00: Building this autism community is very, very important to me.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_00: And and Trinidad.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_00: Well, yes, poor Trinidad.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_00: I feel America, good to go.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we they they have they have resources and they have you know the communities, but my purpose is my country.
• 36:40
  Corie: I with you, yeah.
• 36:41
  Corie: And you're from Grande originally.
• 36:42
  Corie: I try to understand your love for culture because you see for me, yeah, 20 years over there.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_03: Uh-huh.
• 36:48
  Corie: I didn't.
• 36:49
  Corie: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 36:51
  Corie: At this point in time, and cook off camera, right?
• 36:54
  Corie: But it's the same thing.
• 36:55
  Corie: I'm trying to hear a little twang, but it's nothing coming at one.
• 37:00
  Corie: Where your love for culture and things start from small too?
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_00: I'm small.
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_00: So it's so funny, Corey.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_00: I remember playing in my yard as a child growing up.
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_00: I grew up countryside, right?
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I used to look at the planes, and I, you know, you're waving at the plane as a little child.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, you know, and you're thinking America is in the clouds, right?
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_00: Or right behind the clouds.
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_00: But I, from that age, I know that people are going to know who I am.
• 37:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm going to make a difference, you know.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I just kept that in the back of my head.
• 37:32
  Corie: Like, this is what kind of age?
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_00: Like five, six, just playing marble, running, hop, scotch, doing all these different things.
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_00: But I always felt at that age I had a purpose.
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_00: And now I am living in my purpose.
• 37:45
  SPEAKER_00: You know, um, you know, people feel like you go away and you have this and you change up my culture after God made me.
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_00: You know, made me.
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_00: So I want to keep that alive and to just continue, just to spread awareness for my people.
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 38:02
  Corie: And what age you left?
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_00: I left here at 17.
• 38:04
  Corie: Oh, okay.
• 38:05
  Corie: What caused you to leave?
• 38:06
  Corie: Parents was leaving.
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_00: My mom was leaving.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I had I have two younger sisters.
• 38:11
  SPEAKER_00: So because I was the oldest, my mom said, Okay, well, you come in first, and then the other two will come after.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, as soon as I head out of high school, I'm gone.
• 38:21
  SPEAKER_00: I deployed.
• 38:22
  SPEAKER_00: So, where you went to school and softening?
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_00: I went to school St.
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_00: Andrew's College in Sunny Granny.
• 38:25
  SPEAKER_00: It was a private school.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_00: And then when I left here, I went up there.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_00: I started um school.
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_00: I honestly I wanted to become a pharmacist.
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I see.
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_00: So I started off working at CVS, was one of their lead techs.
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_00: CVS say, okay, we'll pay for you to go to school.
• 38:43
  Corie: Oh, so you're getting tech with all the with all the qualifications in the hookup or truly paying what?
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_00: No, no, to become a CVS tech is a class.
• 38:51
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I see.
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 38:52
  Corie: Okay.
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_00: So pharmacy the CVS say, okay, I'll pay for you to go to school.
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_00: So by the time I get to school, I started showing up.
• 39:01
  SPEAKER_01: Oh.
• 39:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I say, oh, I'm pregnant.
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_00: So this dream is on pause.
• 39:07
  SPEAKER_00: We gotta go.
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_00: No, so yeah, I got pregnant at 20.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_00: So I worked for CVS for about two years.
• 39:13
  SPEAKER_00: I see, I see, I see.
• 39:15
  SPEAKER_00: Then I got pregnant, and then my life, my life, my life completely changed.
• 39:19
  Corie: Yeah, I can imagine.
• 39:21
  Corie: So at that time, when did you start getting into teaching?
• 39:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so when I had DeAndre at 20, so I left CVS, I was pregnant, and then I went into early um childhood education up until I got um had DeAndre.
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_00: Then after I had him, I went back to school.
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_00: And then once we got all the diagnosis, I had to stop for about two years.
• 39:45
  SPEAKER_00: And then I homeschooled him.
• 39:47
  SPEAKER_00: And then I worked in a private school where I would um his dad would put him to school in the morning and I would go pick him up so that he wouldn't be.
• 39:55
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't want him to have too much of a long day because it was going to be exhausting.
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_00: So we had a system going.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_00: And then once we got divorced, um, kind of continue doing the same thing.
• 40:08
  SPEAKER_00: So now DeAndre goes, he stays with us for two weeks or go to his dad for two weeks, and his dad told him, Yeah, he's like, you know, you're grown now, there's no more court, or that you can do where you want.
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_00: But with him, he has to stay in his routine.
• 40:21
  Corie: Yeah, maybe we should talk about our routine a little bit because going back to the Mac Creep experience, right?
• 40:24
  Corie: So tell her I want to go, man.
• 40:26
  Corie: So I need to swim.
• 40:28
  Corie: I said, but this one just I said, I'll let her ready to head out, you know.
• 40:31
  Corie: And I'll never forget his brother's reaction.
• 40:33
  Corie: Yeah.
• 40:33
  Corie: I said I ready to go home.
• 40:35
  Corie: I said, Let's make a move.
• 40:36
  Corie: And brother's like, What?
• 40:38
  Corie: You want to leave?
• 40:39
  Corie: Because he was trying to say, like, it's like you could give my old while because leaving is our process.
• 40:43
  Corie: Yeah.
• 40:43
  Corie: And he had to swim out, go tell him, listen, we're gonna leave, and he had to give him our time.
• 40:48
  Corie: And he said, he'll tell him that we're leaving, and it was our odd number too, like 47 minutes.
• 40:52
  Corie: And I was like, This is weird.
• 40:54
  Corie: We don't count in these metrics in Trinidad, right?
• 40:56
  Corie: It's gonna be 15.
• 40:57
  Corie: And he said, no.
• 40:58
  Corie: He said he has a because I trying to figure out, like, no, how are we gonna know what is 47 minutes?
• 41:03
  Corie: A real specific thing.
• 41:04
  Corie: But he told me no.
• 41:05
  Corie: He's like, you could time him.
• 41:06
  Corie: You don't need a lot of if you tell him a specific time, because he had to go back through that same process to come back all the water.
• 41:12
  Corie: So you and otherwise, you know, it could be, he could react to it.
• 41:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, their brain is just wired that way.
• 41:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um, if the Andre starts his day, like he eats his breakfast at nine, his lunch at 12 promptly, and dinner is at five, and nothing changes unless you have and if something have to change, we have to give him a heads up.
• 41:32
  Corie: Yeah, this is what you're saying.
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's just how their brain is wired, and they can't, they can't really help it.
• 41:39
  Corie: So it's really you all adjust to your own.
• 41:40
  SPEAKER_00: We have to adjust to that, yeah.
• 41:42
  Corie: I guess I could see where you're saying now is a process because that can be automatic even for y'all.
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_00: No, sometimes you know, we have to run somewhere, and and he's like, but why?
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_00: But I have to eat, mommy, it's almost five o'clock.
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_00: I said, DeAndre, you'll have to wait 30 more minutes.
• 41:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know, and then he would get upset, he would start talking to you said, but why I had to wait 30 more minutes, you know, it's five o'clock.
• 42:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 42:05
  SPEAKER_00: Processing things can be difficult.
• 42:07
  SPEAKER_00: Recently, um, like around two in the morning.
• 42:11
  SPEAKER_00: One Sunday morning, I got up and I have a routine where I will go into his room, ask him how he's doing, how did he sleep, this and that?
• 42:20
  SPEAKER_00: Morning conversation.
• 42:22
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't do it this particular Sunday, Corey.
• 42:24
  SPEAKER_00: Went about my business.
• 42:26
  SPEAKER_00: They go on.
• 42:27
  SPEAKER_00: Now we incent into Sunday night.
• 42:31
  SPEAKER_00: And a noise, like this is like three o'clock in the morning.
• 42:36
  SPEAKER_00: Poop.
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_00: So he wakes me up, he was like, You hear that?
• 42:40
  SPEAKER_00: I said no.
• 42:41
  SPEAKER_00: But in two seconds, I hear it again.
• 42:44
  SPEAKER_00: So he said, Okay, let me get up and go check.
• 42:47
  SPEAKER_00: Lo and behold, Mr.
• 42:48
  SPEAKER_00: D'Andre in his room having a meltdown, full-blown meltdown.
• 42:53
  SPEAKER_00: Flip his side tables and whatever, whatever.
• 42:57
  SPEAKER_00: I just can't believe it.
• 42:59
  SPEAKER_00: I can't believe it.
• 43:00
  SPEAKER_00: My mom hasn't even talked to me all day.
• 43:02
  SPEAKER_00: This is this is crazy, this is unacceptable.
• 43:06
  SPEAKER_00: So he could come back and was like, Andrew having a meltdown, you need to go.
• 43:10
  SPEAKER_00: Only time I walk in that room, and the Andrew just knows the death stay.
• 43:15
  SPEAKER_00: He knows the death stay.
• 43:17
  SPEAKER_00: I look at this dude.
• 43:18
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, yo, it's four o'clock.
• 43:21
  SPEAKER_00: But you hurt my feeling.
• 43:22
  SPEAKER_00: I'm so disappointed.
• 43:23
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I said, right now you are hurting mine.
• 43:25
  SPEAKER_00: So go to sleep.
• 43:26
  SPEAKER_00: When you get up in the morning, we'll talk about it.
• 43:28
  SPEAKER_00: He humble himself.
• 43:30
  SPEAKER_00: But that day I had a doctor's appointment.
• 43:32
  SPEAKER_00: I see, yeah.
• 43:32
  SPEAKER_00: So it just, yeah, I guess it might not be.
• 43:34
  SPEAKER_00: But I decided you're not staying home and play no video game today.
• 43:37
  SPEAKER_00: You're coming with me.
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_00: Wake him up at five o'clock.
• 43:40
  SPEAKER_00: But why do, mommy?
• 43:42
  SPEAKER_00: What is this I do?
• 43:43
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Well, this is what you call consequences.
• 43:46
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Because living the life you have, playing games, going down, eating what you want, that's a that's a luxury.
• 43:52
  SPEAKER_00: And today you're not, you're not going to have it.
• 43:54
  SPEAKER_00: So I had to explain to him when you do things, you have consequences.
• 43:58
  SPEAKER_00: So that day was.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_00: We sit in traffic one way quarry for three hours.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_00: If you see him in the car, this is painful.
• 44:05
  SPEAKER_00: This is I said, Well, if you had behaved yourself, you would have been home.
• 44:09
  SPEAKER_00: But you did not.
• 44:10
  Corie: So I don't like the fact that you're such a triggered mother, you know?
• 44:14
  SPEAKER_00: But I use these things though as life lessons, you know, because he wouldn't.
• 44:18
  SPEAKER_00: If we we sit down to have a regular conversation, he wouldn't really get it.
• 44:23
  SPEAKER_00: So when when things happen, life events happen, I use it to pull back in and teach him a lesson.
• 44:29
  SPEAKER_00: Like, yo, get yourself together because this can work.
• 44:32
  Corie: Yeah, suppose, as you say, it's making your own milestones.
• 44:35
  Corie: Yeah.
• 44:35
  Corie: So I don't I don't understand where it's like because we're lucky to have you here because you're here for carnival.
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 44:40
  Corie: When you go in and tell him, listen, I go on for carnival for the first time.
• 44:44
  Corie: What was that conversation?
• 44:46
  SPEAKER_00: Like he called my phone every day.
• 44:48
  SPEAKER_00: Every single day.
• 44:50
  SPEAKER_00: He called my phone.
• 44:52
  SPEAKER_00: So he was about four.
• 44:55
  SPEAKER_00: So I started coming carnival, yeah, about four.
• 44:58
  SPEAKER_00: Every day, mommy, please, please, please.
• 45:02
  SPEAKER_00: So until he realized like this is my mother routine, I'm gonna just back.
• 45:07
  SPEAKER_00: So this time around, for this year, what I did was I said, okay, I tell his dad, I said, I'm gonna keep him for about three and a half weeks because he does count his days.
• 45:17
  SPEAKER_00: Of course.
• 45:17
  SPEAKER_00: So I said, okay, cook, if we keep him for three and a half weeks, and I drop him back this day.
• 45:22
  SPEAKER_00: If he count from this day to when we come back, it's exactly three and a half weeks.
• 45:26
  SPEAKER_00: So he and he and stress it half the balance.
• 45:30
  SPEAKER_00: It half the balance.
• 45:32
  SPEAKER_00: So now he's like, oh, one week down, mommy.
• 45:35
  SPEAKER_00: You know, he's thinking in the head, one week, one week gone, mommy.
• 45:38
  SPEAKER_00: Today is, you know, yeah.
• 45:39
  SPEAKER_00: So he was like, today is Sunday, you know, I have two more weeks.
• 45:43
  SPEAKER_00: So that is how we kind of have to do it.
• 45:46
  Corie: It's interesting, you know.
• 45:47
  Corie: Sometimes you think about these things from a distance, and when you say it is so simple because like it's the same for us sometimes.
• 45:52
  Corie: Yeah, I guess outside of the reaction, uh, changing routines is take time for anybody.
• 45:58
  Corie: Yes.
• 45:59
  Corie: And the reality is that when new routines happen, you forget what the last thing was you used to do anyway.
• 46:04
  Corie: You just get into a new way of doing it.
• 46:07
  SPEAKER_00: Like he already asking, okay, so my birthday is June 9th, what day you're thinking about the party?
• 46:12
  SPEAKER_00: So I told Cook we can't give him a date because he will be on.
• 46:16
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 46:18
  SPEAKER_00: He will he will keep going.
• 46:19
  SPEAKER_00: So sometimes we have to hold back and tell him sooner than we tell him up front because he done know next year carnival early.
• 46:28
  SPEAKER_00: So he's thinking what day we will travel.
• 46:32
  Corie: Yes, I like it because you know every Ash Wednesday.
• 46:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, yes.
• 46:36
  SPEAKER_00: So he's thinking right now what he's like, do you know you the date you're leaving for next year?
• 46:41
  SPEAKER_00: I said, No, I don't.
• 46:43
  SPEAKER_00: Don't don't start to jumbie me with that.
• 46:45
  SPEAKER_00: Don't don't start, don't start with that.
• 46:48
  Corie: Listen, for anybody who don't follow this page, y'all had to see their interaction because it might sound like you're just saying this here, right?
• 46:54
  Corie: That's exactly how y'all talk to one another.
• 46:56
  Corie: It's exactly like that.
• 46:57
  Corie: Yeah.
• 46:58
  Corie: But why Carnival is so important to you?
• 47:00
  Corie: What is this about it that you have to leave it here to do?
• 47:03
  SPEAKER_00: So, Carnival for me is my mental reset.
• 47:06
  SPEAKER_00: I feel, I think every parent, but more so people who have children with a special needs, you need that.
• 47:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, Carnival is my time to feel free.
• 47:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it's a celebration, it's like it's just one big happy celebration, and I feel so good every year for Carnival.
• 47:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think about Andrew.
• 47:26
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, oh, he got you with your father.
• 47:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know, but it's my time.
• 47:31
  SPEAKER_00: Like, people are constantly my social media was putting up, bring Andre.
• 47:35
  SPEAKER_00: Why are you not bringing Andre?
• 47:36
  Corie: I could imagine.
• 47:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I'm like, this is my time.
• 47:39
  Corie: Hello, his influencers now we had to show up and fet on thing, you know what I mean?
• 47:43
  Corie: That's our paid gig and all it.
• 47:45
  SPEAKER_00: So listen though.
• 47:46
  SPEAKER_00: We were at the food court on the avenue, and this guy walked up on me and he's like, excuse me, are you Andre's mommy?
• 47:54
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Yes, I am.
• 47:57
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, Oh my gosh, you know.
• 47:59
  SPEAKER_00: So I called DeAndre.
• 48:00
  SPEAKER_00: I said, DeAndre, guess what?
• 48:01
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody just walked up to me and asked the fan, Andre's mommy.
• 48:04
  SPEAKER_00: His response, oh my god, that have to be one of my fans.
• 48:07
  SPEAKER_00: I said, What fans are you talking about, bro?
• 48:10
  SPEAKER_00: What fans are you talking about?
• 48:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that has to be a follow-up.
• 48:14
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Yes, DeAndre.
• 48:15
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, of course.
• 48:17
  SPEAKER_00: But honestly, though, like I feel like this whole social media thing is such a win-win.
• 48:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 48:22
  SPEAKER_00: Andre's personality has grown.
• 48:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, if two days pass, he will ask us, mommy, and a tape in my.
• 48:28
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, really?
• 48:28
  SPEAKER_00: He comes to the know.
• 48:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 48:30
  Corie: What was he like initially?
• 48:31
  Corie: He heard the resistances.
• 48:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, very introverted, like, don't really know, don't really want to talk a lot and whatever.
• 48:37
  SPEAKER_00: But let me tell you, I pick up that phone curry.
• 48:40
  SPEAKER_00: My boy goes into straight character mode.
• 48:42
  SPEAKER_00: Serious?
• 48:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 48:43
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, I tell people, I said it's a win-win.
• 48:46
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we are sharing our journey and experiences, but it's also helping DeAndre to grow.
• 48:51
  SPEAKER_00: And I love that for him.
• 48:52
  Corie: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 48:54
  Corie: It's some more that I don't want to talk about the celebrity experiences.
• 48:57
  Corie: But before I get there, I come back to Carnaval because when he comes this morning and ask, you know where all they went all and go nowhere.
• 49:02
  Corie: So I want to know what you and Cook is really come Carnaval for.
• 49:04
  SPEAKER_00: But we usually start, but I usually dedicate a day to my family.
• 49:08
  Corie: Right.
• 49:09
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 49:09
  SPEAKER_00: So we came in Saturday evening.
• 49:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um, yesterday was to spend time with my father.
• 49:14
  Corie: Family Don't Randy Solo.
• 49:15
  Corie: Yeah.
• 49:15
  Corie: Okay, okay, okay.
• 49:16
  SPEAKER_00: And my aunt, I have two, two of my aunts left from my grandmother's sisters.
• 49:20
  SPEAKER_00: So I try to hold on to that family um value first.
• 49:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I usually start early with the fetid.
• 49:27
  SPEAKER_00: However, I really wanted to pull and give back.
• 49:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I had radio this morning.
• 49:32
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 49:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um, then I have you, and then I have another engagement after with CKFTO.
• 49:38
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, so I wanted to kind of get these things out the way because this is my purpose and mission.
• 49:43
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 49:43
  SPEAKER_00: Carnival is always there.
• 49:44
  Corie: Yeah.
• 49:45
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 49:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's always there.
• 49:46
  Corie: And it's like, is it last time you played mass, right?
• 49:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but that might change, right?
• 49:52
  SPEAKER_00: You never know.
• 49:53
  SPEAKER_00: But I wanted to get these important things out the way.
• 49:57
  SPEAKER_00: And then so when I start a fet, I don't have to worry about nothing.
• 50:01
  Corie: Well, I want to know any fet schedule and the mass schedule, but do you get a chance to connect directly with the community when they come on?
• 50:06
  Corie: Something you're working on?
• 50:08
  SPEAKER_00: Something I'm working on, yeah.
• 50:09
  Corie: Especially as you have groups of the moms and stuff.
• 50:11
  Corie: That would be something.
• 50:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 50:13
  SPEAKER_00: Definitely.
• 50:13
  SPEAKER_00: I need to come off carnival season to do a couple of those things.
• 50:18
  Corie: Because them mummies are available now, either.
• 50:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I recently became an autism coach.
• 50:24
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, nice.
• 50:24
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm really working on helping parents.
• 50:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I really want to work with helping parents ask the questions that they're uncomfortable with and let them know that it's okay, they're not on the journey alone.
• 50:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but my fat lineup, Corey boy, it it's not too bad this year, honestly, because you know I have all these other engagements, but I'm on the road with humor.
• 50:45
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, you're going to humor?
• 50:46
  SPEAKER_00: Humor.
• 50:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, you never play masses here.
• 50:50
  Corie: Yeah, I like humor.
• 50:51
  Corie: I like humor.
• 50:52
  SPEAKER_00: Human cool, man.
• 50:53
  SPEAKER_00: Was it breakfoot?
• 50:55
  SPEAKER_00: Don't play mass.
• 50:56
  Corie: I don't know if it's just a breakfoot now.
• 50:58
  Corie: Because if you leave people in a certain state home for two days, they don't feel comfortable reaching home drunk now.
• 51:03
  Corie: Let me put it like that, right?
• 51:05
  Corie: Being the only drunk one in the house is not welcome.
• 51:08
  Corie: Yeah.
• 51:08
  Corie: But humor is home, or you usually play mass in different bands?
• 51:11
  SPEAKER_00: So I was a tribe and I went from tribe to bliss for many years, and now I'm with humor, and the vibes is on match.
• 51:17
  Corie: Yeah.
• 51:17
  SPEAKER_00: So humor called me.
• 51:19
  SPEAKER_00: DM me.
• 51:20
  Corie: Yeah.
• 51:20
  SPEAKER_00: Sell my seller.
• 51:22
  Corie: I want to understand.
• 51:23
  Corie: I want to understand what it brought.
• 51:24
  SPEAKER_00: You're paid to go fets on them kind of thing, or how yes, I got I got tickets to um Punchy.
• 51:32
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, nice.
• 51:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I got tickets to Punchy.
• 51:35
  SPEAKER_00: But um, yeah, but most of the other fets we paid.
• 51:38
  SPEAKER_00: One of my fets that I'm looking forward to go to is Mecca.
• 51:41
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 51:42
  SPEAKER_00: Mecca is where that old culture meets new culture.
• 51:47
  SPEAKER_00: That info.
• 51:48
  Corie: It's David Padner Fett.
• 51:49
  SPEAKER_00: Uh-huh.
• 51:50
  Corie: Yeah, yeah.
• 51:53
  Corie: Yeah, but I like we had Schoon Hill and he was talking about it, and I found it to be very um like you hear opinions about the big fets and the promoters a lot.
• 52:04
  Corie: But he made it a point to say the way he built characters into Mekal and the traditional characters, which I'm sure somebody like we are people like when I'm abroad for a week, I just started really appreciating that.
• 52:16
  Corie: I like like I like Maryland a lot, but I want to come home.
• 52:20
  Corie: I just want to come here.
• 52:21
  Corie: So I can imagine when you're living abroad for that amount of time to come there, see the characters, see not just a party, but a cultural.
• 52:31
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, wow.
• 52:32
  SPEAKER_00: It just gave you the fire blowers, the I mean the midnight prop.
• 52:36
  SPEAKER_00: It was just everything in one, you know, and I just love it.
• 52:40
  SPEAKER_00: I'm looking forward.
• 52:40
  SPEAKER_00: I hope they moved the venue.
• 52:42
  Corie: So I hope it's you know just as much.
• 52:45
  Corie: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 52:46
  Corie: I want to see when you come next year.
• 52:48
  SPEAKER_00: Uh-huh.
• 52:48
  Corie: When Andre comes.
• 52:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 52:50
  Corie: I want everything recorded.
• 52:52
  Corie: I need to see his reaction to these characters, firebowers.
• 52:56
  Corie: That's a lot, you know.
• 52:58
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I tell Andre, I say, you know, for carnival, uh, some women will want to wine.
• 53:02
  SPEAKER_00: He said, Why not me, mommy?
• 53:04
  SPEAKER_00: My dance.
• 53:04
  SPEAKER_00: I said, But yeah, that's part of it.
• 53:06
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, Oh, I don't know.
• 53:08
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 53:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you're stressing out, my guy.
• 53:10
  Corie: You're stressing.
• 53:11
  Corie: So, even in spaces like those, because I saw you, one of the things I really, really enjoy seeing out Silnia was seeing uh Graham Smogan respond to Andrew.
• 53:20
  Corie: And then seeing you all go to a show, he's singing the loudest.
• 53:23
  Corie: Yes.
• 53:23
  Corie: In spaces like those, the noise is not noise to him, the music is interpreted differently.
• 53:28
  SPEAKER_00: So when they were setting up and you're doing um the checks and stuff, it kind of startled him a little bit.
• 53:33
  SPEAKER_00: So I told him, I said, Pull him aside, I said, listen, it's gonna be okay.
• 53:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's gonna be, it's like that's because you're checking the song system.
• 53:41
  SPEAKER_00: Once I told him that, man, I went and gave him a sprite and he said, Let me go up front.
• 53:45
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Oh god, Andre, I don't like front.
• 53:50
  SPEAKER_00: But but I wanted him to get the experience.
• 53:52
  SPEAKER_00: Let me tell you, that boy sang every bit of song.
• 53:56
  SPEAKER_00: We didn't stay back to see Grams Morgan, though, but um Grams Morgan sent him a message.
• 54:01
  Corie: Right.
• 54:01
  SPEAKER_00: And he's getting ready to do a video cool with Graham Smogan when we go back.
• 54:05
  SPEAKER_00: He loves Bram Smogan.
• 54:08
  SPEAKER_00: So Grams Morgan has about 11 kids, and I think one of them has, I'm not sure what is the disability, but I know that the child has a disability, and his wife is a doctor, and she's big into I think the stem cells and stuff.
• 54:24
  SPEAKER_00: So I would love to sit with them and yeah, connect and sit back and listen to, but he loves Andre boys, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 54:32
  SPEAKER_00: And then I think when once he falls in love with Andre is when Andre started talking about his brother Peter, the Andre was like, Grams Morgan, yeah, and about your I'm so sorry about your brother Peter.
• 54:43
  SPEAKER_00: And he was like, What did he just say?
• 54:45
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Yeah, he know that your brother passed on.
• 54:48
  SPEAKER_00: He was like, That just that's that's it.
• 54:50
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, That's it.
• 54:51
  SPEAKER_00: I love that boy, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 54:53
  Corie: Yeah, it's something else.
• 54:54
  Corie: I saw you recently looking at starting a podcast with him as well.
• 54:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 54:58
  Corie: Wasn't he in the podcast?
• 54:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's called Autistically Speaking with DeAndrea and Josie.
• 55:02
  SPEAKER_00: And it's just us having autism conversations, sharing our journeys.
• 55:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, a very unfiltered version.
• 55:08
  SPEAKER_00: Right, you know, um, some some episodes I'll do by myself because if I repeat stories about him, he wouldn't like it.
• 55:14
  SPEAKER_00: No, no, no, no, so like what I just told you about how we flip the table.
• 55:19
  Corie: Yeah, or you don't like sex.
• 55:21
  SPEAKER_00: Please don't speak about that.
• 55:23
  Corie: Oh, you'll tell you don't speak about it.
• 55:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, you will tell me, don't speak on it.
• 55:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 55:27
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, I'm just I'm just excited for it all, Corey.
• 55:32
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like this is my journey, you know, and I'm just excited to help people along the way.
• 55:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know, push Andre forward.
• 55:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um, in April month, we'll be featured on UPS for their um focus feature group chats.
• 55:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it's called Lunch and Loon.
• 55:50
  SPEAKER_00: So we'll be featured on there.
• 55:52
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, it's going to be shootout worldwide.
• 55:54
  SPEAKER_00: So Andre and I will be on there.
• 55:56
  SPEAKER_00: I just got an invitation to be honored at the Caribbean Woman, Caribbean and African Woman Honors Association of the Consider.
• 56:04
  Corie: So I'm excited about that as well.
• 56:06
  Corie: Yeah, yeah.
• 56:07
  Corie: Well, as somebody who completely overstimulated podcasting because of people like these and so on, you see what it's saying, right?
• 56:14
  Corie: How how he didn't know that?
• 56:15
  Corie: He's comfortable in front of the camera and he's he loves the camera.
• 56:19
  SPEAKER_00: He loves the camera.
• 56:20
  Corie: Because you didn't just do it.
• 56:21
  Corie: Uh, we we talked about that a few times before you went, but you went to a studio or you started building a studio.
• 56:26
  SPEAKER_00: I went to this coffee shop that because we live pretty far, right?
• 56:30
  SPEAKER_00: And um, when I explained to the guy what my purpose was, the guy works directly with Special Olympics.
• 56:37
  SPEAKER_00: He said, Oh, you could have the venue for free.
• 56:40
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Oh, say free.
• 56:42
  SPEAKER_00: I like free.
• 56:43
  SPEAKER_00: So we ended up having about 70 people showed up for the launch, yeah, for the launch of the podcast.
• 56:50
  SPEAKER_00: I was super nervous because I didn't know how Andre would have reacted.
• 56:54
  SPEAKER_00: The Andre got up there and stole the show.
• 56:57
  SPEAKER_00: So one of the questions are we talking about God?
• 56:59
  SPEAKER_00: And I say, Andre, you just pray him long time ago.
• 57:04
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what?
• 57:07
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Jesus Christ, what did I just ask this kid?
• 57:10
  SPEAKER_00: He just so blunt.
• 57:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 57:13
  SPEAKER_00: What you get is what you get.
• 57:15
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, but um, again, it's a win-win.
• 57:18
  SPEAKER_00: Like he's excited to sit down and record.
• 57:20
  SPEAKER_00: We do about 25 minutes max because after that he will sort of get you know jiggly and he gotta get up and move.
• 57:27
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, he's real excited about it.
• 57:30
  SPEAKER_00: So he said that next time he wants to write down questions to ask me.
• 57:34
  SPEAKER_00: So I said, okay.
• 57:35
  SPEAKER_00: So at first he didn't know what a podcast is, right?
• 57:39
  SPEAKER_00: So I told him I said, go on YouTube and start researching, and then he was like, Oh, I like it.
• 57:44
  SPEAKER_00: So he know that somebody has to have a piece of paper in their hand.
• 57:47
  SPEAKER_00: So he's like, I'm gonna write questions for you.
• 57:49
  SPEAKER_00: So that's fine.
• 57:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I hope when I answer it, you don't get vexed, but okay.
• 57:56
  Corie: One thing I show about, and I see it on your page as well as your podcast.
• 58:00
  Corie: There's an authenticity that that that shines through it.
• 58:03
  Corie: You can hardly tell that people on camera are being recorded, and it feels as if we're getting a little bit of a glimpse into just your household and how you all interact.
• 58:12
  Corie: Yeah, it's something I'm really, really grateful for.
• 58:14
  Corie: And thanks for choosing us to do this.
• 58:16
  Corie: Thanks for all your advice and guidance completely.
• 58:19
  Corie: I as you see now, was that?
• 58:21
  SPEAKER_03: Sorry, I wanted to ask the question.
• 58:23
  SPEAKER_03: Oh no, go ahead.
• 58:24
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so I just wanted to ask one question.
• 58:27
  SPEAKER_03: I followed a news story recently that a 16-year-old boy rescued some climbers somewhere in the world.
• 58:37
  SPEAKER_03: But his explanation for doing the act when there were others that um there were no professionals, but there was other climbers.
• 58:45
  SPEAKER_03: He was a he's a climber as well.
• 58:47
  SPEAKER_03: But he was actually able to do it because he explained that he doesn't really feel fear.
• 58:54
  SPEAKER_03: And said it's an autistic yeah, that fear isn't really a factor.
• 59:02
  SPEAKER_03: Now I've heard you say before that you know he might be alone, so there might be a fear factor in there, but it's as if as innocently you can go into a space, but what is how what is the how is that?
• 59:18
  SPEAKER_00: For Andre, you're talking about, right?
• 59:19
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, yes, yes.
• 59:20
  SPEAKER_03: Or if he is also like that.
• 59:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, I would say so.
• 59:26
  SPEAKER_00: The Andre could be very fearless at sometimes.
• 59:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um again, I'll use the podcast for the example, the launch.
• 59:34
  SPEAKER_00: I was nervous because I didn't know how he would react to the people in the crowd, um, or just with us flowing the conversation, and he blew my mind.
• 59:45
  SPEAKER_00: Completely blow my mind.
• 59:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so to your point about that kid, especially, it's very true.
• 59:55
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of kids on the spectrum because they don't know limitations and they don't know.
• 1:00:01
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 1:00:01
  SPEAKER_00: So they I had um interaction with this one parent that has a son that's fascinated with cars.
• 1:00:09
  SPEAKER_00: So everywhere is cars, but he thinks if a car passed on the road, he could just run in front of it again, fearless.
• 1:00:16
  SPEAKER_00: They don't know the difference.
• 1:00:17
  SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, that is very true.
• 1:00:19
  SPEAKER_00: But for me, I feel like we have grown and taught the Andre and groomed the Andrew to a point where he kind of knows, kind of knows his yeah.
• 1:00:27
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that is something that just has to be taught.
• 1:00:29
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, it has to be.
• 1:00:30
  SPEAKER_03: Because this boy was a climber, so he was accustomed to climbing.
• 1:00:33
  SPEAKER_03: So going down this path to get to them.
• 1:00:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it has to be taught.
• 1:00:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's not not something that comes naturally.
• 1:00:39
  SPEAKER_00: Like if we see a big dream, we know to stop, you know, or jump over with someone with the autism spectrum.
• 1:00:44
  SPEAKER_00: They might they might just stand there and cry or probably try to jump down it.
• 1:00:48
  SPEAKER_00: They don't know.
• 1:00:50
  SPEAKER_00: So it do these are the things, and that is why it's so important for us to teach our children simple skills.
• 1:00:56
  Corie: Thanks a lot.
• 1:00:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, could do something then, right?
• 1:01:01
  Corie: So this one just on around and do get on.
• 1:01:05
  Corie: Sorry, that was out loud.
• 1:01:07
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, David, listen though.
• 1:01:10
  SPEAKER_00: It had a story, it's still going viral, where this I think he's 16 or 17 young boy was beating his mother in the kitchen.
• 1:01:18
  Corie: I mean, you saw it?
• 1:01:20
  Corie: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:01:20
  Corie: There's a whole page, you know, there's show you everything you do.
• 1:01:24
  SPEAKER_00: So here's so, and people like Josie, speak on it, speak on it.
• 1:01:28
  SPEAKER_00: I don't really like to speak too much on it because I feel like my page and my mission is really our journey.
• 1:01:34
  SPEAKER_00: But here's what it is for a child to be that aggressive, the Andre, DeAndre definitely has been aggressive before, but I am a Trinidadian mother.
• 1:01:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, she says the mother says to the son, um, forget his name.
• 1:01:50
  SPEAKER_00: Let's call him Tim.
• 1:01:51
  SPEAKER_00: Tim, stop! Yes, he responds, no.
• 1:01:56
  SPEAKER_00: Tells me you are understanding what you're doing.
• 1:02:01
  SPEAKER_00: Boy, that flying pan would have come.
• 1:02:04
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
• 1:02:05
  SPEAKER_00: But again, learned behaviors.
• 1:02:07
  SPEAKER_00: If she had stopped him from the very first time he said it'd be so the aggression comes from the overstimulation, they cannot control certain things in their bodies, right?
• 1:02:16
  SPEAKER_00: So, yes, you find them, some of them will stim going back and forth, jump, flap to all of that.
• 1:02:22
  SPEAKER_00: Aggression is one hitting, stamping, whatever.
• 1:02:25
  SPEAKER_00: But you have not because autism is not an excuse.
• 1:02:30
  unknown: Correct.
• 1:02:30
  SPEAKER_00: It is not, you are raising a child, typical or not, you have to teach your child certain things, and that's why DeAndre is so well mattered.
• 1:02:39
  SPEAKER_00: My morals and my values of being a Trinidadian, you're getting that autism or not.
• 1:02:45
  SPEAKER_03: I think you said when he says his pants down in his room, you would go in there as a mother.
• 1:02:53
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you're not going in there as a friend.
• 1:02:55
  SPEAKER_03: No, you were literally oppressed him.
• 1:02:58
  SPEAKER_03: It doesn't have to be physically abusive, but you went in there to prove that you are the mother, you are to listen to me.
• 1:03:06
  SPEAKER_00: Correct, that's right.
• 1:03:06
  SPEAKER_00: All I had to do was to look at him, and when you when I'm upset with him, he's very uncomfortable.
• 1:03:13
  SPEAKER_00: He comes the entire can we talk now?
• 1:03:16
  SPEAKER_00: Mommy, can't you are you feeling better?
• 1:03:17
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, no, I'm not.
• 1:03:19
  SPEAKER_00: Check my back in our hour.
• 1:03:20
  SPEAKER_00: No, I'm not.
• 1:03:21
  SPEAKER_00: But it's just to teach him your behavior hurts my feelings.
• 1:03:25
  SPEAKER_00: So here we are.
• 1:03:26
  SPEAKER_03: Like any mother child or parents.
• 1:03:28
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, child.
• 1:03:29
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 1:03:30
  SPEAKER_00: I don't treat him any different.
• 1:03:32
  Corie: Yeah.
• 1:03:33
  Corie: Yeah, it was the same thing, it was the same thing that Glenn was saying in terms of that feeling.
• 1:03:37
  Corie: So he talks a lot about the word special and how it's used in context here.
• 1:03:41
  Corie: Correct.
• 1:03:41
  Corie: You know, and and and it causes people to just, you know, he don't find a lot of differences special and spoiled.
• 1:03:47
  Corie: He's like, I agree.
• 1:03:49
  SPEAKER_00: I agree with that a hundred percent.
• 1:03:52
  SPEAKER_00: No, get my Glenn number.
• 1:03:56
  Corie: Well, yeah, seriously, ladies.
• 1:04:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you have to be.
• 1:04:02
  SPEAKER_00: You have like like in the American culture, you walk past people, you don't say morning, good evening, excuse me.
• 1:04:07
  SPEAKER_00: What?
• 1:04:08
  SPEAKER_00: DeAndre better not.
• 1:04:09
  Corie: Yeah, seriously.
• 1:04:10
  SPEAKER_00: You better not.
• 1:04:11
  Corie: I thought I don't leave this one alone.
• 1:04:13
  SPEAKER_00: But again, all of that helps him to be the person that he is today, you know.
• 1:04:18
  SPEAKER_00: You know, just to see DeAndre.
• 1:04:21
  SPEAKER_00: I was telling him, that's about the same guy last time.
• 1:04:23
  SPEAKER_00: Him, oh my god, mommy, that is awesome.
• 1:04:25
  SPEAKER_00: That is him.
• 1:04:26
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't know I was a celebrity in front.
• 1:04:27
  SPEAKER_00: That I said, oh my god, here you go.
• 1:04:30
  SPEAKER_00: Here you go with this celebrity talk, brother.
• 1:04:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, yes.
• 1:04:33
  SPEAKER_00: Like, because I call him, I was like, Yeah, bro.
• 1:04:35
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, I'm not your bro, I'm your son.
• 1:04:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um yeah, the other day he got so mad with me, Corey, because I will I'll call my husband, babe, and I just call he, babe.
• 1:04:47
  SPEAKER_00: He called me on his phone.
• 1:04:48
  SPEAKER_00: He said, I have something to say.
• 1:04:50
  SPEAKER_00: What happened?
• 1:04:50
  SPEAKER_00: What happened, Andre?
• 1:04:52
  SPEAKER_00: When you call me babe, it's disgusting.
• 1:04:55
  SPEAKER_00: His words to me, I am not your husband, I am your son.
• 1:05:00
  SPEAKER_00: Call me honey.
• 1:05:02
  Corie: Yeah, take your time.
• 1:05:03
  SPEAKER_00: What is wrong with you?
• 1:05:04
  SPEAKER_00: But he's right though.
• 1:05:05
  Corie: Clearly, that's the way you feel.
• 1:05:07
  Corie: Don't call him baby.
• 1:05:10
  Corie: He had to appreciate that.
• 1:05:11
  Corie: I had to appreciate that.
• 1:05:12
  SPEAKER_00: He definitely has.
• 1:05:13
  SPEAKER_00: The Andre has really made me grow as well.
• 1:05:17
  SPEAKER_00: I was very impatient.
• 1:05:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, um, and again, I felt like it couldn't happen to me.
• 1:05:21
  SPEAKER_00: Like these things in life couldn't happen to me, and everything that couldn't happen happened.
• 1:05:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and Andre has been that person to help me grow and mature and understand life, you know.
• 1:05:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and you can see it pushing forward.
• 1:05:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:05:35
  Corie: So is it your passion now?
• 1:05:36
  Corie: Yeah.
• 1:05:36
  Corie: And you find your life's purpose.
• 1:05:38
  Corie: Where you see it going, where you want to take it?
• 1:05:40
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah.
• 1:05:42
  SPEAKER_00: Worldwide, but mostly here.
• 1:05:44
  Corie: Yeah.
• 1:05:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:05:45
  SPEAKER_00: I am seeing some big workshops in the making, um, speaking engagements.
• 1:05:52
  SPEAKER_00: I'm seeing all of that, you know.
• 1:05:54
  SPEAKER_00: But when the time is right, it will happen.
• 1:05:57
  Corie: Yeah, that's good.
• 1:05:58
  Corie: That's good, that's good.
• 1:05:58
  Corie: And Carnaval, Carnaval.
• 1:06:00
  Corie: In the future, still done with that.
• 1:06:02
  SPEAKER_00: Still doing my carnival and it may join next year.
• 1:06:06
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know about mass, but yeah.
• 1:06:07
  Corie: At least sometimes.
• 1:06:08
  SPEAKER_00: Unless you welcome, huh?
• 1:06:09
  Corie: Yeah.
• 1:06:10
  Corie: Well, you had to make the calls.
• 1:06:12
  Corie: That's something we learn now.
• 1:06:13
  SPEAKER_00: You had to make the calls.
• 1:06:15
  Corie: Because I'm sure again the community here, you see it.
• 1:06:18
  Corie: The engagements is high.
• 1:06:19
  Corie: TikTok, especially.
• 1:06:20
  Corie: Like, there's nothing you could do without the I'm telling you.
• 1:06:24
  Corie: People excited about it.
• 1:06:26
  Corie: Yeah.
• 1:06:26
  Corie: So again, thanks a million.
• 1:06:27
  Corie: I appreciate the coming through.
• 1:06:28
  Corie: It's been a pleasure meeting you.
• 1:06:30
  Corie: Thanks for all the advice and the guidance.
• 1:06:32
  Corie: Yes.
• 1:06:33
  Corie: Your patience has helped my patience a little bit.
• 1:06:35
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm so happy to see you on Patreon.
• 1:06:37
  Corie: Yeah, look how long they'll do.
• 1:06:39
  Corie: Go get David started now.
• 1:06:42
  Corie: Look how long we talk about that.
• 1:06:43
  Corie: And it's going relatively well in it.
• 1:06:45
  Corie: Yeah, people, people follow me.
• 1:06:46
  SPEAKER_00: We need to tap into school next.
• 1:06:48
  SPEAKER_00: Which one is it?
• 1:06:49
  SPEAKER_00: School.
• 1:06:49
  SPEAKER_00: Remember I was telling you about school?
• 1:06:51
  Corie: When you start things with me, but you remember, the answer is always.
• 1:06:54
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 1:06:55
  SPEAKER_00: So school.
• 1:06:55
  SPEAKER_00: Look into school.
• 1:06:57
  Corie: Right.
• 1:06:57
  SPEAKER_00: S-K-O-O-L.
• 1:06:58
  SPEAKER_00: I will do that.
• 1:06:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:07:00
  SPEAKER_00: I will do that.
• 1:07:00
  SPEAKER_00: And it's a good thing.
• 1:07:02
  SPEAKER_00: We're off, right?
• 1:07:02
  SPEAKER_00: We done?
• 1:07:03
  SPEAKER_00: No, don't you?
• 1:07:04
  Corie: We never done until we get up, you know?
• 1:07:05
  Corie: We're good.
• 1:07:07
  Corie: Unless you want this out.
• 1:07:08
  SPEAKER_00: And um, it's a it's a way for you guys, especially with coming together as a team to teach people if you want to have a successful podcast, here it is that you have to subscribe to us.
• 1:07:18
  SPEAKER_00: So it's a community.
• 1:07:20
  SPEAKER_00: So people subscribe, like say it's$20 a month or whatever.
• 1:07:23
  SPEAKER_00: And every week you drop a nugget in there.
• 1:07:26
  SPEAKER_00: And if someone wants to have a one-on-one, which is a different fee.
• 1:07:30
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 1:07:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:07:31
  SPEAKER_03: I think that's a good that's that's a great one.
• 1:07:33
  SPEAKER_00: I think I'll do it with my autism community.
• 1:07:35
  Corie: Yeah, you teach it.
• 1:07:36
  Corie: Yeah.
• 1:07:37
  Corie: You teach it.
• 1:07:38
  Corie: I don't know, so it's clear.
• 1:07:41
  Corie: But thanks a millionaire.
• 1:07:42
  Corie: I appreciate it.
• 1:07:43
  Corie: This is what we're supposed to shake hands, and it's like, no, this is what we supposed to do.