Image source: all images belong to @positivesteem
Hi all...it's time to participate in ASEAN Hive Community Challenge round #4. The theme for this week is Who Do You Follow In ASEAN Hive & Why? Honestly, I wasn't sure if I wanted to participate in this round because I don't follow many people 😅. But then I remember I do follow some inspiring and awesome people from the ASEAN Hive Community. But I am going to feature only one person in this post. So here goes.
Introducing Positivesteem
The person I want to feature today is none other than @positivesteem. I have been following Positivesteem since the early days of Steemit. That was about 5 years ago. When I first joined this platform, I knew no one apart from a fellow coloring book artist @kaylinart. She had been sharing a great deal about Steemit on Facebook, and it compelled me to check it out. I was a bit lost and didn't know my way around, and that was when I did a search if there were any fellow Malaysians on the platform. And that was how I "met" Positivesteem.
Positivesteem is a motivational blogger, a poet, an economist, and a father to an autistic son. Back then, he posted many of his poems and motivational posts, which I liked very much. But what touched me the most was the posts he wrote about his autistic son, Jonathan. I remember reading one memorable post detailing his experience when he and his wife, Roselind, discovered their son's condition. If I remember correctly, Jonathan was about 5 years old when he started to exhibit some of his symptoms. Initially, they thought he was just acting up because his younger sister, Victoria, had just been born. However, nothing seemed to work despite their effort to "discipline" him. This happened in the 90s when knowledge about autism was not as widely spread as it is today. And the information about autism was very limited (or perhaps non-existent) in Malaysia back then. There was no Internet too.
Their struggles and love for Jonathan inspired his wife, Roselind, to establish the Sarawak Autistic Association (now changed to Kuching Autistic Association) together with Positivesteem as the founding Vice-President. For the past 24 years, the Association has helped many people with autism through its programs.
The vision of the Association is:
To enable people with autism to achieve their full potential and to live useful, independent and economically productive lives.
Source: KAA
In this post Weekend Engagement: My Journey Towards Self-Compassion And Self-Love, Positivesteem wrote about his struggles in looking after Jonathan and his self-care journey.
Positivesteem also wrote about his lovely wife, Roselind. In this post, he shared a very sweet poem dedicated to her: A Poem For My Wife: You By My Side
And he is a proud dad to a beautiful daughter, Victoria. He briefly reminisced about his journey raising her up to be the remarkable young woman she is today: Sunday Reflection: Dream Big Victoria
And not only that, Positivesteem also loves to write about his traveling experiences. In this post, he shared some of his experiences when he visited Lake Baikal, Russia: An Epic Encounter With Nature In Lake Baikal: The Oldest, Biggest And Deepest Lake In The World
So Why Do I Follow Positivesteem?
Isn't it obvious? I am truly inspired by the love and sacrifices he made for his family. His struggles and dedication to raising his special son humble me. Raising a normal child is difficult enough; most parents can attest to that. We have to encounter so many challenges, and we need to constantly "upgrade" our parenting skills. But how do you raise a special needs child when there isn't much (or non at all) information and help available? Where do you go for help? Who would understand and be able to relate to your struggles? It must have been a very lonely journey. But they did not give in to despair and kept on persevering to understand and meet their son's needs. They even set up an Association to help other people with similar struggles. Their dedication has indeed brought so many benefits to others. I think that is a very admirable feat. I deeply respect and admire Positivesteem for his positive attitude and determination.
That's it for now. If you read this far, thank you. I appreciate it so much! Kindly give me a follow if you like my content. I mostly write about making art, life musing, and our mundane yet charming family life here in Klang Valley, Malaysia.
Thank you for visiting and reading my post. I hope you like it!
My First NFT Collection – Stencil 2017 – Is Now Available On OpenSea
My Second NFT Collection – Oli Kawaii Verse – Is Now Available On OpenSea
