Article By: Tabi Cooper
Article Date: 02/23/2008
When I think about my special friend, I think about my friend Greg.He always been there for me and he is the first one that I contact when I need someone to talk to or to tell him some news, either by phone, Facebook, MySpace, or occasionally by AIM.
I first met Greg in college at a diversity event at our residence hall. He was putting on a disability awareness simulation of a person reciting the color of what the color words are, not the color word itself, and I had no problems with it. For example, if the word yellow is in blue, the person says blue, not yellow. He mentioned that there are people that have a hard time with it, since both parts used different parts of the brain. During our conservation, he and I mentioned about our two disabilities, he with dyslexia and me with autism. Greg was the first person that I told that I am autistic
during the first meeting and before then, I did not tell anyone during the first meeting. He did invite me to come to the next Students for Disability Awareness meeting, in which I attended and later became the public relations chair. If it was not for Greg, I would not even been involved with SDA.
Ever since that day, he and I became good friends. I do not know if I will call him my best friend, but he is a special friend to me. Through Greg, I got to know many of his Sigma Chi brothers and I became friends with them. I even presented my autism program to their chapter and afterwords, Greg gave me a tour of the house. Whenever I
wrote a note on Facebook or gave something to Sigma Chi, Greg shared it to them during their chapter. I also mailed them some pictures that I took to them and I am pretty sure that Greg will share them to his Sigma Chi brothers. I even made him a collage of the pictures that I have of him, including the one in a John Trovola pose while he
was wearing a 1970s era suit.
When I told him that I was graduating from college, he was upset. He asked me, “Why do you have to graduate?” When I asked him why he was upset, he said, “I need to find a new PR chair.” I guess that he felt that way because SDA is losing a valuable member of their executive board. In my memory book that I passed around just before graduation,
he wrote in there, “It has been an honor working with you on SDA and having a great friend like you. Congratulations on graduating and I hope for nothing but the best for the future.” After the college graduation ceremony, he was the first person that I called and told him that I am finally graduated and to tell the guys thanks for the support.
Greg always been there for me, ever since the first meeting. He and I accepted each other, I have no problems with him being dyslexic and he has no problems with me being autistic. Greg is an important person in my life and the most special friend that I could ever ask for.