Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Christopher Cleveland. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Christopher, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Has your work ever been misunderstood or mischaracterized?
More than once, growing up, I displayed characteristics that were typical of my autism but could be deemed odd or even unsafe or “not normal” until information about what autism was started circulating more. When I started getting involved with advocacy for the neurodivergent community of my hometown, I designed (in collusion with my former Middle School Principal) an afterschool project that was supposed to teach job and social skills to autistic teenagers and help others with differing neurological capabilities find their best selves. In combination with COVID and my co-creator’s retirement from the job that had brought us together for this, I came to realize that I had not secured true consensus (as opposed to just professional approval via unanimous vote) and had worked among people who didn’t understand my mission and (until it was too late) how keeping me from it was not helping it at all.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
As mentioned in the last interview, I’m an adult on the autism spectrum who completed a Bachelor of Science degree in Secondary Education Social Studies Teaching. I have since renewed my teaching licensure and successfully applied for graduate school to attain a Master of Education in Instructional Leadership, designed to teach me the characteristics of administrative leadership in a school system. I was inspired to take on such an arduous task when I was 15 and my mentor (who passed away, July 2021) would ask me to peer tutor in subjects of proficiency such as English and History, something that was later reinforced when my 11th grade US History teacher took me on as a TA in my senior year and asked me to prepare miniature lectures when he had nothing for me to do and present them to the class. Examples included the life of King Tut, Genghis Khan, and Julius Caesar.
In college, I was introduced to the world of Kung Fu and Tai Chi in the search for elective credits to fulfill my degree requirements and after I graduated in 2017, I found a master who could teach me both in my hometown where I have been training for four years. I have since learned two forms of Tai Chi, a number of meditative forms from the family of Sheng Zhen, Nei Gong, a Kung Fu form that is also practiced by Jet Li (best known as Bagua) and an Okinawan form of Karate called Isshin-Ryu. I also train in the Japanese sword form Kenjutsu with a 16th generation samurai/ninja warrior from Kyushuu province, Japan, via Zoom and I was recently permitted to teach the basics of my sword style to a group of neurodivergent high school students an experimental curriculum that will safely introduce Japanese history and swordsmanship to the next generation.
In 2020, in a need for some work that I could do as a result of the lockdowns taking my school jobs almost completely out of the picture until summer came, I applied for a position with a then up and starting branch of a statewide caregiving company. I have since been a part of that company for 1 1/2 years and consistently receive high marks for the quality of care and dependability I’m able to provide my clients. I’ve even gotten up as early as 4 AM to ensure that a client who needed morning services received adequate care.
I guess the main takeaway I wish for readers to get from this is that I am proud to say that in spite of rather legitimate impediments I possessed in childhood and early adulthoood (behaviors resulting from my autism, instability in my home life before I was ten, and some traumatic experiences with regards to my love life-or lack thereof, now) I have beaten it on and my best years have not yet begun.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
When I graduated college in 2017, I had failed to secure a job in my degree which was again Social Studies in the High School. Having spent so much of my life preparing for that endgame by that point, and having been told by someone I once thought was on my side that he wouldn’t recommend me to teach anywhere in the District, I fell into a deep depression which lasted almost a year. I related the details of what happened to my mentor as best as I was able and he told me exactly what I needed to hear: that for all my failures, he was still proud of what I had become. Several months after that conversation, I saw that an opening existed for tutoring teenagers in the Afterschool program in which I was once enrolled and, hoping for nothing but a chance at redemption as an educator (bear in mind, at this point I’d fallen so far down I thought I was in need of redemption), I put in an application. While I have since left the Afterschool job after three years with them, I have since found more than mere redemption: I found my salvation in the meditative/martial arts, restored my sense of purpose with new information, and deliverance into an even better life than I was living before my fall. As for the gentleman that made the recommendation, our community has essentially disavowed him and have taken drastic measures to ensure he doesn’t work with our children again. During all of that, I continued to independently write and publish books which are now available on Amazon and the local public library.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
During the 2020 lockdowns, my Afterschool job (which was my primary source of income at the time) was completely shutdown and I was hosting professional Mentoring sessions over different video call services like Zoom or (with permission from parents and using their accounts) Facebook Messengers. At the time, I was also still involved in a job I’d worked since before I joined the Afterschool program which involved collecting samples from recovering addicts and ensuring that they were staying in recovery. At one point, I was the only available personnel for the job in general and given every day of the week for nearly two months, along with a letter to present police if I was asked to return to quarantine, specifying that I was an essential worker. However, especially once summer hit, I needed something more stable and searched for jobs that didn’t require additional certifications but also were not heavily afflicted by the lockdowns. I eventually found an application for a caregiving position where I became the first non-administrative hire in Southeast Utah and, for a time, the only practicing caregiver in the company. Since then, two more permanent members joined us, others came and went, but I worked for all but three months of my tenure at which I receive nothing but high remarks. Thankfully, I was able to continue practicing martial arts (to a form) or I would’ve been truly distraught. That said, my then long-distance girlfriend at the time (we’ve since broken up) was still instrumental in making sure I stayed sane during it all.
Contact Info:
- Website: authorchris.com
- Instagram: clevelandautismmartialarts2022
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100083205740688
- Other: https://www.amazon.com/Christopher-Cleveland/e/B01ISMP1OG?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1666023501&sr=8-1
Image Credits
All images created by Christopher Cleveland