<p>So my brother is autistic. He’s high functioning, so he seems almost normal, but he has trouble with things that others don’t. He is a huge inspiration to me because he’s overcome ridiculous odds multiple times and will be graduating high school this year, only one year late. I am so proud of him.
Now, my question is, should I write my personal statement on him? I’m taking a class and we need to write personal statements… the only thing is that I’m not really comfortable talking about my brother and I know that my personal statement will be read by all my teachers, friends, etc. I’m also just not sure if it’s a good topic. Is it too much about him and not enough about me? I was thinking about writing how being his sibling has shaped me into the person I am. I’m kind of hesitant though. I mean, my brother’s autism isn’t a public thing for my family. People we come into contact with regularly know he’s different, but we stick to the vague “learning disability” shield. Writing about him would be coming out of the closet, in a way.
Thoughts? I’m a sophomore so I have time, and I’ll probably write a random statement for the class. I was just thinking ahead to when I’ll be applying.</p>
<p>Bump
10char</p>
<p>If you don’t feel comfortable then don’t. I believe that your brother should be the one to ‘come out of the closet’, not you. However I would ask him how he would feel about it.</p>
<p>I don’t think you should write about him if it will be a sort of reveal. But, if you feel you will be comfortable with it then talk to your family, particularly your brother, beforehand! Ultimately it should be his decision, not yours, to make.</p>
<p>anyway, the idea of a personal statement is to show the reader your personality and how you’ve grown/changed. if you can manage to do that by talking about how your brother has inspired you, go for it. talk about his accomplishments, but maybe focus more on how you’ve helped him achieve what he has or specific examples of how you’ve taken on new challenges because of him.</p>
<p>I heard your voice, which makes your writing better than most CC posts. The brother thing, who knows? Passion about it can take you a long way. GL.</p>
<p>Haha it’s all good 
Thanks for the help. I ended up writing about the lessons he’s taught me… It’s kinda cliche though lol. So I guess I’ll see where this goes :D</p>
<p>“It’s kinda cliche”</p>
<p>Yeah, that’s what I was going to say about the topic in general.
“Someone who has inspired me” is probably the most common topic there is, and though it can be written very well, there are a lot of ways to write it badly. I think it would be better if you focused on a specific event when he’s inspired you rather than, say, generically listing what you’ve learned from your brother.
(And make sure it actually has something to do with you and you tell about how your actions have specifically changed as a result of what he has has overcome. The purpose of the essay is to convey something important about yourself to the reader. If an essay about your autistic brother is the best way to do that, then go for it. If not, find something else.)</p>
<p>What a coincidence! I just wrote an essay on how my sister with down syndrome helped shape me into the person I am today.</p>
<p>Since your brother was held back a year, I’m guessing he was put in regular classes instead of special ed ones. That probably means he is very high functioning, right?
You’ll need his consent. My sister isn’t very high functioning (well, as high functioning as someone can be with downsyndrome, but compared to a regular person) so I figured she wouldn’t care. Also, my teacher read our stories confidentially.</p>
<p>I don’t know… He’s not super high functioning. He, uhm, actually doesn’t know he’s autistic. My parents never told him. So asking him permission would be awkward. I’m operating on the assumption that he wouldn’t mind.
And I think (not sure, lol I’m a bad sister) some classes are really small (like 6 students) but other classes are regular and held with a younger grade level.</p>
<p>In case someone didn’t already mention it… there is a risk that in writing about your brother you write a really good essay about your brother and how inspiring he is and reveal very little about yourself. </p>
<p>However, if you truly want to write it, do so. If you’re mainly writing it because you think the admissions office would want to hear, it will most likely fail.</p>
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