ANCA.Spring.2017.Sept.19.final

Harmonics
CULTURAL
By Vell Baria
(With additional contributions by Yeşim Zorlu,
Katarina Simic and Joely Colmer)
6
The Harmonic Suite
“It’s not too late to share your achievements, as long as
it’s concrete and articulated!” Vell Baria, 2016 INAP Award Recipient
for Performing Arts.
Upon hearing the word “Harmonics,” what comes into
our minds? The word “Harmonics,” or “Harmonic” in singular
term, is originated from the word “Harmonia” in singular
while “Harmonikos” in a plural form meaning “relating
to music” where we harmonized vocally and instrumentally
out of our own chords. In my definition and perspective,
Harmonics is living together in universal harmony. I also
found it more energetic to describe the way we represent
no matter the place we lived in, the religion, the skin color
or the status of life we have for as long as we have abilities
to contribute to the world our positive impact for the world
to Hear, Appreciate, Remember, Mesmerize, Observe, Necessitate,
Inspire and Cherish the Standards of each individual.
Prelude
From the Latin word “prælūdo” meaning “play beforehand.”
I started to think deeply about being involved in
this progressive family where my heart, mind and soul set
to “beforehand” mode of acceptance, as I feel that the
big beginning to a life changing journey made fast approaching.
ANCA was introduced to me and my mom by Vico
Cham’s mother, Ms. Catherine Cham, whose experience
in their delegation to ANCA in 2015 changed their lives
and motivated them to help out other Autistic potentials
to join the community where there is change. While doing
research on ANCA, my mom only knew that ANCA is
just an award winning body, but after such realizations, it’s
an organization founded by the married Autistic couple
whose vision is to support Autistic people and promote
connections where it has its name sake for their children,
Anthony and Catherine. For a better detail, this organization
has played such major role in establishing connections
within the Autism community across the world. It is
also their goal to advocate the freedom of exploring and
| www.naturallyautistic.com
sharing talents, time, skills and vision-missions.
By preparing for the Autism Fest, my mom and I got to
know and meet other Philippine delegate-nominees joining
us for the 7th ANCA Autism Festival during the delegates
meeting organized by the Cham family discussing
the organization’s history, the Autism festival and the perks
of being one of the festival delegates. During that meeting,
I was so blessed and being supported by the delegation
team after being mentioned that I’ll be performing
for the opening and the awards night with much joy and
confidence.
First Movement
As I introduced myself this time to the international
friends circle, this may not have been an easy part of my
delegation career. It really took much time to get their impression
about you and your expertise for reasons of being
appreciated and well known in the eye. I started to introduce
myself to the ANCA family by adding them up on
my Facebook profile to get in touch before meeting them
in person. This was also my chance to share my time in
getting to know them in detail along with communicating
with them online and appreciating their creative status
posts like their achievements, successful things and words
of devotion. Thus, this was my simple way to meet my new
set of ANCA Delegate-nominee-batch mates outside my
home turf very well.
To expand their knowledge, I felt blessed to be selected
to be interviewed for the Blog Talk Radio program
hosted by Ms. Leonora Gregory-Collura herself. This gave
me a chance to share my story of living on the spectrum,
my parents’ way of bringing me up, my talents and skills,
and my self-views on self-advocacy on Autism awareness.
This is also a way of knowing me much better in a higher
ground with that kind of feeling that I can’t wait, but excited
to meet them in the festival week and have them as
my new set of international fans as well.
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