By LINDA MARGISON
from I Am You: Stories of Resilience, Courage, and Power

When 22-year-old Thomas Phillips looks back on his young life, he remembers a kindergarten teacher who sang songs. He joined her class not long after moving to Bloomington, Indiana, from Carbondale, Illinois, following his grandparents’ deaths.

That experience fostered an interest in music and art that continued throughout his school years, from University and Binford elementary schools to Jackson Creek Middle School and Bloomington High School South.

Between the two subjects, Thomas has a difficult time deciding which he likes the most. “Music and art ... It’s kinda hard to pick,” he says. “I liked art class. I was able to go to some concerts and perform as well.”

Thomas played the drums and mallets in middle school and performed in concert on the snare drum, mallets, triangle, chimes, and pan flute.

Thomas stayed active in school, joining a math club, swimming and diving teams, and percussion class, but he lacked fulfilling friendships. When asked if he had friends in elementary and high school, he says, “Not much,” and then adds, “I did not.”

But that has changed. Now, Thomas enjoys hanging out with his closest friend, playing video games, cooking hamburgers, and going to Buffalo Wild Wings. “Sometimes it’s a nice day and it’s summertime, so we cook outside,” he says, adding that he and his friend have good times together. “It makes me feel great. We usually alternate and we usually take turns choosing the restaurant after basketball practice.”

Thomas has been an active participant in Best Buddies since 2011. Best Buddies is an international nonprofit organization that creates one-to-one connections for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. It was founded in 1989 by Anthony K. Shriver and has grown from one chapter to almost 1,700 middle school, high school, and college chapters worldwide. In Bloomington, Indiana, the Best Buddies chapter is operated by Indiana University students.

“I’ve had seven Best Buddies since I started,” Thomas says. “We play bingo, games, sports, swim, and other stuff. It’s hard to pick my favorite things we’ve done. I enjoy the program, because there are lots of activities to do and I like being Best Buddies with college people.”

Besides spending time with his buddies, Thomas enjoys swimming, playing football with his friends, and listening to music. He also competes in flag football, soccer, and basketball at Special Olympics.

“When I saw someone kicking the ball, I knew that I wanted to do soccer, so I joined the team,” he says. “I learned how to swim just by wearing goggles and watching people kick their feet underwater. When I was about to start middle school, I wanted to join the swimming team, so I did. Now I play in the Special Olympics.”

If he has the opportunity, he especially likes to walk around and exercise, or join other people on car rides; and he’s taken a couple of trips to Holiday World with his friends.

Thomas recently learned about a company through which he can plan and take vacations, giving him the tools he needs to meet another one of his goals—traveling.

In recent months, he has vacationed in St. Louis, where he rode the elevator to the top of the Arch and went on a riverboat ride; at Disney World, where he rode roller coasters, including his favorite, Space Mountain; and in Gatlinburg, Tennessee.

“We went up on a mountain. It looked like it was foggy, but we were just up high,” he says of his Gatlinburg trip. “I got on a rock in the river for pictures, but I didn’t get my toes wet because it was cold.”

At the aquarium, he saw dolphins and got a snow globe as a souvenir. “It broke on the way back, but I can always go back and get something else,” he explains.

Thomas’s dream, though, is to get a car and learn to drive, so he can drive to places like White River and Nashville, Indiana. “I want to get a car to drive,” he says. “That’s my dream.”

For the most part, Thomas says people are nice to him, but he once had a girlfriend who wasn’t. “She was not a good girlfriend at all,” Thomas recalls. “She was telling me who to talk to and who to not talk to, and telling me when to hang out with my friends and when to not hang out with my friends. I did not like that. She was controlling.”

Despite having a quiet demeanor, Thomas is a man who likes to make his own decisions and knows what he wants to do. When he first started receiving support from Stone Belt Arc in Bloomington, Thomas had never been employed, but he was committed to getting a job. Without the knowledge that comes with experience, he had to completely learn how working translated into being paid and how being paid resulted from the employer giving money to the bank, which then reached him. But he was ready and eager for the challenge.

In January 2016, Thomas was accepted into Project SEARCH, Stone Belt’s internship program for young adults. That program enabled Thomas to participate in job preparation classes and learn basic job skills, like applying and interviewing for a job, getting along with coworkers, showing up to work on time and when scheduled, and solving problems at work.

The program also gave him a chance to do internships at three different jobs: one in food service, one in shipping and receiving, and one in an administrative office.

Thomas was so successful in his clerical rotation that he was offered a job at Ivy Tech Community College when he completed Project SEARCH in July 2016. “It was great,” he says of the program. “It helped me get a job at Ivy Tech.”

In his clerical position at Ivy Tech, Thomas puts paper in the copy machine, keeps paper and supplies stocked, checks mail, folds papers, and monitors utensil stock. “Usually, I will make green keychains,” he says. “Sometimes I’ll laminate things, and sometimes I’ll cut things off the plastic.”

He enjoys his job, but admits sometimes he has to clean, and that isn’t fun. “I might think about getting another job, but I’m not sure yet. I might just keep working at Ivy Tech, but I will at least see what the other options are.”

Thomas is increasing his chances by taking college classes at Ivy Tech. He recently finished Career Success and Intermediate Algebra classes, and is now taking a general math class with algebra and geometry elements. “I’m taking it because I enjoy math and I want to improve that skill,” he says.

In recent years, Thomas moved out of a group home and into a house that he and his housemates chose. Now, he’s looking forward to someday moving into a shared home with his close friends.

“I’d like to live independently,” he says. “I already know how to do dishes, cook, do laundry, vacuum, and I walk to and from Ivy Tech. I keep track on how much money I spend and stick to my budget as well. Living independently would make it easier to study.”

The ability to be supported in all these choices in his life has transformed Thomas from a shy, nervous, and sometimes lonely young man into a confident, happy, and socially engaged man with even more goals and aspirations.