The Gift of Opportunity
📷: Claudia Diaz Photography (2025) courtesy of the opportunity for sensory-friendly holiday portraits via All for 1 ABA Therapy
As a professional, I understood the importance of digital ownership thanks to the expertise of Aries’ godfather - a research librarian with a wealth of knowledge in website development, digital archiving, and so much more. Hard as it may seem to believe, I never foresaw that importance as being necessary in maintaining a record of my son’s journey. I would learn, admittedly, for the second time in his lifetime, that applications, particularly those constructed as a form of social media, can and will be wiped out in the blink of an eye. And in an era where the stories of humanity are; for better and worse, being viewed through the lens of artificial critics, decisions made can feel rushed and inconsiderate of the intent.
Nearly ten years ago, I created an Instagram account that began as a diary to chronicle my parenting journey of Aries as he graduated from his Level IV NICU and grew into exactly what I had prayed for him to be: an individual who would change the world for the better. As time moved ever forward, this account grew into a hub for connection between our family and other families around the world seeking friendship, knowledge, and support while raising their own children who were facing their own unique challenges. We bought birthday gifts for our children, uplifted and engaged with one another’s contributions to society, and celebrated the milestones of success our children achieved. My fatal mistake; however, was not only associating the account with Aries’ date of birth, but also linking it to my personal Facebook page through my phone number. As social media networks have begun the necessary process of enforcing their policies regarding underaged users leveraging their platforms, our accounts became collateral in the fight for protecting the mental health of the nation’s youth with the ironic designation of “permanently disabled” being placed upon both accounts on Christmas Eve of 2025. In an instant, we lost tens of thousands of memories and connections.
This was an unanticipated disappointment and loss, but as I reflected - I realized that all was far from lost. Instead, I found in the midst of it all, a new opportunity to:
Preserve the leadership legacy of my son and rebuild from the ground up
Consider and create greater pathways of advocacy and belonging
Turn away from the pressures of algorithms, views, and likes
Celebrate the power of love and community in a different way
These were all, strangely enough, feelings that had come to my heart all throughout the year of 2025. It just took a strange sequence of events to turn those feelings into new opportunities.
That said, I welcome each of you to a new beginning for the shared legacy of Aries and myself via www.ariesreignwilliams.com.
