My sixteen year old aspie boy wrote this

I was trying to login under his I.D. to post this, since he wrote it, but I forgot his login I.D., so oh well.

A little bit of background here: my son T-Bone just turned 16, and he has Aperger's Syndrome, which is a relatively high functioning form of autism. I home schooled him privately until he reached middle school age. He is currently enrolled in a cyber charter school, which means the curriculum is delivered over the internet into our house, and he completes his assignments from the slightly less overstimulating environment of our home. Writing has always been a big challenge for him, so this year at the recommendation of one of his other teachers, he enrolled in a creative writing class, and it was very very hard. So hard that I wanted to recommend that the first teacher do something else for a living. The creative writing teacher told me afterwards that "most" of her other students were seniors, and that T-Bone was her only freshman.

Now granted, most kids his age are one grade higher, but still, this was an extra challenge we didn't need. He really struggled in this class, but his final assignment was to write something called a "personal belief" essay; the idea was to take one of your personal philosophies and explain why you came to have it, and there were a bunch of other picky instructions, but you get the general idea. He told me that he actually enjoyed writing this essay, which was a big switch in attitude from the other assignments he had in this class this semester, believe me. I was so proud of him that I decided I would post it on my autism blog (it's supposed to be OUR autism blog). We are a couple months late for autism awareness month, but hey, why not spread awareness all year long.

This is it:

“Just Keep Swimming”

He was often seen in a wheel chair. He couldn’t walk without leg braces, canes or assistance of some kind. He had had polio, so it was lucky that he could walk at all. He was the president of the United States, and he had the job longer than anybody else ever did. My mom used to read me a story about F.D.R. when I was little called Breakfast at the Liberty Diner, which she could barely get through without crying because it was about someone who had triumphed over a disability and inspired others.

When I was very little, my mother said I was “super active” compared to other kids and I couldn’t keep from touching everything, I needed to feel everything. The other thing she said was that I was slow to process or respond to instructions. For example, if she told me to stop doing something, it would take me a while to understand what she was telling me to do. Because of these reasons, my mother thought it would not be a good idea to put me in regular school because I probably wouldn’t do well there. When I was six years old in 1999, I was very sick and my mother took me to a doctor who helped me get better. He told her that my sickness contributed to my odd behavior. He said I would have been diagnosed with autism at any other office, but his main concern was getting me healthy again.

My mother wanted to home school me because she wanted to keep me from getting sick again and because regular schools probably wouldn’t have fit me well. Everyone, both friends and family, said that home schooling was bad for me. They said I wouldn’t learn how to read. My mom even tried using phonics books, but they didn’t help. But in 2001, I did learn how to read on my own. It happened when I was playing video games and I wanted to read the text that had important clues on how to beat the game. It also helped that when there were subtitles when the characters talked; it helped me figure out how to spell each word they were saying. I also learned how to ride a bike without training wheels. Some people said that I couldn’t do it, it would be too dangerous. I had help from a friend who showed me how. There were also other kids in the neighborhood who rode their bikes around, so it helped me feel like I fit in when I was able to ride with them.

People also said kids with autism could not interact with other kids in group activities without disrupting everyone. But, in 2003 in a church youth group program, I was able to sit down and listen during bible study and play with the other kids during outdoor activities, like kickball. People also said that home schooling would make me develop unevenly in each academic subject. But in 2005, at age twelve and a half, when I enrolled for the first time in a publicly funded charter school, the placement testing showed that I was at the 7th grade level, which was two steps above the level that I was currently studying.

When I was almost thirteen, I was surfing a site that students used for research material on school assignments. On it, I saw a video that talked about a condition called autism. I thought the descriptions of kids who had autism were similar to how I was. Before I saw the video, I always thought I was just weird. But now I felt great relief when I had an explanation for why I was the way I was. So now I knew I had it, but did that mean I should just give up on life? No, it just gave me better information so I could figure out how to best approach a challenge.

In 2006, I went on a trip. My mother was terrified; I was supposed to go on a plane all by myself all the way to California. What we had to do was know my needs and not try to stretch me too much at once. For example, we decided to have me fly a non-stop plane instead of having a plane stop at another airport and then get off and get on another plane because I was nervous that I might get lost and end up on the wrong plane. I could literally taste the fear in my mouth as I walked through the gate. I managed to successfully get on the plane and went all the way to California. I was so proud that I was able to do something of this magnitude independently.

I keep trying to stretch a little more every year. I would like to be able to live on my own someday, even if I need some support to do that, that will be ok, but I want to be able to be as independent as possible. I want to have normal friendships with other people, I want to be able to get along with co-workers and hold a regular job, and I want to maybe even get married, have children and own a house. Last summer I went to a camp where the counselors were trained to take care of kids with autism. On that particular week, my brother and I were the only ones there (as far as I know) who had autism. But with the help of those counselors, I did everything the other kids did. I participated in everything that everybody else did – rock climbing, swimming, fishing, playing group games, making arts and crafts, cooking our own food, and riding the zip line.

Sure, I had to stop sometimes and rest, and took a nap a lot of afternoons, I also needed to get somewhere quiet once in awhile and take a break from all the overwhelming sights, sounds and smells that are often associated with a kids camp in the mountains. But the point was that I did it. I could do it, and I will do it again. My point is to always keep trying, even if people tell you that you can’t do something, or you shouldn’t be able to do something, you might as well try especially if it’s something you want to do. Sometimes you can’t, and that’s ok, at least you will be able to do it some of the time. Maybe you’ll have to wait awhile and try again, and maybe you need to come back better prepared next time. But if you never try, then you will never succeed. You don’t need someone else to tell you what your limits are; you can decide that for yourself.