This guest post is by Keith Russell, a young man with autism who plans to attend the National Academy of Sports Medicine. Keith is applying for the Spring 2023 Making a Difference Autism Scholarship via the nonprofit KFM Making a Difference started by me, Kerry Magro. I was nonverbal till 2.5 and diagnosed with autism at 4, and you can read more about my organization here. Autistics on Autism: Stories You Need to Hear About What Helped Them While Growing Up and Pursuing Their Dreams, our nonprofit’s new book, was released on March 29, 2022, on Amazon here for our community to enjoy featuring the stories of 100 autistic adults.
My name is Keith Russell and I diagnosed with autism at the age of 2. I always my whole life was apprehensive and hated who I was with autism. I struggled a lot and always was wondering why others did not struggle like me. I was in public school district for approximately 10 years until I had to transfer to a special needs school to better my problems. I attended three special needs schools for a total of 4 years. Once I was doing a lot better I asked my mother to put me back to my home town public school district by the end of sophomore year. I am doing very good at my new school. I made lots of friends, and I joined basketball and track over the years. I am very independent and responsible now which is really nice and makes me very happy.
Autism had a huge impact on my life the way I can communicate and act. And the way I felt with having it really made me angry and upset and jealous of others who did not have it. Recently I have been accept it for the past few years. Although I nkew my struggles it was very hard to take the skills I learned in therapy and use them to help my problems. I was in denial for a very long time and that was not helping me at all. When I finally recognized that autism was not that bad and that I was like everyone else and can do lots of things, my life became better.
What I am dedicated to do for a passion for life is physical fitness meaning lifting weights, aerobic training, and MMA fighting. Means the career I want for my life is to become an apex extreme fast explosive fighter and a pro weightlifter lifting extremely heavy. Once I graduate from high school this June I am doing a virtual school program for a personal training certificate. If I want training to be my life, getting a personal training certificate is the right path for me to go down. It will open lots of opportunities for me. I will learn more about how the body work, nutrition, how muscles grow, and the right way to do exercises so I do not hurt my body and so I can help others be safe and healthy as well. I go to the gym every day and that gives me lots of confidence.
One huge problem is that I am not making as many friends as I want. I do have friends from school and in the community but none that are consistent as I do not have a steady group that I hang out with. I do not also have a girlfriend, which makes me sad sometimes. I am hoping that changes soon. I am trying very hard to be social and am definitely trying to get out of my comfort area to meet new people. It is very hard but I am trying the best I can.
I also have a YouTube channel with a lot of short videos with impressive workout content for a year and a half by now. I also attended a special needs Karate program for 4 years by now and by now I am so good the karate master let me help out and assist the special needs children in need to learn karate and how to defend themselves. I am a purple belt going on a brown belt soon. It makes me very proud that I do so well pith physical activities and it is that confidence that will help me with my future goals.
Follow my journey on Facebook, my Facebook Fan Page, Tiktok, Youtube & Instagram.
My name is Kerry Magro, a professional speaker and best-selling author who is also on the autism spectrum. I started the nonprofit KFM Making a Difference in 2011 to help students with autism receive scholarship aid to pursue post-secondary education. Help support me so I can continue to help students with autism go to college by making a tax-deductible donation to our nonprofit here.
Autistics on Autism: Stories You Need to Hear About What Helped Them While Growing Up and Pursuing Their Dreams was released on March 29, 2022 on Amazon here for our community to enjoy featuring the stories of 100 autistic adults. 100% of the proceeds from this book will go back to our nonprofit to support initiatives like our autism scholarship program. In addition, this autistic adult’s essay you just read will be featured in a future volume of this book as we plan on making this into a series of books on autistic adults.
