This guest post is by Charlie Lee, a young man on the autism spectrum who was diagnosed with PDD-NOS at Age 2 and has been accepted into Asbury University. Charlie is applying for the Spring 2022 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, has been released as of March 29, 2022 on Amazon here for our community to enjoy featuring the stories of 100 autistic adults.
I was diagnosed at the age of three when my parents noticed I never said a word at all. I only made small noises to communicate, but never words. No “mama” or “papa”, just a simple tug and “hmph” noise. I did eventually speak, but it was a whole sentence. My parents enrolled me in a private school for kids with special needs. I did well in that school; I barely had temper tantrums and my handwriting skills were good. I had sensory issues though more specifically sounds like bugs buzzing, thunder, and sirens on fire trucks and tornado sirens. I was socially awkward because I didn’t have any siblings. One year later, my parents moved me to the public school district for my knowledge was on par with preschool students. Elementary and Middle School did not work out for me.
Public school was problematic for me. The other boys would bully me and I fell behind academically and socially. My computer and my cat named O’Malley became my friends that wouldn’t judge me. O’Malley knew I was different from the others and would always be there to comfort me, and would always be near me when I was playing Minecraft on my computer. My computer wasn’t the best in the world, but it could definitely run a couple of Adobe Flash Player games on Newgrounds and Cool Math Games. Even with all the support I got from my parents, the comfort from my cat, and my computer giving me knowledge about technology, I still could not bear the weight of public school. I expressed myself with drawings.
My parents had enough and decided to homeschool me. It was a rough transition, but it was for the better. This gave me extra time to explore my passion for art and computers. I have loved to draw since I was in preschool. The drawings started off as just black and white stick figures, but now they are incredibly beautiful. I then found out how to make art on my computer and it made my art look even better. I have learned how to use a Linux Command Line and even made modern applications on old computers. When I was 13, I began working with a teacher named Ms. Heather. She has a group that meets up every week to work on life skills. I learned a lot about financing skills such as budgeting, writing checks, and learning how to use credit/debit cards. The group has done volunteer work for a local food pantry and has started a business on Etsy for pet products the group makes. I included my art skills that were used to create calendars and greeting cards. This helped me to acquire the business skills I will need. I learned how to write a resume, fill out an application, and did an interview for a position on a job. The group made a social media account for the business and I was the social media manager for a month, but because I had outside job responsibilities, someone else had to take over.
I want to learn more about how computers work and I want to advance my art skills through technology. I also want to edit videos, build and recycle computers to help the environment, entertain people on the internet, and do amazing things with technology. But most importantly, I want to show that autism has not held me back from pursuing my 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 that 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, has been released as of 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.
