This guest post is by Maxwell Winston, a young man on the autism spectrum who was diagnosed with PDD-NOS and has been accepted into Illinois State University. Maxwell 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, was released on March 29, 2022, on Amazon here for our community to enjoy featuring the stories of 100 autistic adults.
I’ve always had the drive to want to “make” something. Short films, art, etc, I always wanted to make something of my own. It was a way for someone like me with autism, to express my feelings and thoughts as I struggle in real life. But soon I found the outlet that allows me to do everything I could possibly want that would allow me to express myself.
When I was five years old I became fascinated by Video Games when my older cousin gave me his old Nintendo DS. I was instantly captivated after playing games like Super Mario Bros., Donkey Kong, Pac-Man World, and Sonic Rush, but when I was so young I didn’t understand the concept of just asking for more games. But as I got older and I had games it’s readily available to me, I became instantly invested in the medium, with collecting and playing video games, often ones by Nintendo, becoming my special interest. I would ramble for a long time about the nuances and facts about games I’ve played to my friends and family. I was a rather distant kid who struggled to connect with other people my age, but video games became the tool for me to find groups of people I could call my friends.
I wanted to become a game designer when I wanted to have a better understanding of why some games I played were fun, and why some were not. This is when I started to experiment with playing different genres of games, and I came to the point where I wasn’t mindlessly mashing buttons like it was when I was so young. I began to study game design, and follow the design philosophy of some of my favorite game designers. I became inspired by their creativity and mastery of entertaining concepts that came together like a symphony. One game designer I became particularly enthralled by is Satoshi Tajiri, who is a game and bug collector who is on the autism spectrum, he combined his interest in video games and collecting bugs to create his own game series, which went on to become the highest-grossing media franchise of all time, Pokémon.
I realized I could make my own video games when in seventh grade, I took a digital media class wherein our free time, we could play around with this game design tool. Since then I wanted to design and program my own games, and I hope that some people can understand why I enjoy video games so much.
I think the reason why I became so fixated on video games is that growing up with autism, I’ve never seen anything like it. To me, video games are the pinnacle of media, able to capture all forms of media. Animation, Books, Film, Animation, Music, etc. This became apparent to me when I play video games that are both engaging in their gameplay and story. In my life I’ve only ever cried three times when consuming a piece of media, as I don’t really get that emotionally involved with fiction as My brain can only register it as “not real” but the first time I ever cried experiencing a piece of media was playing what is now my favorite game of all time, Mother 3. It’s a game that changed my life for the better and inspired me to want to make experiences just like that.
Video Games to me, aren’t just an entertaining distraction, but an art form that I am proud to be participating in, showing how far my special interest has come. Autism isn’t a nuisance, but a means of seeing the world in a new way.
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.
