This guest post is by Luca Gianusso, a young man on the who was diagnosed with autism and has been accepted to the Kean University. Luca 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.
I have been dealing with neurological and developmental disorder my whole life. At the age of 7, I was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder and ADHD. I don’t remember a huge shift in my life at that time but I do remember having to repeat the 2nd grade. Given my birthdate, diagnosis and level of development, my parents felt it was necessary to give me the “gift of time.” I know that this decision for them was very difficult and wasn’t made easily. One of the best opportunities I had at the time was to change schools over the summer before I repeated the grade. We had two elementary schools in our district and my parents felt it would lessen any stigma by moving schools surrounded by new kids. This strategy worked. No one was the wiser and no one every questioned the grade I was in and why. I still played sports with the same aged kids and they never said a thing about it. I believe it made this transition so much easier.
Fast forward throughout my school years, I have struggled with the symptoms of Autism and how my brain works. It has often been a source of anxiety. It has also made it very difficult to have and maintain meaningful relationships with my peers. But I am happy. I realized that I was truly happy with the level of relationships I have at school with my peers when my mom kept asking me if I wanted to hangout with friends, or make plans, or attend a social event. After numerous asks, I finally said to her, “I am happy. You don’t have to worry. I am happy and need you to be happy for me.” Saying this to her and seeing her reaction of calm and peace, made me understand she was only worried about me and needed assurance that I was content with my life.
I don’t need close friends, buddies, guys to hangout with after school. I like being home with my family, playing computer games, reading books, etc. I know a ton of people in a basic way and that’s ok. I can be out with my family in town and bump into several kids from school and they say hi. This always makes my parents get a confused look on their faces. I think they can’t understand how so may kids know me without me having to hang out after school or go to parties. I seem to be well liked and that is more then enough.
How has my diagnosis effect my education? It takes me a lot longer to complete tasks, I need to understand the “why” in an assignment and I tend to be very short in answering open ended questions. I hate elaboration and don’t see a need to explain my thinking. I feel class assignments should be black and white. There is a right answer and a wrong answer. This has caused me to get lower grades in classes like English and Social Studies. I have tried to get better at adding more opinion and feeling to my writing, but it is difficult to me. This is why Math, Computers and Science have always been strong subject for me.
I continue to work on myself everyday. I strive to be clear with my needs and wants. And I know that making meaningful connections with people is important. I am hopeful that the college experience will give me the opportunity to find my people and my own community.
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.
