This guest post is by Thomas Dean, a young man on the who was diagnosed with Aspergers and has been accepted to Liberty University. Thomas 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.
If you were to tell me that I would be taking the city bus by myself, getting really good grades, and that college wasn’t out of the question, I would say “you must be thinking of someone else.” As it turns out, I was informed in November of last year that I have been accepted into Liberty University in Virginia for the fall of 2023. I was beyond excited when I found out!
The thing is, I have Aspergers. Focusing on important current tasks and social interaction are just some of the skills that happen to be harder for me than others. Even though I’ve always wanted to go to college, I felt like I would have been fortunate just to attend community college.
My life was a life filled with doctor’s appointments, medication and challenges. As a baby, I cried perpetually. It took over a year for my parents to find out that I had an autoimmune disease, Eosinophilic gastroenteritis. I lived almost completely on a special formula until I was 5 or 6. In addition, I was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome very early in my life. Schooling and socialization have always been a struggle for me. I have taken mostly special education classes until the last few years. But as a junior, I changed schools to Centralia High School. My dad and I decided that I was going to attempt to take regular classes. In the last few years, I have committed myself to working hard at school. I currently have a 3.82 high school GPA.
I lived with my mom two years ago and while I was doing fine, she was the kind of person who pretends that in spite of difficulties, everything is fine. This is an idea that I internalized when I lived with her. To be honest, I wasn’t encouraged to live an independent life. The biggest thing I could consistently do by myself was catch the school bus. We all have people that positively affect our lives. That distinction goes to my dad. The lessons he taught me are a big part of who I am today. Life can be very difficult and challenging at times he helped me to find the humorous side to life’s challenging situations. This helped me to look at setbacks, failures and aggravations in a slightly different light than I would have otherwise. He told me that everyone’s mind is like a bucket that you fill with water, people just fill their bucket at different speeds. Some people have the hose set on full blast and others have it set on mist. My dad told me that his goal was to help me fill my bucket as fast as he possibly could. He is helping me to understand that balance is important, how you can’t lean towards one extreme or the other, in most situations there’s a middle ground. Another way my life has changed is that I am able to cook my own meals now. My dad pointed out that cooking up food of my choice is a reward in itself. This skill gave me the ability to cook for my grandmother, who is currently living with myself and my dad. I am also able to advocate for myself in school and can take the city bus and go to places I enjoy.
My life hasn’t been easy, but through hard work and the support of my family, I have come farther than I ever thought possible.
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.
