This guest post is by Aaron Joseph Del Castillo-Guttierrez, a young man on the autism spectrum who was diagnosed with ASD at 2 years old and has been accepted into Cal Poly Polomona. Aaron 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, will be released on March 29, 2022 on Amazon here for our community to enjoy featuring the stories of 100 autistic adults.
My name is Aaron Joseph Del Castillo-Gutierrez and I am 21 years old. In the fall, I will be transferring to Cal Poly Pomona. I am very proud of myself because it was challenging. I was diagnosed with autism when I was two-in-a-half years old. Autism was a challenge for me and my parents. The pediatrician and other specialist told my parents that I would not be successful in school or not make it to college. The specialist told my parents I would not be a normal kid. Here is my story of growing up with autism.
When I was diagnosed with autism my parents were worried because they did not know if I would ever be independent or even learn to speak. I did not speak until I was 4 years old. The first word I said was “boat” while my dad was giving me a bath. He was very shocked and in that moment my parents knew that I would be able to do the things that the doctor told him I would not be able to do. Between the ages of two and five I experienced many febrile seizures and the doctors did not know why this was happening. I had to see several doctors and specialists that ran many different tests on me. When they finally figured it out an emergency surgery had to be done right away. I had to have heart surgery to correct and reroute my aortic artery because it was wrapped around my esophagus. If they had taken longer to figure this problem out, I would have died.
During my elementary school years, I was in special education classes and had speech therapy. My parents wanted to make sure that the school I attended had the right program for me that would push me and help me learn. I had to switch between several different schools in order to find the right program that pushed me to learn and grow. Not all my special education classes prepared me for college. Autism made it difficult to understand how to study and write essays like other students in my grade level. It was also challenging having autism because it was not easy for me to make many friends. Although I had to switch between different schools, it was a good thing because I still managed to do well and I was able to pass my classes. I often struggled with homework even when my dad would help me and sometimes, I would even try doing it on my own to see how I would do. Most times I would fail even though I would study and review for hours. Failure did not make me want to give up so I continued to ask for help.
When I went to junior high school, I was often bullied and it was tough. There were two kids that several times a day would make fun of me and punch me in the chest. I told my parents about the situation and they went to the school, but the school did nothing to help. I finally made the kids stop by standing up and defending myself. I ended up having to punch the kids back and then they never bothered me again. I did not like the fact I had to do this, but I needed to defend myself and finally had to put it to an end. I was taught that violence should never be the answer.
When I was in high school, I joined the wrestling team for my last two years there. Wrestling changed my life because it built up my self-esteem and it made me push hard to be the best wrestler I could be. During that time, I made a lot of friends and it was fun being part of the team. Everyone on the team treated me like a regular team member and I had to do everything everyone else had to do. At the end of my wrestling career, I earned my varsity letter, the coaches award, and a couple of medals for tournaments I won. Even after I graduated from high school, I kept in contact with some of my team members.
After I graduated from high school I enrolled at Citrus College. I wanted to do this because my older brother went to college and I wanted to go too. I was nervous about going to college because I was not sure how I would do this. My parents helped me enroll in the Promise Program and in the Disabled Students Program Services. Both programs helped me a lot throughout my journey at Citrus College. I also used the tutoring program for writing and math which saved me because I was able to pass my classes. Writing essays in college was hard for me because high school did not prepare me enough to know how to properly write an essay. During my time at Citrus, I wrote for the Citrus College Clarion which is the school’s newspaper. I never thought I would be able to write for the newspaper especially since it has a different style of writing. I managed to have ten articles published to the school newspaper after a lot of editing, proofreading and corrections. It was a great opportunity to be part of the newspaper team. I learned so much from writing for the Citrus College Clarion that will help me as I continue my education. I have now completed my associates degree in Journalism with a 3.2 grade point average. I am very proud of myself because it was really challenging but I was able to push through it. I am looking forward to starting school at Cal Poly Pomona where I plan to also be part of the Disabled Student Program Services. I am especially glad that I am proving the people wrong that said my autism diagnosis would stop me from being successful. There is still so much I plan to accomplish.
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.
