This guest post is by William Riley, a young man who attends South Dakota School of Mines & Technology. He is an advocate for the Spring 2025 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 the Next Chapter: Stories You Need to Hear About What Helped Them While Growing Up and Pursuing Their Dreams was released on Amazon on 3/25/25 and looks at the lives over 75 Autistic adults. 100% of the proceeds from this book will go back to supporting our nonprofits many initiatives, like this scholarship program. Check out the book here.
I have had quite a unique experience with growing up autistic! I was diagnosed with PDD NOS in December 2010 when I was 4 years old. Throughout my time at school, while I have always struggled socially, I have for the most part excelled academically, with the two periods of academic success being from kindergarten through second grade, and seventh grade through senior year. I did struggle from third grade through sixth grade, but I don’t care much as the only time grades truly matter is in high school for college, meaning that I am perfectly sound academically as far as that is concerned.
In terms of that first period, my parents knew that I was an advanced child when they noticed my learning speed was comparable to a knife slicing through butter, especially with reading and counting in kindergarten. I always got my work done on time, and I never had any late assignments. Additionally, I had a friend named Tyler until the second grade; we would often play by a small tree on the edge of the playground, and we would use our imaginations to have fun. Unfortunately, He had to move to Wyoming during second grade due to his dad being in the military, so I really didn’t have any close friends throughout second grade. This didn’t bother me much however, mainly because I still had a good life at home with my family, and people weren’t really bullies at that time, so I didn’t need to worry about being an outcast.
Now, things began to get a lot bleaker in my life throughout the struggle period. It mainly started in third grade because while I was good at addition and subtraction, multiplication really confused me at that time; combined with my lack of a calculator, this made the subject hard to grasp, and I started receiving lower grades because of it. Additionally, my academic struggles ramped up throughout my fourth-grade year because I needed to move to Colorado so my family could sell my uncle’s old house. This was bad for my academic life because up to that point, I had attended school in a small town in Oklahoma, and upon moving back to my home state, the school I went to was way ahead of the Oklahoma one academically. This meant I fell way behind in terms of my learning, with me being way behind others still when I came back; I only caught up because we were given calculators in seventh grade for math, which allowed me to use my mathematical talents without being overwhelmed by long division and large multiplication problems, allowing me to finally excel in school again!
Although, something amazing that happened during the struggle period is that I made my best friend who I still talk to in the current day! His name is Noe, and he and I are into a lot of the same stuff, especially video games and the like. We often play online together, especially on Terraria, which is one of our favorite video games. We also sometimes talk about our lives, and what exciting and interesting things we are currently doing!
In terms of the third period, I felt very good both in terms of my academics and social life! I became a straight-A student, and I was able to make a lot of great social connections with both my peers and teachers, even despite my parent’s divorce, and me attending three different high schools over this period; the three high schools were MacArthur High School in Lawton Oklahoma, Ellicott High School in Ellicott Colorado, and Coronado High School in Colorado Springs Colorado. The most notable friends I have made in this recent period are Carter, Denton, Reid, and Jalyn; the thing that connects us as friends would be us having the same laid-back sense of humor, as well as all wanting to go into STEM fields. The two main teachers that have been the most influential in terms of influencing my path throughout High School would be Mr. Kehn, and Mr. Wade. Mr. Kehn was my geography teacher in Ellicott High School, and he encouraged me to become an AP student by joining AP World History. He did this because he noticed that I was a strong writer in geography class because of my long essay on the Isreal-Palestine conflict during a quiz. My time in the AP program allows me to get ahead in college and earn college credits in high school. Mr. Wade was my physics teacher during my junior year at Coronado High School, and he had helped me become interested in physics with his sense of humor, and his encouraging nature; he also helped me in my future plans by telling me some things he wishes he did as a physics major back in college in order to find a good career, with his advice leading me to want to minor in computer science, as well as find summer internships so I can have valuable experience to make me more valuable in the eyes of employers.
Overall, while I have faced many challenges, I have seen plenty of success throughout my childhood growing up on the spectrum, and I expect to find more success throughout my adult life, both in terms of college, and a career!
Kerry Magro, a professional speaker and best-selling author who is also on the autism spectrum started the nonprofit KFM Making a Difference in 2011 to help students with autism receive scholarship aid to pursue a post-secondary education. Help us continue to help students with autism go to college by making a tax-deductible donation to our nonprofit here.
Also, consider having Kerry, one of the only professionally accredited speakers on the spectrum in the country, speak at your next event by sending him an inquiry here. If you have a referral for someone who many want him to speak please reach out as well! Kerry speaks with schools, businesses, government agencies, colleges, nonprofit organizations, parent groups and other special events on topics ranging from employment, how to succeed in college with a learning disability, internal communication, living with autism, bullying prevention, social media best practices, innovation, presentation best practices and much more!
