This guest post is by Alexander Edward Passoni-Torres, a young adult on the autism spectrum who was accepted into the University of Oklahoma. Alexander 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.
I hope you can support my nonprofit like I’m trying to support these students with scholarship aid for college. Learn more on how you can help our cause with a small donation (just asking for $3 today, equal to your daily cup of coffee) here.
An unsure walk, an awkward gaze, and a monotone voice are what you will notice when you meet me, but it does not fully define me. I don’t like small talk and sometimes my conversations go silent as I struggle to find the words to express myself. As you may have guessed, I have autism. As a child I was categorized as developmentally delayed, and some of my teachers struggled to find the best way to teach me. At an early age I was hyper-focused on certain subjects like dinosaurs or sea creatures, and, once I mastered them, I turned to another.
It took one teacher in seventh grade who believed in me and thought I was smarter than what I appeared. She switched me to advanced classes for math and social studies, and from there I blossomed. At first, I failed my entrance exam to move on to algebra, but I studied, re-took it, and passed it the second try. They tested me for the gifted program in 8th grade, but I just missed the cutoff. I kept trying and made it into the gifted program the following year. My current areas of hyper-focus are history, science, and math for which I excel in, but English was still quite difficult for me. I could not understand things that were not clearly stated and exceptions to the rules of the English language baffled me. It was not like the clear-cut rules of math and science. But I deeply wanted to be a better reader, so I began reading all the classic literature I could get my hands on. It was slow going at first as I needed to understand every word and every unspoken inference. After all, slow progress is better than no progress at all. I looked up everything I did not understand, and over time I became a better, quicker reader. My writing may not sound advanced as of now, but it is miles away from where I started.
The most important thing to know about me is that I never give up and I always keep improving. I want to attend college not for the grades but for the opportunity to learn more and keep progressing towards my educational goals. College is not just for the exceptionally smart but also for those who know they have room for improvement and want to keep following their desire to learn more. Being wrong or missing an opportunity may make you feel vulnerable, but learning from your mistakes makes you stronger. I’ve learned more when I have been wrong than I ever would have learned being right all the time. I am not always perfect on the first try. I learn from my mistakes and find a way to do things despite my disability.
Never let people’s expectations limit your possibilities. Find your path to educating yourself and even if you fail, learn from those experiences. You will always keep improving as long as you are open to being wrong.
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 that started the nonprofit KFM Making a Difference in 2011 to help students with autism receive scholarship aid to pursue a 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.
