This guest post is by Presley Cole, a young man on the autism spectrum who was diagnosed with Asperger’s at age 9 and has been accepted into Hendrix College. Presley 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. 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 Presley Cole. I was born with Autism. I have Asperger’s syndrome. We did not know that I had it until around the third grade. I was very disrespectful early in life and would always get in trouble. The doctors gave me what is known as a “patch” that we would put on either my right or left hip depending on the day. After that, I became a lot less disrespectful. It was really hard for me to make friends before then and I was not very popular with the other kids. After I got the patch, I was more controlled of my emotions. A year after that, I got my first best friend and became more popular with others. He was on my football team for 3 years before we became friends. It takes people a lot longer to get to know me. And the way we became friends was by playing video games. I get very animated when I play video games. People that have autism usually are not very athletic and do not play sports. That is definitely not the case with me. I currently play football and I have played basketball, baseball, lacrosse, and soccer. And I also wrestle. After 7th grade, my parents told me that we were going to move to Memphis, Tennessee. Previously, we lived in Tulsa, OK and that was the only life I knew and the place where my best friend lived. I was very against the decision. I hate change mostly because you are venturing into the unknown. It could be good, or it could be really bad. Nothing I could say would change their decision. We moved in with my grandmother in West Memphis while we looked for a house. The new school that my parents chose for me to attend was Briarcrest Christian School. I was very scared because I was not going to know anybody and with my Autism, it would be hard to make more friends. It took almost a whole school year before I got comfortable and had some friends. The school was very welcoming and it was a very friendly environment. However, since none of the coaches knew me, they never played me in any games. It really hurt my confidence and I felt like quitting on several occasions. I actually quit basketball because I knew that the coaches would never put me in. It wasn’t until my junior year of football that I switched positions a few times until I found a position where I would find some playing time. I became the starting nose guard and still am this year. I have worked so hard to learn a new position and to get as strong as I physically can. I recently got defensive player of the week and our team is 5-0 right now. I have a few best friends and am part of a bigger friend group. They are all really great and really supportive. I love going to eat at Longhorn Steakhouse where I always order the Outlaw Ribeye (20oz bone-in ribeye), and a double order of broccoli. I mentioned earlier that I don’t like change. I do like to eat at the same place all the time. I eat at Longhorn at least once a week. If I could, I would probably eat there every single night. I am hoping to attend a small college and play football, but if I can’t play football there, I will still go to college. My goal is to become a Fed Ex pilot. I am very excited to learn to fly a plane.
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 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, will be 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.
