This guest post is by Tristan Thibault, a young man on the autism spectrum who was diagnosed with autism at the age of 3 and has been accepted into St. John Fisher College. Tristan 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, was released on March 29, 2022, on Amazon here for our community to enjoy featuring the stories of 100 autistic adults.
My name is Tristan Thibault. I’m 17 years old and am a Senior in High School.
I was diagnosed with autism when I was 3-years-old. I don’t remember much about being diagnosed or what it was like when I was little. My mom treated me and my brothers all the same, so I didn’t really understand what autism meant for a long time. She wrote me a story when I was 7 years old that told me about my autism, and how my brain works just a little differently than others, and I had pride in my autism for a long time.
When I was younger, I think I could feel myself gaining coping skills or learning how to get along in social situations. I had this “little-kid” idea that some of my autism came out when they took out my tonsils and I was upset that I was “losing my autism.” I think I was like 8 or 9 years old at the time. My mom said that I would always have autism and that special part of me would always be with me.
Now I struggle a little with my autistic identity. Being a teenager often means just wanting to fit in and not be different in any way. I know that accepting my identity as an autistic person will come with time and I have plenty of time to figure myself out.
One of my biggest accomplishments as not only a Scout but also as an autistic person, has been to complete a 120 mile trek at the Philmont Scout Ranch. It took a year to plan this trip, and 6 months of physical training to get ready for the daily hikes. But I also had to plan my trail food separate from everyone else. I only like and eat certain foods, and the food we ate on this Trek was in the form of MREs, or Meals Ready to Eat. There are not a lot of MREs that are made up of my food choices. My family ordered me many “tester” MREs to try before the trip so that I could taste them all, choose the ones I would eat, and then ship the MREs to the camp ahead of time.
The 8-day hiking and camping trip through the mountains was very hard. We had many days where it rained, days when we were up late setting up the campsite and tents and then had to get up early and do it all over again, and days where we hiked 10 miles up high elevations. Sometimes there were no bathrooms to use, and there were no showers. But through all of the challenges, I made it to the summit of Baldy Mountain. It was the best feeling to work hard and make it to the top with my friends and fellow Scouts.
This is also like school for me, I think. Sometimes, it’s been really hard for me. I’m not always great with Math, but I work with my teachers, my Resource Room teacher, and my Dad, and I get through the assignments. But I kept going and I feel like I’m almost there at the “summit” of high school. It’s only 8 more weeks until Graduation.
I wonder what “peaks” I will climb next?
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.
