This guest post is by Max De Los Santos, a young man on the autism spectrum who was diagnosed with autism at age 5 and has been accepted into University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. Max 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.
When I was little a simple question changed my life, why you are different than us? One kid asked me when I was 10 years old, I remember that I didn’t understand but I cried, until I told my mother, she said son, it is ok to be different, we all are different, that’s what make us special.
My name is Max De Los Santos, I am 18 years old, and I am autistic, when I was 4 years old, I was diagnosed with autism, this was a whole new world for my family, a million questions invaded my mother’s head, what are we going to do? Is this my fault? How am I going to raise a child with autism? I know for sure that there was more than these questions, since I was nonverbal when I was a little kid, I remember when I started elementary school my teacher was frustrated with me. She tried to teach me and make me understand how things worked at school, how to grab a pencil, how to color inside the lines, how to write my name inside the assigned lines instead of writing it on the full page, I have a name with just 3 letters and I used to wrote my name in a full-page. When I was 6 years old a doctor told my mother, your son is unable to speak, learn, read or do things other kids his age can do, he can’t do it now, he will not be able to do it when he is older, he probably will never graduate.
My mother’s world was shattered but, I have a mother that never gave up and has fought so hard for me all my life. I have my siblings and my grandma that always helped me in everything they could. My mother started looking for more resources for me, speech and OT therapy, ABA therapy, community groups for people with autism, a lot of conferences to learn new abilities to help me, thanks to all that when I was in 3rd grade I was able to speak. I was able to write my name on half of the page and I was learning to read, as the time at school was going by. I finished 5th grade with a reading proficiency of a 1st grader. I was able to write my name between the lines, and I was able to do math at a 2nd grade level. When I started middle school, the school decided I was not able to be in the regular education classroom so they placed me in the special education self-contained unit, that caused a setback in my learning journey, since the other students were not at the same level I was, so I was given the same coloring pages that other students were doing, or I was just sitting all day watching movies, because that was the easy way for the teacher to keep us calm.
One of the things that I didn’t like at all was that the special education students were segregated from the regular education students during lunch time, I remember how I was watching all the other students talking, laughing and having fun during lunch and I was not allowed to do that, my classmates were nonverbal, I didn’t have anyone to talk to, and I needed to help pushing the wheelchairs back to our classroom. My mom was not happy seeing the way I was treated, so she look for help with disability rights, and different advocates. I remember when I was in one of the ARD meetings, one of the advocates asked my teacher why is Max treated like this. She replied, Max doesn’t know how to read or write, so the advocate handed me a paper and asked me to read, I read the entire paper loud and clear, then she asked me to write my name and the date.
I did it. The school had to make changes in my IEP. After that day I was able to have 3 classes outside the special education classroom, and I was able to have lunch with the regular education students, it was life changing for me.
When I started high school it was a completely different world. My IEP said I have to do the common core at the special education classroom, but I was able to take the electives in the regular education environment, I started taking a class in journalism, I joined JROTC, I joined Future Farmers of America and my life started changing, I feel totally different when I started 10th grade I was able to take 2 common core classes at the regular education environment and my electives as well, I was passing my classes with very good grades. As I move in my education I have been progressing every day. I am a high school senior this year. I only take 1 class in the special education classroom, and take all my other classes in the regular education environment. I am taking college classes as well and I am proud to say that I participated in the making of a documentary with my drama class. We won 1st place in the state. I have been conquering a lot of goals, thanks to my family and a lot of people who have been always willing to help.
I applied to 10 different universities, and I was accepted in all of them, I am starting college in fall of 2022. I am going to do a Bachelor of Arts with a major in Theatre.
I am happy to be who I am, I know I am different, and as my mom says it is ok to be different. We all are different and that’s what makes everyone special.
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 is now available 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.
