This guest post is by Diego Gonzalez, a young man who was diagnosed with Asperger’s at 9 and currently attends Florida State College. Diego is applying for the Spring 2023 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.
I used to be labeled as a difficult child. As a toddler, I had difficulty with verbal communication and regulating my emotions. Changes in my routines would upset me and I had to change schools four different times before kindergarten. I would run and hide when I heard the ice-cream truck drive by, an empty DVD case became my favorite toy. Getting a haircut or trimming my nails became like an Olympic event having to chase me around the house. I would experience multiple melt downs as every aspect of life became overwhelming and overstimulating.
My co-pilot Asperger’s joined me when I was nine. Asperger’s and I have been riding difficult roads.
We decided to take my whole family for a ride on the back seat. At this time, the Autistic population in Puerto Rico was growing and my family did not have the resources or information to be able to understand my struggles. We had no idea where this road would take us. People around us couldn’t understand the one thing that made me unique. My parents were constantly given weird looks and negative remarks on a behavior we couldn’t control. Asperger’s was in the driver’s seat and we felt lost. Nevertheless, my mom made sure to pull out a life map and made sure we had every tool possible in order for me to be able to succeed. She was my personal GPS, and there was no stop sign in our future.
Asperger’s and I spent my elementary school years navigating new roads – working and expanding our skills through psychological, speech and occupational therapy. During middle school, we discovered Resilience and Determination Avenue where we learned to see things through to the end. In high school we reached Goals Blvd where we made new friends and we graduated with honors, also being one of the twelve seniors inducted into the National Honor Society chapter of my school. Now in college, we have new challenges to face on my express-way to adulthood.
This transition has had its mountains and valleys, but I am grateful to have a family that have always supported me and have pushed me to be the best version of myself I can be. I am slowly learning about the importance of independence and advocating for myself. Just like a tree, my family planted a small seed and have been taking care of it and watching it grow for the last 18 years. Now is my time to flourish. Now is my time to take the driver’s seat and the steering wheel of my life.
There will be times where you will run out of gas; you can lose motivation and there will be times where you would put yourself down, but that is no reason why you should give up on your dreams. You will face winding roads and roadblocks, but just take these as a short pit-stops and continue your journey. Challenges can be and will be overbearing, but we can be stronger. Autism is not a disability, is an ability – an ability to see things from a different mirror. Asperger’s taught me we can overcome anything, that we are worth more than what we know and most of all, to enjoy the ride to success!
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.
