This guest post is by BryLeigh Graham, a young woman who was diagnosed with autism at the age of 16 and plans to attend Salt Lake Community College. BryLeigh 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.
Dear future readers,
I have faced many challenges to get where I am today. Let me catch you up to speed, sports was my way of expressing my emotions in better ways helped me learn to grow temperance (moderation in action, thought, or feeling, restrain, or habitual moderation). Sports is how I coped with the struggles and challenges life has thrown at me. It’s how I learned to deal with my silence and anger. Although, I have many stories of what Autism did for me and made me struggle harder in life.
My biggest challenge was finding out I had Autism, as I didn’t know I had Autism. Fast forward to when I was sixteen years old, sat in a comfortable chair during an appointment with a psychiatrist my parents had set up for me. My psychiatrist and I talked about what was causing me struggles and problems in my life that was bothering me and affecting my way of living. But the one that caught my attention was him saying I was High Functioning Autistic. Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder that’s characterized by difficulties with social interaction and communication. High functioning Autistic means I can manage everyday tasks but need a little more help than others, like with my speaking. The high functioning part means I among the lower spectrum. At the time I thought this was the worst possible diagnosis because it made me different from everyone else which made me feel alone, isolated, and not able to relate to others very well. This made me shy as I had no one to turn to to talk about my Autism because none of my friends had Autism that I could really relate or talk to. At the time I didn’t want to tell my friends because I didn’t know how they would react or treat me. It took me weeks to accept this diagnosis. I additionally felt that I was lost in an ocean of painful thoughts, my head was swimming with many questions. Can I really be Autistic? How can Autism affect my sports and life?
On the other hand, after being diagnosed, it helped me realize there were differences in my life. Which explained a lot of my childhood, when I was a little kid and got mad I would throw a tantrum. Although throwing a tantrum is normal for most kids, mine were different. As I threw them more often than other kids, which was every time I was upset or angry. I would run to my room and slam the door hard, afterwards I would cry. You see I wasn’t throwing a tantrum to get attention or my way, but rather because I was upset and didn’t know how to express it. Often people with Autism feel alone due to the fact they can’t express their emotions, and etc. (3 websites with further information: https://www.rootsofloneliness.com/autism-loneliness, https://www.spectrumnews.org/news/difficulty-identifying-emotions-linked-to-poor-mental-health-in-autistic-people/, http://www.autism-help.org/autism-education-school-effects.htm#:~:text=EDUCATION%20%26%20AUTISM%20SPECTRUM%20DISORDERS&text=Sensory%20processing.,and%20facial%20cues%20of%20teachers.)
Although, I learned that I can do anything if I set my mind to it. My first match I wrestled a girl from Heriman. In my first match against her I tried to head throw her. A head throw you grab the opponent’s head where you grab the opponent’s head with your arm around and hug their neck. With your other free hand you grab the top of their arm while you turn your back into their front. Using your strength you pop or shove your hips into theirs and throw them to the side where your continually holding their head and arm. With this move you are able to get your opponent onto their back while you are in a powerful position on top of them. This move is also a pinning move as it gets them to have their back fully onto the ground. Whereas in wrestling, it is needed for the opponent to have their shoulders and back fully onto the ground for at least 3 seconds for them to lose and be ‘pinned’. However, both of our momentums made me fall onto one knee which injured it. I felt a pop followed by a sharp pain in my knee as I landed on it. This made me injured during the rest of the match, but I kept going.
The next obstacle/problem I faced was fighting off my back within the same period. During most wrestling matches everything turns into a blur as your mind is more focused on wrestling. However the girl was able to get out of my move and put me into a ‘Half Nelson’ and/or ‘Cross Face’ Which put me to my back. However I kept fighting my hardest as it was a difficult dogfight to not let my opponent pin me. In the second period, I caught the girl and put her on her back by ‘Cross Facing’ her because she tried to do a ‘Grandby Roll’ or ‘Fatman Roll’. I was then able to pin her, winning the match (Here are some videos of a ‘Granby Roll and ‘Fatman Roll’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BVloS2mqRYI, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2XjTF8Zej8. )I felt so accomplished with the match, as though I was on top of the world and I felt resilience.
To sum it up, I faced many ups and downs that made me a better person because I have learned new lessons for each challenge I have faced. In addition, I have learned to never give up because I learned this trait from my older sister. My sister is the most determined person I’ve ever met. An example of her determination is she would often get many 4.0’s in school. Autism is a blessing in disguise because I understand how people with Autism feel. Which makes it easier to relate/approach people with the same condition and become friends with them. In conclusion, I learned to not give up despite the opposition of my condition.
Sincerely,
Bry
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.
