This guest post is by Cole Jordan, a young man who was diagnosed with autism at 9 and plans to attend the University of Connecticut. Cole 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.
Autism or autistic is a word that you might have heard somewhere in a conversation or read about in a text. This term is used to describe a development disability caused by differences in the brain. These differences cause issues with social and communication skills, repetitive or restricted behaviors and interests. This condition also causes different ways of learning, moving, or paying attention. Growing up with autism is not an easy endeavor because a person must always discover and test methods to compensate for the drawbacks of their condition. But there are benefits that come with being autistic and how a person with the condition can become a highly functioning and contributing member of society. But first the person must complete a series of steps to understand their condition and discover how to leverage their unique traits to their advantage.
The first step is coping with the diagnosis. Being told of any diagnosis is a difficult subject to process. When I was told about mine, I didn’t know what to think. I was shocked and attempted to understand my diagnosis. But only after I took the time and read about my condition, did I start to process the information. The next phase is understanding. Through research and learning about autism, I began to adjust to my new reality and discovered how my condition benefits me in key areas of life. For instance, I think practically and rationally, which is essential in academics and in problem solving. The final stage is utilizing the condition. After researching and understanding how the condition affects you, you can begin to start applying the strengths the condition grants and begin to see how those strengths can reap benefits in both your personal and academic or work life. There are many benefits to being autistic and these benefits can enrich your life.
Having autism is not entirely a negative, a person can reap massive benefits because they are autistic. A benefit is having an idea of what you like to do, which is an important part of life because knowing this information is critical to understanding yourself and leading a happy life. Another pro is a belief in order and routine, which is great due to organizing being an important life skill and is a key component of a stable and happy environment. A third advantage is being able to think logically and rationally, which can provide a unique perspective that is free of biases and can streamline the problem-solving process by only seeing the facts of a situation. One last gain to having autism is requiring exercise and activity to properly function, which can lead to a very healthy and active way of living. But there are numerous disadvantages to having an autism diagnosis.
This condition is classified as a disability for several reasons. A very serious part of autism is problems with communication and interaction, which can be presented as an inability to maintain eye contact or a lack of interest and understanding of how to communicate effectively. Another downside is obsessive and repetitive behaviors, which causes a struggle to accept minor changes, a need for routines, and unusual reactions to smells or tastes or sounds. Though there are drawbacks to autism there are also positives, similar to everything that comprises our world.
Receiving an autism diagnosis is not easy and will affect many aspects of life. But the only move you can make is to begin to process and learn about the condition and how you specifically are affected because autism does not affect everyone the same way. This process of understanding and learning about autism will not be easy, so take your time and show your grace because you are trying. Don’t be afraid to ask for help and talk about your condition because this method is very effective for both coping and learning about the condition. Never close yourself off to new opportunities or experiences no matter how scary or uncomfortable they might be because these new journeys can make your condition less severe and can improve you.
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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.
