This guest post is by Maria Orsay, a young woman on the autism spectrum who was diagnosed with autism at 2 years of age and attends Maryville University. Maria 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.
My name is Maria Emilia Orsay. I was born in Teaneck, New Jersey, in the fall of 2000. I have two siblings who are diagnosed with severe autism and need to be taken care of by my parents for the rest of their lives. I was diagnosed with autism too when I was two years old. My case is not as severe as my two siblings but I always felt like people underestimated what I was capable of, so growing up I was determined to do everything my siblings weren’t able to do.
My parents owned their own business, so my family moved across many states when I was a child in order for them to expand. From 2004 to 2005, we moved from New Jersey to Kentucky, and then from Kentucky to Los Angeles, California. That year I started Pre-K and was put into a special education classroom for the first time. The class wasn’t up to my parent’s standards so they decided to homeschool me and my two younger sisters. This helped me learn subjects that I wasn’t challenged with in the special education classroom. I received so much one-on-one attention that when our family moved to Missouri ten years later I was able to be part of a regular classroom with minimum support.
After finishing high school in 2019, I went to Meramec College to get my associates degree in Photography and Fine art. Succeeding in school has been a challenge that I face everyday, but overcome by being persistent and dedicated. I listen to my parents and try to follow their advice. I choose to do the tasks I don’t like first instead of avoiding them. It is in my nature to try my best regardless if what I’m doing puts me in a bad mood. I am not sure if it is due to my disability, but I don’t procrastinate. I find it easier to get school work finished before it’s due. I also don’t have a problem recognizing if I need some help.
One of my biggest challenges is meeting new people. I am nervous and shy about how I greet others. So, on my first day of school at Meramec, I went out of my way to meet new students and create nice short conversations. After meeting and getting to know some of them, I started to make friends. Of course, I tend to mostly stay silent while being in a big group but even so, I have an exciting social life with plans almost every weekend.
One class my mom encouraged me to take was public speaking. I usually don’t enjoy talking in front of crowds, but thankfully, most of my friends were in that class with me. That made our class better than I expected because I mostly talked in front of familiar people, including my family. I learned to share more about myself and what I like to do, like dance and photography.
I chose art as my major because I’m good at coming up with my own styles for projects, for example, my favorite was a photography showcase I did on nature. When exploring nature, looking at different types of plants, even if it was just outside of my house, I would use my own focus and texture technique in my photographs to create my own unique work.
I was diagnosed with autism when I was two years old, but not severely. I am a typical person who is eager to learn and do stuff for myself like other motivated people, even when I was a child. Not everything I do goes my way, but to make the best out of something I try to take responsibility whenever I can. If it weren’t for my family and some of those teachers who were there for me when I asked for help, I probably wouldn’t be the person that I am today.
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.
