This guest post is by Justin Martinez, a young man who was diagnosed with autism at 10 and has been accepted to St. John’s University. Justin 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 remember like it was yesterday. The yellow walls of Ms. B’s Kindergarten classroom. The rug was a pattern of colorful squares. The cubbies were filled with books and toys. I remember the kitchen center which was filled with all different kinds of fake, plastic foods, which I loved to “cook” with and make weird dishes and food combinations. I remember my teachers being nice and they tried to be fair. I remember being happy, especially when they would read to us.
Nasira and I were good friends. One day though, something unexpected happened. I was being playful but my excitement was mistaken for roughness. Nasira pointed her finger at me
and because we were friends, I took a soft bite of it. She was pointing out my behavior to the teacher. I did not want to hurt her but at times my behavior came across as rough and even
annoying. It was those times when I would get in trouble, “act out” and my teachers would just think I was being a bad kid.
For a few weeks after that, I was sent to a different school where I learned how to regulate my behavior and become more manageable. I worked on myself to be the calmest and
nicest person there was so I could come back to school calm and earn a gift, a necklace with yellow beads strung together with a small hand making a thumbs up sign. My mother had me
tested because my teachers had a hard time understanding my behavior and had a hard time helping me.
The doctor determined that I had autism, and while I am higher functioning, I presented with difficulties in social communication and emotional challenges. My disorder has been an issue with trying to socialize in high school. This made it hard making friends with the other students. In addition, I have Attention Deficit Disorder and trouble focusing. My doctor tried
prescribing medication, which I hoped would work, but never did. I had to keep taking new ones a few times but nothing changed for me.
I often think that people think that I don’t care about their emotional expectations. If a friend tells me about how their day was or about a family issue or personal incident, sometimes I
don’t know how to react. This also makes it hard to make and keep friends, until I came to Frank Sinatra.
When I was in elementary school I had an art teacher who first showed me “how to learn about” art. She gave me some fun activities and she was impressed with my creativity. She gave me a flyer to a summer program called USDAN. There, I met a funny looking art teacher who really inspired me to be an artist. After I graduated elementary school, I took the whole year taking art classes in both middle school and in high school, because art is my passion and I want to learn more about it. I want to create so many pieces in any medium such as paint, sculpture,
digital art, and sketching.
If I was to describe myself, I would say I am like AA batteries; I’m Autistic and Artistic.
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.
