This guest post is by Isaac Starr, a young man who was diagnosed with autism around 10 years old and plans on attending Northeastern Wisconsin Technical College. Isaac is applying for the Spring 2024 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.
Have you ever had to sit pondering why you just can’t seem to relate to the children in your preschool class? Or your 3rd grade art classmates? Have you ever had to pick up a cup and before entering a sandbox, have the need to fill that cup and dump it 5 times before you could go play in the sandbox? Or perhaps you pondered why the Math teacher needed to be shown 7 steps to the problem when in reality it only took you 2 steps to get the correct answer.
These were just a few of the thoughts that invaded and took shelter in my always active brain for so many years. I always felt like an outcast but could never understand what made me different. Why me? Why did I have such a core interest in certain things? My mom questioned doctor after doctor, asking and describing the little “unique” things I would do throughout my days but never received answers until my 5th grade year of elementary school.
Three-year-old preschool enrollment found my teachers shocked I could read. By Kindergarten I was reading, writing the alphabet and having an interest in math and art. “This is not normal” were words I would hear quite often. But what did this all mean to a five-year-old? Nothing, but confusion as to why my classmates weren’t the same? What made me excel so fast and yet have quirky “unique” characteristics, like organizing everything by colors and sizes, or needing to have the same routine daily and if something wasn’t precise, it would through my whole day off and I struggled to adjust.
Finally, in 5th grade, while attending a doctor’s appointment for daily headaches came the words “He is Autistic.” I knew it must have been something my mom wasn’t expecting as she responded with “WHAT!? with a facial expression I won’t forget. Next, the most surprising thing occurred. This doctor knew all the things that would “trigger” my “uniqueness”. The noise of a whistle, the smell of Ranch dressing, a container of sand, an unorganized room, to name a few. How did he know without even knowing me? The answer: because he is aware of disabilities and children like myself. I feel he was placed in my life at the right time, to help me understand who I was and who I am meant to be.
From that day forward, things started to make sense, and I started to learn how to adapt. It wasn’t that I was “different” from everyone else. It was that I had “unique” characteristics that made me who I am.
Over all these years of living with Aspergers and being on the spectrum, I have come to terms that it is ok to be me. It is ok to concentrate on my interests and share my knowledge and experience with others.
Now being in High School, I have tried to expand my talents and experience more in life. Instead of keeping to myself, I have become more involved in my school. I am currently involved as a Manager of the Boys Varsity Basketball Team, as well as making graphic designs for our both Basketball and Volleyball teams. I have always kept up my grades and find pleasure attending school but I find much satisfaction also attending school events and functions such as Prom, Homecoming events and sporting events. None of this would be possible if it weren’t for my parents encouraging me and supporting me all these years. My mom never excluded me from things because of my disability, she encouraged me to partake, even when she knew it was out of my comfort zone. And she accepted my “No thank you” on a frequent basis. But after many years, I have been turning my “No thank yous”into “Can’t hurt to give it a try.”
Because of the support of my family and friends, I have learned it is essential to teach our communities to embrace members with disabilities and encourage them to let their voices be heard. No one is perfect, and that is ok.
We need to encourage our future generations to take part in activities to support our youth with disabilities. We need to encourage parents to support their children and allow them to watch TV shows showing characters with disabilities, read stories that have these such cases so that it becomes a norm in society and most importantly allow their children to be friends with ones with disabilities. One should not have to deal with discrimination or low self esteem because of their “uniqueness”. Each individual should be encouraged to let their qualities shine. One step towards change is all it takes. Children and Adults who are on the spectrum need to know they are important and matter. Everyone is unique in their own special way.
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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.
