This guest post is by Michael Eminhizer, a young man on the autism spectrum who has been accepted into Pittsburgh Technical College studying Computer Aided Drafting. Michael is applying for the Spring 2020 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. Can I ask for a favor? I’m trying to make this nonprofit self-sufficient so I can make this my full-time job supporting the special needs community and would appreciate you taking a minute before reading on to watch this video below and subscribing to our Youtube page here to get to learn more about the work we do in the community.
I hope you can support my nonprofit like I’m trying to support these students with scholarship aid for college. Learn more on how you can help our cause with a small donation (just asking for $3 today, equal to your daily cup of coffee) here.
I have an interesting view of myself when it comes to my autistic behavior. It’s more misery than anything else.
I was born on October 22, 2001 and my birth was not problematic in the slightest. In fact, it was normal, completely normal. It was when I was around one, my parents noticed I wasn’t acting like a normal one year old should be, I was chaotic, and silent. They thought I was going to be mute for my whole life because of how silent I was in my baby years. That’s how much I have been told from what I remember of those years. Now, for my grade years.
Personally, My first grade experience was truly uninspiring, it wasn’t notable in the slightest. It was second grade that my autism started to affect me. I got put into special education for English and Grammar, but not for Math weirdly enough. As soon as I got into that class, I wanted to get out as soon as I could. This is also the grade that I made my first ever friend that gave me a chance, and that’s the thing. People don’t give others chances enough in my opinion. I thank that person who gave me the chance made me who I am today.
I wanted to experience that way of life. I worked my butt off trying to prove to the school that they shouldn’t have put me in that class.
During that time in between me being put into the class and finally getting out of it, I was put on medication for my autism and that helped out so much but not so much later on. It bit me in the butt. I’ll get to that, but in sixth grade I finally got out of that special class with how high my grades were. When I finally got out that I felt amazing with my hard work to prove them, I should be in normal classes.
My transfer into normal classes was simple and didn’t have any problems with it, surprising it was fine for me. A bit of time later, I was able to enjoy myself and discovered my love of drawing. That was one of my reasons to go into the architectural work, It was nice to pass the time with it. Now, to explain why I made that bite me in the butt comment. I somehow lost my health insurance around July of 2018 and I had a pain trying to get that back. During that time trying to get that back, I ran out of medication, and I wasn’t in the best of mind to keep myself out of trouble because of it.
I made a bad comment and wasn’t paying attention to my body language and got myself in trouble. I don’t really have great social understanding when I am off my meds. It had been a long while since I took my meds during that time of losing my insurance. I have since gotten my insurance back and taken my medication again. So, I am back to my old self again with the help of therapy to help me if this situation sadly happens again.
Now, why do I want to go into architecture? Because I can help improve living conditions in homes. If I can get a job in this type of workforce then I can make people who are like me inspired to go out there and make something of themselves. I know others have it worse than me and that’s okay. If I can inspire others then I did something right with my autism. People with this situation need to be given the chance to be loved and accepted by those who are not their own families. Thank you for reading this.
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My name is Kerry Magro, a professional speaker and best-selling author who is also on the autism spectrum that started the nonprofit KFM Making a Difference in 2011 to help students with autism receive scholarship aid to pursue a 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.
