This guest post is by Josef Marlow, a young man who was diagnosed with autism at the age of 5 and has been accepted to University of Central Florida. Josef 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.
When I was 5, I was diagnosed with Autism. Although I do not remember much about my diagnosis at that time, I do remember having to go to therapy. I spent most of my adolescence in therapy. My mom decided that it was necessary. She wanted to give me everything I needed, and therapy was the best opinion at the time because of my age and level of development. It was rough. My mom stopped working to be able to take me to every session and be there for me. It was a difficult decision to make, but she did it. Progressive Therapy Services was the key to the door that led me to where I am today. On the advice of my Occupational Therapist, Ms. Amber, mom signed me up for flag football, to demonstrate to me, that things change, they do not always stay the same. As young as I can remember, I always loved football. One of my fondest memories is being with my Paw Paw sitting in his lap watching University of Florida, and Pawpaw would play pretend to tackle me. I played flag-football, two years with Parks & Rec. Dept. It was fun and I made friends. After two years of flag, I told my mom, I was ready to “hit something” so I decided I wanted to play tackle, so my mom petitioned the Pop Warner Association, to let me play. They had never had a kid on the spectrum play in their program before, so my mom fought for me to play.
I was now the newest member of the Bradfordville Buccaneers. My first practice Coach Matt introduced me to my teammates, it was scary because they had all played with each for many years, and I was the new kid. During practice, one of my teammates asked Coach Matt why I looked away all the time or acted “funny”. Coach stopped practice and had me to come to the front with him, he told my teammates, that I had autism and he said, you probably don’t know what that is but , simply put Josef’s brain works differently than yours or mine. So while we are teaching Josef about football, Josef is going to teach us a few things about autism, and how we can be different but have the same love for game.
My first game was so exciting, my teammates helped me get into position on the field and the whistle blew and I tackled the player in front of me. I came off the field and Coach asked me how I felt, and I told him, I was ready to do it again! We had a great season; we won our division championship. I later went on to play for Deerlake Middle School for two years, our last year, we played for our district championship and came up short.
I am now a Senior at Chiles High School where I have been a member of the football team for the past 4 years! At Chiles we aren’t really known for our football program, but we have some great players, Trent, RayRay, Judah, Pope, Tre, Matthew, Luke man, those guys are good! And playing time is earned. So, I worked harder, always giving 100 percent. Even after given my best, I didn’t really get a lot of playing time, so Coach KP, came to me one day and asked if it would bother me if I played down on JV as well, as playing Varsity. I told him, “ No Sir, I just want to play!” So, I played in two games twice a week. My Senior year we went 5-5 overall and district 2-2. We had some touch losses because we would loss by 1 or 2 points. Except for Thomas County Central, they beat the breaks off us, 42-13.
Football was still exciting and I looked forward to every practice and every Thursday and Friday night. Playing football awakened something in me. I felt like I belonged, I felt like I was just as equal as my teammates. They made me feel equal. They cheered me on, they pushed me. I felt included. I found a brotherhood. I have their backs and they have mine. My Coach K always encouraged me, when I got down on myself. Those “Friday Night Lights”, saved me and my family, I found a confidence I never had before, and that confidence followed me off the field, to the classroom. I am still working on myself, and I know that being clear with my goals and needs is very important. I must continue to advocate for myself as an adult. I also know that my college experience at UCF will connect me with more people and I will grow more socially. I know this will make my mom’s heart smile.
Here is part of my speech at the Tallahassee Quarterback Club where I was the 2022 recipient of the Dale Doss Courage Award, “As Snoop Dogg once said, I want to thank me for believing in me, I want to thank me for doing all this hard work. I want to thank me for having no days off. I want to thank me for never quitting. I want to thank me for being me at all times.”. Through my hard work and dedication that I put in, I am able to be an academically achieving student. I have proven to myself, that although my experiences with autism has affected how I communicate and learn, they have also helped me become who I want to be. I have also learned that having people in my corner – my mom calls them “our village” – helps. My village has helped me so much in my 19 years, and I want to be able to one day give back to the community that has given so much to me.
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.
