This guest post is by Nikolas Limmer, a young man who is diagnosed with autism and attends Liberty University. Nikolas is applying for the Spring 2025 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 Nikolas Limmer and I was born in Wisconsin in 2004. I have lived my life as a Third Culture Kid who has lived in 3 different countries: Czechia, Türkiye, and Portugal, respectively. Having to consistently move has been a challenge for me since I must get acquainted with new things and leave my old friends behind. Out of all the place I lived, I miss living in Prague the most which was mostly because it was the first country I moved to and had the biggest influence on me.
My disability has impacted my academic life in a variety of ways. For example, I had difficulty with my handwriting which led to my parents having to train me to write with better handwriting such by having me do cursive. Learning foreign languages such as Turkish and Portuguese was much more difficult because of my Aspergers. I also have had an even harder time speaking these foreign languages when it comes to communicating with others who can speak these languages fluently. I managed to overcome my disability by working hard and focusing on my studies which led to me ending my first in-person semester with excellent grades which puts my best foot forward when it comes to completing future semesters. Living in the dorms, I am learning to live in community with students that do not have Aspergers while also taking classes such as BIBL350. This is mostly because I have a deep desire to learn more about God’s Word through my Biblical Studies major at college. My disability will continue to affect the way I learn but I will continue studying well so that I will still be on the path to victory.
Living with Aspergers has not been easy as it has been difficult for me to interpret social cues which makes it much more difficult to read the room which sometimes gets me into trouble. Sometimes, it is hard for me to tell if someone is being serious or is just joking which can lead to negative situations. Personally, I do not always pay attention to people talking amongst themselves and sometimes interrupt them which can lead to trouble.
I also tend to talk too much during a conversation which does not leave much room for others to speak their own minds. As of right now, I am working to improve this by letting other people have a chance to share what’s on their mind before I respond. Additionally, small talk is uninteresting to me since I just want to get the point.
Unfortunately, when things do not go my way, I sometimes get irrationally upset and stressed out over it. Personally, I would rather schedule or plan before doing something so that I can have less difficulty when I do them and be more organized. I tend to pace back and forth in a room and am very resistant to change.
Participating in social activities is difficult for me because I would rather be by myself. I also do not take kindly to people when they touch me unexpectedly.
Despite my Aspergers, I have managed to make great friends such as Robbie and Elijah (Brad). In fact, Elijah also has Aspergers which made it much easier for us to become friends while I was living in Antalya. Additionally, Brad and I both had the same psychiatrist named Dana Tappen, who tried helping me become more social despite having Aspergers. For years we had been communicating via Zoom call but in the summer of 2022, we met in person in a library in California. As of right now, I still need to work on my social life when it comes to my disability as it will affect me in the future in how I talk to others and relate to them.
Unfortunately, my mental disability most likely hurt my chances of getting hired prior to attending college. When I came to live in Lynchburg earlier in December 2023, I applied for many jobs in the city but kept being turned down after I did some job interviews. I suspect that my Aspergers-related difficulty in making a good first impression is likely what led to me being denied jobs after having job interviews. Additionally. these rejections probably occurred because I may not have had proper eye contact or even a firm enough handshake which probably led potential supervisors to hesitate when it came to hiring me. As a result, they either informed me that someone else was picked or ghosted me entirely. Fortunately, I overcame this challenge by persevering in my quest for employment which I found in the form of work as a Front-of-House Student Worker at Slim Chickens. I have not only maintained my employment status but have also volunteered at two churches and a food bank. When it comes to working, I prefer to do things one step at a time since multi-tasking is difficult for me and very stressful.
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.
