This guest post is by Gino Giannoutsos, a young man on the autism spectrum who was diagnosed with ADHD at age 8 and has been accepted into Florida Polytechnic. Gino is applying for the Spring 2022 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, will be released on March 29, 2022 on Amazon here for our community to enjoy featuring the stories of 100 autistic adults.
My name is Gino Alexander Giannoutsos, and I am a 17-year-old only child. I have also been diagnosed with ADHD and ASD Level 1; while the effects of these conditions may have created struggles for me, such as poor social skills, I will instead use them as an explanation for my actions. Whatever the cause, one thing I know for sure is this: my childhood has been full of fixations. When a topic interests me, I tend to spend a lot of time engrossed in it, only putting it on the backburner if there is urgent work to be done. Among the most common of these topics is my future career, and unsurprisingly, my thoughts on that have evolved tremendously.
From a very early age, I was fascinated by astronomy, LEGOs, and computers. In my childhood, I was often known for my encyclopedic knowledge of space, impressive LEGO builds made without instructions, and strong enthusiasm towards anything that could be done on a computer – educational or otherwise. I also liked drawing, but my fine motor skills made coloring and shading a pain, so I stuck to sketches.
While in middle school, I did devote time to some of my old infatuations, especially my interest in gaming – I joined a camp on Game Maker to scratch that itch, and won an award for my in-camp project. However, my primary focus was currently to branch out to new subjects. One such subject was performing arts, and in order to practice for an acting career, I auditioned for multiple school plays, and signed up for an improv group at a local theater. Surprisingly, I enjoyed it! Not only did it fine-tune my wit, but it also gave me opportunities to improve my team attitude.I kept up with my acting career throughout high school. I auditioned for two plays at local theaters, and received leading roles; as for improv, I continued it, going so far as to attend online sessions during the pandemic. Additionally, I got into Dungeons and Dragons, a game that combines role-playing with a turn-based combat system. At this point, though, I started treating both this and my performing arts activities more like hobbies than anything else. Teen Court was yet another high school activity I took up since I contemplated becoming a lawyer at the time. I held the titles of juror and bailiff, and found that the judicial process can be interesting; on the other hand, I found that the judicial life wasn’t as engaging as I had hoped it would be. I even reignited my interest in art around this time, combining my physical drawing skills with digital art. I used two Adobe programs – Photoshop and Illustrator – to enhance what I already put to paper.Throughout this, I also managed to garner recognition as a scholar. I was included on the Dean’s List at the college I’m dual-enrolled at, was invited to join Phi Theta Kappa, and became a member of NSHSS. I even received a bronze certificate from the Congressional Awards program.These endorsements, however, were a double-edged sword. As I got closer and closer to graduating, I felt more pressure to decide on a career. Having exhausted what seemed like every option, I panicked, thinking I was out of options.Then it hit me: video games. All this time, my interest in them had been expanding. At first, I simply enjoyed playing, but as I aged, I started trying to tackle them from a design standpoint. I was looking for a career all this time, not realizing that I was already preparing for the position I wanted the most: game designer/developer.That settled it. After many years, and many different possibilities, I found an interest that I could willingly pursue for the foreseeable future. I applied and was accepted into several colleges, and eventually decided to accept admissions into Florida Polytechnic’s Computer Science program, with a focus in Game Development and Simulation. The support for my field of work looks promising, the cost is very affordable, and most importantly, I enjoy the overall feel of the campus. Perhaps my interests will shift again someday, but for now, I am glad to have found my grand fixation.
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 that 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, will be 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.
