This guest post is by Valkyrie Tirtakusuma, a young woman on the autism spectrum who was diagnosed with autism at age 2 and has been accepted into 6 colleges so far. Valkyrie 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 125+ autistic adults.
I was nonverbal and quiet as a mouse when I was very young, so my parents got very concerned about what was wrong with me. As a result, me and my parents went to the doctors, and it was at two years old when me and my parents found out that I was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Autism is a condition that affects the ability to communicate with others and express oneself. For that reason, from past and present experiences, I struggle with social interactions when I meet new people and am more communicative with most people I already have familiarity with. Luckily, I would always have support from people to calm me down and make the right decisions.
I always try my best to get involved in extracurriculars, improve my verbal communication skills, and earn honor roll (with A’s and B’s) for the rest of the year, so I can get into the colleges of my choosing. Even though I always try my best to stay positive, there were times when I would doubt myself by thinking I was going to fail and/or repeat a grade, but I found way sto improve my confidence. I would attend office hours for the class I had difficulties with and ask for help from my teachers. Therefore, I became more optimistic and I had higher confidence. At school, I am currently involved in DIVAs, (Diligent Independent Virtuous Adults) the string orchestra, (where I play the violin and I played it since I was in 3rd grade), find a part-time job, and get involved in other extracurricular activities like the National Honors Society (NHS). I’m also on student council, in order to build up my college resume and be eligible for a scholarship when I apply for financial aid and talk with my college counselor.
In my view, when people think having autism is a weakness, I see it as my strength. I found out many positive things can happen to people with autism. For one, some have a good photographic memory. Others have made positive impacts in the world such as Greta Thunberg, an 18-year-old Swedish activist who has Asperger’s Syndrome. Like her, I am also comfortable doing public speaking in front of a big crowd. In fact, I want to prove to people that having a disability does not change who they are and people with disabilities can do stuff that people without disabilities can do. That said, disabilities won’t stop me in achieving my goals.
Furthermore, in the future, I want to be a successful financial analyst or advisor, so I can use my degree to educate others on how to be wiser with their financial decisions.
In conclusion, I already planned my college major and my future career. I’m working on getting scholarships and/or grants to pursue my bachelor’s degree and hoping I can continue the same missions that I can carry to my college life and give back to everyone in the community.
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 125+ 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.
