This guest post is by Mackenzie Gates, a young man who was diagnosed with Asperger’s and has been accepted into Mississippi College. Mackenzie 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.
“Obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.” Michael Jordan
My name is Mackenzie Gates and I have Asperger’s syndrome, a type of autism. This condition has proven to be a major obstacle for me in my life. I have had to overcome my fears of failure from being different, people being mean to me, and just the regular stresses of being a teenager. Despite all that I have had to overcome, I have been able to manage to do well both in school and as an athlete.
During my elementary school years, I tried my best to pass my classes. I had to work twice as hard as the other students. Each night, it would take me about 5 hours to finish all of my homework. I really wanted to give up. It was during this time that I learned that I had autism. I was shocked. I thought that this meant that I would never be successful in life. This attitude unfortunately made middle school even more challenging. Although it was not taking me as long to do my homework, I started to get in trouble. I started talking back to my teachers, getting into fights, and disobeyed rules. I started to feel depressed and overwhelmed. I felt like what was the point of me trying to do my best and be a good student. I finally started to tell my mom how I was feeling. We started to do research about autism together. I got involved with extracurricular activities for students with different learning disabilities. This allowed me to meet other people both older and younger than me that were doing great in school and in life. This made me start to realize that I could be whatever I wanted to be if I actually tried.
When people say life is hard they are right about that. Life as a “normal” high school teenager is not easy because of the constant problems that the average teenager has to face. We have to deal with the constant stresses of fitting in, discovering what we actually like, finishing high school with a good G.P.A., picking a college, getting into that college, and figuring out how to pay for college. However, unlike other teenagers, I also have to figure out which college is best equipped with teachers and other resources for helping students with Autism. Not only can all of this be very stressful, but it can lead to more worry and depression. The fear of making the wrong choice. I am glad that my parents were able to recognize what I was going through and allow me to see a therapist when they saw that I was too overwhelmed. Therapy allowed me to work through some of my issues and come up with solutions best for people like me.
Autism causes me not always to know when people are trying to use me or indirectly being mean. I have had people pretend to be my friend just so they can copy my work or use my belongings. I would think that they are my friends until my real friends tell me the truth. I have to put in the extra effort so that I can catch on and fit in. This makes making new friends even harder because you never know who is being nice because they are genuinely nice, and who may be trying to take advantage of you. It is very stressful always trying to figure out who you need to be friends with and who you need to leave alone. Although I do practice scenarios in therapy that help me better understand what people are saying and how to better respond, it is extremely hard not knowing who you can and can not trust.
Despite all that I have been through, I am glad about the lessons that I have learned. Because I never gave up, each situation has helped me be stronger than I ever thought. I am writing this essay because I want to go to college. I know that my parents can not afford to pay for me to go to college and provide all of the additional resources that I will need in order to be successful. I know that I am smart enough to reach my goal of graduating from college and becoming a graphic design specialist, if I have all of the right resources available. I know that I will face countless obstacles but I know my goal. I want to be able to show other kids with autism that we can be whatever we want to be in life, including a college graduate. I want to be the example for other kids and families of kids with autism, the example that my family and I did not see in our everyday community. Your scholarship would help me overcome the financial obstacle needed to make this goal possible.
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.
