This guest post is by Andrew Jackson, a young man who was diagnosed with autism at 17 years old and has been accepted into Mercer University. Andrew 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, will be released on March 29, 2022 on Amazon here for our community to enjoy featuring the stories of 100 autistic adults.
“Drew is so rude and disrespectful!” What a tough concept for an elementary student to digest. It was a phrase that I heard a lot and often throughout my education. Being diagnosed with ADHD in kindergarten was no big deal, I learned many coping strategies to help me excel. The more complex problem for me was autism. I wasn’t diagnosed with high-functioning autism until my junior year in high school. I can’t tell you the relief that the diagnosis brought. For so many years, I struggled to interact socially with other students and teachers. I wasn’t rude, I wasn’t being disrespectful, I just couldn’t. It was difficult for me to read someone’s emotions and understand how to respond. For that, I was labeled as rude and disrespectful. That wasn’t the end of it for me. You see, I love math and possess an exceptional memory, so I learned to use this strength to combat “rude, disrespectful” behavior.
My parents knew I wasn’t rude and disrespectful. They recognized my ability to remember jokes and turn them into appropriate puns that flowed naturally into conversation. At home, we punned to the point that any comedian would have walked out of the room at the non-stop, ridiculously corny humor. My siblings joined in. With the help of my family, I found my way in! I couldn’t read people and respond to their questions but could interject an appropriate pun. Puns were challenging and weaving them into conversation gave me a comfort level that I could use in conversation.
In 7th grade, I was truly blessed to have a team of teachers that recognized both my love for math and puns, they would pun with me to engage socially. Ms. Peck, Ms. Harris and Ms. Fulton, didn’t dismiss me as rude or disrespectful. That year was a real turning point, it was that single “moment” that made a difference in my life. Not that I became comfortable, or it became easy, but I learned how to use my ability to remember jokes and puns to interact with other humans. These teachers also recognized my love for math and encouraged me to join the math team where I could communicate through my love of math instead of words. I could compete with numbers. I went on to compete at the national level with numbers instead of speech. This was critical for me because it gave me confidence. Internal confidence that I could be successful. I could achieve. As I left middle school, I had gained confidence and learned to use my strengths with math and puns to enter the world of social interaction, albeit I had not shed the “rude and disrespectful” mantra by any means.
High school was a challenge, not academically but socially. Interacting with other students was truly frightening and exhausting. It was much easier to not interact than it was to try and engage in an awkward, exhausting manner. I had resigned myself to be the quiet student in the back of the room that did their work and otherwise disappeared. I accepted that. My cross-country coach didn’t. Dr. Taylor, my coach, recognized my talent to count exercises, and organize workouts while not being interrupted by my fellow teammates as they engaged in being normal teenagers (thank you overfocused ADHD). You can imagine my surprise as she named me as co-captain of my team as a sophomore. She knew what she was doing! She helped me learn to help others, to use my quirky abilities to lead my team. Not only did she do that, but she engaged with many of my teachers behind the scenes and laid a foundation to continue what my 7th grade team of teachers started. I am happy to say I am not that student that disappears in the back of the classroom. I represented my high school as a member of a junior leadership program, on my cross-country team that would go on to win back-to-back county championships. I say all these things, not to boast but to encourage others like me to not give up hope, there are those around you that will help you and understand you. It takes so much work, but it is worth it. I won’t say I have conquered autism, but I do profess that it won’t define me. I have a network, a village, of people that I know I can lean on for help when autism gets the best of me, and I will succeed. Don’t let others opinions define you either, they are just that opinions, use your strengths to work hard and don’t ever give up. As I enter college, I am excited to learn higher math and confident in my abilities to do so and of course find a whole new sector of the population to subject to my puns.
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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.
