This guest post is by Alan Xavier Alvarez Garces, a young man on the who was diagnosed with Aspergers and has been accepted to Wharton County Jr. College. Alan 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.
Growing up is hard and growing up on the autism spectrum is even harder. I was born in Caracas, Venezuela on June 2004, I was tested when I was 3 years old and finally diagnosed at the age of seven years old with Persuasive Developmental Disorder– not otherwise specified. After my diagnosis, I started with different therapies such as Speech Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Sensory Integration therapy, Tomatis (Sound therapy), A Learning Support Program, Social Skills Group, and ABA therapy, among others. In my first years of school in my native country, I did not receive the necessary support from the school, a boy who seemed distracted, and did not take class notes but learned the content taught. When I felt overloaded with stimuli, I used to hide under the table and swing waiting for everything to calm down and return to normal. On many occasions, I made paper airplanes with the tests instead of answering them, without the teacher noticing. When someone encouraged me to answer the test, I did it and got good grades. Teachers always complained about me because I did not take notes in class and looked distracted by everything that happened around me. My teachers thought I did not listen to classes but when I was asked, they were surprised that I could answer correctly.
During my 2012/2013 school year (second grade) I learned complicated math operations and had reading and writing skills; despite this, the coordinator of the school decided to make me repeat the grade alleging that I did not take notes at school, and my lack of interaction with others. My father requested a meeting with the principal in which the principal said: “what is the issue, your son is disabled, your son will repeat, he will not be able to finish high school nor go to university” after the meeting my father went to the school district where the case was reviewed, and I was tested in several subjects and I was approved to start the school year 2013/2014 at third grade at another school where I performed much better. My memories take me back to those days, I had just arrived at a new school without any familiar faces at recess, I spent it alone, however, my talent for drawing cartoons from memory made other children come to me to see me draw, my talent I have used it for drawing since I was little without having attended any art course. In August 2014 we legally moved from Venezuela to the United States. Once in the USA, I faced another challenge: the language, I started fourth grade with bilingual support, in fifth grade I entered 504 programs, and today I am getting Individual Education Program (IEP), therapies, and support.
Since I live in the United States, I can count on several achievements: In the 2014/2015 school year, I won a Bronze Medal at the Science Fair at Dr. Lynn Armstrong Elementary. In my 2018/2019 school year, I applied and was accepted to the National Junior Honor Society at First Colony Middle School. I obtained the Academic Excellence Award at William P. Clements High School. In August 2022 I scored 1,150 on my first SAT, and I took a World Language Course test (Spanish) on November 2022 scoring 100 at level 1; 100 in level 2; 97 in level 3, and 84 in level 4, which allowed me to obtain 4 years the worth of high school foreign language credits without taking the subject. January 2023, I obtained Scholastic Art & Writing Awards from the 2023 Harrys County Regional Award Recipients “Gold Key” (Digital Art).
About sports, I was enrolled in soccer and baseball when I was 6 to 8 years old, in practice, I played for the first few minutes and then I went away to play with the sand on the field. Once in the United States, I participated in the Gold Swimming Team from 2017 to 2019, and I was part of SWAT (Southwestern Aquatics Team) from September 2019 to February 2020 before the pandemic, I guess that I feel better about individual sports, normal sports felt boring to me, and because of that I started practicing Archery two years ago. According to my parents, when I was about 3 ½ years old when I first played with Lego, they were afraid of the small pieces that could be hazardous to children of that age: they explore things with all their senses, so I played under restricted supervision. Once I turned seven, I was assembling Lego sets for children twice my age in record time. After I completed the set, I destroyed it to start my creation game, designing things that came to my mind at that moment, I still practice this, and it has been a means to express my imagination.
I have just got accepted at Sam Houston State University, Houston Christian University, and the University of Houston Clear Lake, for the 2023 Fall semester and I am waiting for other responses to decide where I want to go because I want to stay close to home (my safe place) until I slowly transition from High School towards life in college. Yes, I am afraid, but I know that I can count on my parents and brother too. I know these limits are only in my head, but I also know that I can do whatever I want and overcome my expectations. I will attend a university and get my bachelor’s degree in arts because I want to transmit messages and convey emotions through the different forms of visual art, such as painting, photography, video, and drawing, which are things I am captivated by, although I still have a lot to learn. I also enjoy creative writing class; my teacher says that I am extremely creative. I want to get my bachelor’s degree in arts because I want to shout out to the world that Autism does not impede success.
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.
