This guest post is by McGrady Moss, a young man on the autism spectrum who was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder at 3 years old and has been accepted into the University of Oregon. McGrady 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, was released on March 29, 2022, on Amazon here for our community to enjoy featuring the stories of 100 autistic adults.
I remember that I have always thought differently than all the other kids. Teachers would ask students a question and they give a simple answer and I go through an elaborate process. When I was three years old, I was diagnosed with autism. Specialists told my parents that I would never talk to them. I had to be transferred to multiple schools in the first grade to get the help that I needed, took many therapy classes, and had an IEP for school. There were some moments when my mom would ask me a simple question, and I would just stay quiet.
I was really picky about things that bugged me such as the paper on the carpet, objects touching each other that shouldn’t be touching, or having the same humor as most kids. Over the years, I started to talk, and then I fell in love with interacting with people. In grade school, I talked to some people, but I didn’t know how to present myself in front of everybody. I struggled with that a lot until I found these YouTubers called Smosh. It was just these two guys who made funny videos, they had this funny and extroverted personality that I just adored. After watching them, I decided to be a funny and outgoing person to people. I would always like to tell jokes or say something nice about them. Even though I had gained the confidence to talk to people, I have always known that I went to school knowing that I am different from everyone else. I felt like an outcast.
Second grade was really hard because being the new kid at a school always is rough. I had made a couple of friends and felt pretty confident about who I was but there was this one thing that still held me back. I always hated being placed with other kids like me and being put in a different room than all my friends. There is nothing wrong with being in there. Personally, for me, I had just felt that I was something more. It wasn’t all bad, the teachers are actually really sweet and I got a lot more help than I thought. By the time I got to middle school, I thought to myself that enough was enough, and I decided to end my IEP. I worked really hard and I didn’t like getting pulled out of classes with all my friends there. When I was in 7th grade, I was no longer in special ed classrooms and was in a general ed classroom with general ed children.
High school was the year: The Year of McGrady Moss. I had ended my IEP and I felt so humbled and felt like I could do anything! I did a lot of things that I would never think I could do; Played football for the first time, ran for Class President, and won! I also experienced high school love and made tons of friends from different schools. I have also participated in a building ceremony to represent my class in freshman year and met the mayor of my town! Grades-wise; I have always had over a 3.0 GPA for my entire high school career. I am also taking college-level classes in my senior year and planning to attend the University of Oregon.
I used my spectrum as a blessing. Having one even gave me a big imagination. Ever since I was a little kid, I’ve always had a big imagination. I’d have the world turned into a fantasy or I was the only savior of planet earth. I love to drift off into my own space and make a story out of anything. That’s what made me pursue becoming a writer. I want to captivate readers with my story and change their perspective about something and make a difference.
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, 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.
