Hey SpectrumGAF,
You may have seen me around helping out, but Id like to provide a quick intro.
I was diagnosed nonverbal at 3. Autism diagnosis was rare and it took seeking experts and specialists to get the help needed, but as a result I was received early interventions therapies that greatly increased my functioning. Yet, I still struggled and like many of you I was bullied relentlessly and had issues in school. Whenever I thought about how I was different I felt shame. I was directionless, and my energy was not put to good use.
This continued through my fourth year in college, when I made the decision to change that: to confront my challenges head on refused to be a victim. Today I am a Chemistry Ph.D. Candidate. I have learned a lot about what it takes to overcome any of the negative challenges from being on the spectrum and harness the positive as my superpowers. I have compared my own story to others I know on the spectrum and was saddened by what I found. Instead of being encouraged to take on difficult tasks and reach higher, they were encouraged to only strive for minimum wage jobs or community college. We are selling people with autism short and everybody loses as a result: companies are missing out on so much untapped talent, and people on the spectrum are settling for a lower quality of life than they deserve.
In response,
I have started the website
www.autismachiever.com because
1. I want to help people with autism achieve ANYTHING. We need to show the world that being on the autism spectrum is not a limitation.
2. I want to show everyone else that people on the spectrum are capable of achieving massive success, and that we should encourage people on the spectrum to strive for the MAXIMUM not the MINIMUM. I want to change the way we talk about autism.
On my site I will be posting practical advice about ways to overcome autism's challenges, how to build a winning mindset and motivational images. Let me know if you have any thoughts, questions, content you would like to see or how I can help!
Thanks for checking it out!