I’m 16, I’m autistic, I am homeschooled and I’m in 10th grade. I want to go to Texas A&M or FSU. I sometimes have trouble with who, what, when, where, why and how. I don’t always answer right when people ask me about something. I sometimes don’t comprehend what they’re saying. However, most of the people don’t even realize that I’m autistic. When people are mean to me like my dad, it upsets me, which makes my autism worse. I then have a hard time thinking about something I need to do for schoolwork and sports. My stepdad, Mark always has the patience, which helps me. My mother, my stepdad and my siblings always love me. I wanted to write this blog to let others know what it’s like to be me and what my struggles and positives are.
Everett Dawkins and Daniel Glauser, who went to FSU and played football, both inspire me. They encourage me to be the best at everything I do. I also enjoy going to The Woodlands Methodist Church because they care about kids and adults with autism and other special needs. I was so lucky we found that church. They do special events every 2 months on Friday. My friends at church are very nice to me, and they know that I’m autistic. Even though I don’t have many friends because I’m autistic, and I don’t talk well. I need to learn how to interact because I want to make friends, but I also want to talk more and engage with people. My goals are to try to speak well and carry full sentences so that people will understand what I’m talking about. Twitter and Flipboard helps me interact with people. I always get on them. I tweet out several times a day. I add articles and flip magazines on Flipboard. I talk to my siblings and couple of my friends on G-Chat and App message. My oldest brother, Paul lives in Orlando, Florida. My sister, Thea lives in Washington D.C., she always talks to me on G-Chat. My brother, Preston lives here in Houston and he has marfan’s. I want to become friendly and polite with people so that they’ll enjoy talking to me.
In sports and work out, I have trouble figuring out what or why I’m doing something wrong. My parents teach me about how to make adjustments and avoid being robotic to help me get better. When I’m stressed, I don’t do well. When I’m having confidence, it helps me do well. My goals would be sitting up straight so that I don’t look like I’m scared of something when I’m stiff, avoid being afraid to do something wrong in sports, calmly speak to someone and stop worrying about failing on quizzes or tests. Every Saturday morning, I went to Diamond Lane AMF Bowling in North Houston, and I got to bowl with the kids. Most of kids from there are autistic. Half of them are special needs, half of them are not. Every night, I do my mandela, holiday and animal coloring pages because they relax me and help me focus. I print them by using my computer. I also do stop motion videos. I use my Legos and clays to make the characters move, and I film it by using my iPad. My parents gave me a studio room, and it looks just like a movie theater. I take college online classes from Coursera. I watch video lessons to learn and take notes on my journal. I take the quizzes after I’m done watching the videos and taking notes. I took classes about dinosaurs, weather and others in Coursera. In dinosaurs, I learned about where they lived, what types of eaters they were and when did they become extinct. In weather, I learned about low and high pressures, tornadoes, derechos, air pollution and such. Before I take the quizzes, I study my notes. If I didn’t do well on the quizzes, I can go back and study again. If my notes are not written well, I can google names or things so that it will help me understand who or what they are. I can look it up on either Wikipedia or Merriam Webster’s dictionary. I can also add the definition of words to my flashcards on my iPad. My goal is to get 100% correct on quizzes. Right now, I’m taking autism courses called Autism 101 and Autism and the Environment 101. It is on Autism-Society website, and it’s absolutely free. I was learning about kinds of disorders and that males are more likely to be diagnosed than females.
I enjoyed being homeschooled, I feel safe, and I get to learn things at my own pace. I’m lucky that I have my own homeschool desk, and It’s a very nice one. I have a Toshiba laptop. I can use my laptop to google something I need to understand while I’m learning something on online college classes. I get to meet friends who are homeschooled. All of my siblings were also homeschooled when they were young. I hope this helps you understand what it’s like to be me and being autistic.