Autism: A Personal Perspective

Ryan and DeAnn Foley Author

03/16/2021 Added

30 Plays

Description

Searchable Transcript

Search:

[00:00:02.500]Hi.
[00:00:03.333]My name is Ryan Foley.
[00:00:05.210]I am the president of Blue Fan, Inc.,
[00:00:07.741]a nonprofit that presents about various aspects
[00:00:12.470]of having autism.
[00:00:15.060]One these aspects, which I will share with you today,
[00:00:18.700]is the personal perspective,
[00:00:20.940]where I discuss how having autism has impacted my life
[00:00:24.750]as well as how I've dealt with
[00:00:26.600]and overcome some of the challenges of having autism.
[00:00:34.270]I was 11 months old
[00:00:36.100]when I developed an interest in oscillating fans.
[00:00:39.490]I would crawl toward any fan that was the floor in my sight
[00:00:42.690]and I would turn them on and off
[00:00:45.243]and watch the blades spin in amazement
[00:00:47.870]as I pushed each button for each speed.
[00:00:50.580]I also liked to engage the oscillating mechanism,
[00:00:53.460]which is on top of the fan,
[00:00:55.490]and watch the fan oscillate back and forth.
[00:01:02.120]Since this was a potentially dangerous activity
[00:01:05.630]and my parents had reason to believe
[00:01:08.458]I would manipulate any fan with which I had access,
[00:01:13.018]they taught me the rules on how to use them safely
[00:01:17.095]so I'd not get my fingers stuck in the cage.
[00:01:21.070]Since blue is my favorite color,
[00:01:23.640]most I preferred oscillating fans with blue blades
[00:01:28.650]like the fan you see behind me.
[00:01:33.850]I got my first oscillating fan when I was two years old.
[00:01:39.710]I began collecting fans during my childhood.
[00:01:45.710]Now, I have a collection of 28 oscillating fans,
[00:01:49.160]many of which have been given to me
[00:01:50.410]by friends and relatives,
[00:01:52.120]and since blue is my favorite color,
[00:01:56.928]17 of the oscillating fans have blue blades.
[00:02:02.050]I liked the fans
[00:02:03.180]because they were easy to control and predictable.
[00:02:07.160]People on the autism spectrum
[00:02:08.840]tend to get attached to inanimate objects
[00:02:10.920]because they are more predictable than people.
[00:02:16.300]Also as a toddler,
[00:02:18.042]I liked opening and closing cabinet doors,
[00:02:20.060]but I outgrew that behavior.
[00:02:23.840]I have fond memories of my early years
[00:02:26.200]of being around family members
[00:02:28.282]and close friends of the family.
[00:02:29.640]I have fond memories of my early years in general.
[00:02:34.880]One advantage to having autism
[00:02:36.440]is that I have very strong memories at two years of age.
[00:02:45.230]I was afraid of dogs.
[00:02:47.200]The sound of the dogs barking hurt my ears.
[00:02:51.584]If you can't imagine the fear I was going through,
[00:02:52.980]imagine a dog the size of a horse coming up to you
[00:02:55.860]and barking in your face.
[00:02:57.330]I'm sure that would put you on edge.
[00:03:00.380]It was especially scary being eye-level with these dogs.
[00:03:06.450]As I got taller, my fear of dogs diminished.
[00:03:13.150]I received auditory retraining when I was eight years old
[00:03:16.224]and this helped with my sensitivity to sounds.
[00:03:19.280]By the time I was 13, I got to a point where I liked dogs
[00:03:23.580]and now I have 120-pound Golden Pyrenees mix named Kira.
[00:03:28.690]She's gentle and friendly like a golden retriever,
[00:03:30.950]but stubborn and protective like a Pyrenees.
[00:03:34.550]She is so big, so she may look like a bear,
[00:03:36.940]but I will assure you, she is a dog.
[00:03:42.840]During the first three and a half years of my life,
[00:03:47.180]my parents and I lived in student housing
[00:03:50.220]on campus at University of Texas, Arlington,
[00:03:53.850]where they got their undergraduate degrees.
[00:03:56.670]In our apartment complex, there was nobody my age
[00:04:00.300]I could interact with, so when I was three,
[00:04:02.590]my parents decided to enroll me in a daycare.
[00:04:06.660]I remember the experience being very overwhelming.
[00:04:09.950]The staff was uninformed on how to work with me.
[00:04:13.500]In their defense, in 1988,
[00:04:16.010]there was not much information available on autism.
[00:04:20.020]One staff member in particular was mean to me
[00:04:22.770]as well as other children who went to the daycare.
[00:04:26.910]Instead of playing with my peers at recess,
[00:04:29.230]I would stand in front of the AC unit
[00:04:31.100]and watch the blades spin,
[00:04:32.330]which was the most comfort I'd get
[00:04:34.601]in that uncomfortable setting.
[00:04:38.300]After three weeks, a staff member approached my mom
[00:04:43.440]and a staff member approached my mom
[00:04:45.720]and informed her that she'd be starting her own daycare
[00:04:47.730]out of her house and asked my mom
[00:04:50.250]if she'd be willing to take me to her house for the day.
[00:04:52.650]This was not the staff member that was mean to me.
[00:04:56.380]My mom said yes, so I went to this lady's house for the day
[00:04:59.077]for the next couple of years,
[00:05:00.300]which was better than the daycare.
[00:05:03.808]At five years of age,
[00:05:05.300]I started kindergarten and was off my own world.
[00:05:09.970]Instead of paying attention to the teacher,
[00:05:12.400]I thought about stuff that fascinated me,
[00:05:14.640]like oscillating fans with blue blades,
[00:05:16.870]red pickup trucks, and blue flashing lights.
[00:05:20.100]The teacher informed my parents
[00:05:21.380]I was having difficulty paying attention.
[00:05:24.420]My parents had me evaluated
[00:05:26.410]and I was diagnosed with pervasive developmental disorder,
[00:05:29.640]not otherwise specified, which was the disorder
[00:05:32.800]in the DSM-III which best fit my behavioral profile.
[00:05:38.800]A couple of years later,
[00:05:39.720]my dad read an article by Lorna Wing on Asperger's syndrome
[00:05:43.712]and really thought that disorder described me well.
[00:05:48.310]In 1994, when the DSM-IV came out,
[00:05:50.890]Asperger's syndrome was included.
[00:05:54.090]In November 1998,
[00:05:55.480]when I was 13 years old in the seventh grade,
[00:05:58.400]my parents and I flew out to New Haven, Connecticut,
[00:06:01.270]where I was evaluated by Dr. Ami Klin and his team,
[00:06:04.460]officially receiving the diagnosis of Asperger's syndrome,
[00:06:07.910]confirming what my parents believed all along.
[00:06:12.170]As of 2013, Asperger's syndrome was dropped
[00:06:15.660]from the DSM fifth edition.
[00:06:17.620]Anyone previously diagnosed now has a diagnosis
[00:06:21.350]of autism spectrum disorder.
[00:06:24.150]Shortly before Christmas in my kindergarten year,
[00:06:27.033]I was placed in a half-day, self-contained classroom
[00:06:31.300]with a group of boys with various disabilities.
[00:06:37.490]Early into the spring semester of kindergarten,
[00:06:40.560]the teacher informed my parents that for the first grade,
[00:06:43.030]the IEP committee would recommend
[00:06:44.630]I be placed in behavior unit.
[00:06:48.120]My parents looked at the behavior unit
[00:06:49.890]and determined that since I was not a behavior problem,
[00:06:52.694]this classroom would not be the best fit for me.
[00:06:57.000]Because my parents rejected me being placed
[00:07:00.080]in behavior unit,
[00:07:01.600]I was placed in another self-contained classroom
[00:07:04.880]with a different group of boys with various disabilities.
[00:07:08.860]Putting children with autism in the behavior unit
[00:07:13.273]was routinely what was done with students with autism
[00:07:17.852]during the early 1990s.
[00:07:23.290]I had the same teacher
[00:07:24.410]in that other self-contained classroom
[00:07:26.040]and basically the same classmates
[00:07:27.460]for first and second grade.
[00:07:31.360]This teacher had the best of intentions,
[00:07:33.800]but was clearly uninformed on how to work
[00:07:37.200]with a student with autism.
[00:07:40.510]In her defense, this was the early 1990s
[00:07:45.260]and there still wasn't very much information available.
[00:07:49.100]She was very rigid in her teaching approach,
[00:07:52.210]which consisted of a contract system
[00:07:53.990]she used for all her students.
[00:07:56.970]On the contract, there was a list of items
[00:07:58.760]you're expected to conform to,
[00:08:00.880]such as doing your work, paying attention,
[00:08:04.160]getting along with other students and the teacher.
[00:08:06.870]Conformity resulted in checks next to items conformed to
[00:08:10.293]and failure to conform resulted in Xs
[00:08:11.560]next to the items violated.
[00:08:13.980]Whenever I got one of those red Xs on my contract,
[00:08:17.410]it made me very angry
[00:08:18.420]because it felt like a slap in the face.
[00:08:22.320]This began to dominate my thinking
[00:08:23.870]throughout first and second grade.
[00:08:27.080]At the end of second grade, after receiving my last X,
[00:08:31.470]I thought I'd resolved the issue of the Xs
[00:08:34.470]until my first semester of junior college,
[00:08:36.920]when I had a dream that those red Xs were chasing me
[00:08:40.080]through the supermarket
[00:08:41.600]and I had to get to the ice cream section
[00:08:43.770]in order to be safe from those Xs.
[00:08:46.740]I believe that dream was precipitated
[00:08:49.410]by the stress of starting junior college.
[00:08:55.010]I had no dreams about Xs after that.
[00:09:01.610]In April of my first grade year,
[00:09:03.720]my mom attended a workshop on autism inclusion.
[00:09:07.610]During the remainder of my first grade year
[00:09:10.869]and during the summer prior to second grade,
[00:09:14.150]my mom continued to research autism inclusion.
[00:09:17.960]And by the first day of second grade,
[00:09:20.190]my parents were both convinced
[00:09:22.230]that my needs would be best served in a regular classroom.
[00:09:27.350]In first grade, I was in the adaptive PE class,
[00:09:31.420]but in second grade, I was in a regular PE class
[00:09:33.990]and I attended a regular science class.
[00:09:39.480]This is when the transition
[00:09:41.850]into the regular education classroom started.
[00:09:45.980]In June, after completing second grade
[00:09:49.070]in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex
[00:09:50.660]in the self-contained classroom,
[00:09:52.990]my parents decided that we would move
[00:09:56.255]from the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex out to Lubbock
[00:10:00.750]so that my parents could go to Texas Tech,
[00:10:02.700]where they got their graduate degrees.
[00:10:05.700]Before moving,
[00:10:07.250]my mom called up the special education director
[00:10:10.020]to see what schools would be the best,
[00:10:13.230]would be better fits for me and was assured
[00:10:17.157]that it wouldn't work, no matter what school I attended.
[00:10:22.470]My parents then traveled out to Lubbock,
[00:10:24.610]found a place for us to live in a school nearby,
[00:10:27.230]and upon inquiring to the special education director
[00:10:30.053]about the school,
[00:10:32.970]my parents found that they'd made a great choice.
[00:10:36.860]In August, we made the move out to Lubbock.
[00:10:40.280]Shortly after, my mom and I went up the new school,
[00:10:42.970]where the principal gave us a tour.
[00:10:45.110]He turned out to be a man of integrity
[00:10:46.950]who ran a great school.
[00:10:52.738]My parents decided it would be best
[00:10:55.760]for me to repeat the second grade.
[00:10:59.330]They thought I would do better with younger students,
[00:11:02.170]my prior experience with the second grade curriculum
[00:11:04.853]would make the workload easier,
[00:11:07.290]and it would be more palatable for the school staff.
[00:11:12.310]On the first day of second grade
[00:11:14.530]in the general education classroom, I was very nervous.
[00:11:20.960]The teacher picked up on it
[00:11:22.080]and assured me everything would be fine.
[00:11:24.220]I instantly got a good feeling about her.
[00:11:26.853]The day went well overall.
[00:11:32.709]Early into the school year,
[00:11:35.860]I began to get a very good feeling about my classmates.
[00:11:41.755]Although I felt comfortable
[00:11:44.780]with my teacher and my classmates, I was still very nervous
[00:11:49.840]because it was still a novel situation
[00:11:52.220]and I was in a new city
[00:11:54.790]and from time to time during the school year,
[00:11:58.130]I would chew on my T-shirts
[00:11:59.720]and come home with them looking like Swiss cheese.
[00:12:03.370]By the spring of second grade
[00:12:04.550]in the general education classroom,
[00:12:06.080]I was able to make it home with my T-shirts intact.
[00:12:10.560]I continued to find my experience
[00:12:14.294]in the general education classroom to be far superior
[00:12:18.370]to what I had experienced in the previous school district.
[00:12:22.690]In the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex,
[00:12:24.290]I attended three different schools, one of them twice,
[00:12:27.570]and three additional schools during the summer.
[00:12:30.340]This is not because we moved.
[00:12:32.800]We moved only once during that time period
[00:12:35.870]and that was a week after the end of first grade
[00:12:38.827]and this did not change where I would go for second grade.
[00:12:43.430]It was because the school district kept moving the program
[00:12:46.360]for the self-contained classroom around from year to year.
[00:12:50.400]I was relieved at the end of second grade
[00:12:53.126]in the general education classroom when my mom informed me
[00:12:58.330]that I would be going to the same school the following year,
[00:13:00.900]and I would continue with that school
[00:13:04.353]until the completion of sixth grade,
[00:13:05.708]when I went off to junior high.
[00:13:10.430]I found my experience
[00:13:12.630]or I found the general education teachers
[00:13:14.940]to be more accommodating, more caring,
[00:13:17.970]and more willing to try different things to meet my needs.
[00:13:22.440]The self-contained classroom teacher
[00:13:24.070]attempted to stifle my special interests.
[00:13:30.110]I believe it was in her thinking
[00:13:32.930]that was her job to make me normal.
[00:13:36.100]The general education teachers
[00:13:37.570]were supportive of my interests.
[00:13:39.660]In content mastery, I earned time to sit
[00:13:41.410]in front of a big oscillating fan with blue blades
[00:13:43.766]when I got my work done and my teachers used other interests
[00:13:49.060]of mine as motivators, as well.
[00:13:52.820]In their thinking, although I had a learning disability,
[00:13:56.240]they found that I needed what all the other students needed
[00:13:59.260]and gave me those needed things
[00:14:01.680]as well as the needed accommodations.
[00:14:08.150]These teachers also had little experience with autism,
[00:14:12.085]but they had very good intuition when it came to me.
[00:14:20.010]In the self-contained classroom, I developed relationships.
[00:14:25.050]I developed relationships with few of the children,
[00:14:28.550]one of which being a boy that I would hang out with.
[00:14:35.650]The other relationships that I developed
[00:14:39.659]were not very strong.
[00:14:44.725]In the general education classroom,
[00:14:46.120]I developed relationships with several of my classmates,
[00:14:49.040]both boys and girls, and for the most part,
[00:14:52.470]my classmates were very accepting of me
[00:14:54.860]and protected me from bullying, being bullied.
[00:15:01.845]I developed lasting relationships with my classmates,
[00:15:05.960]most of which ended at the end of sixth grade,
[00:15:11.350]after which point we all went off to different junior highs.
[00:15:14.370]I started a friendship with a classmate, his sister,
[00:15:16.750]and his parents starting at the beginning of third grade,
[00:15:21.160]which continued until the summer before ninth grade.
[00:15:24.760]During that summer before ninth grade,
[00:15:27.640]the family moved out of state.
[00:15:31.850]I developed relationships with several of the teachers
[00:15:34.160]outside of school, my speech therapist, her family,
[00:15:37.520]my former fifth grade teacher and her family,
[00:15:39.320]as well as my former third grade teacher
[00:15:42.050]and some other teachers.
[00:15:45.023]Maintaining these friendships was a great sense of support
[00:15:48.300]for me while I was in junior high.
[00:15:52.590]Being at the same school in the general education classroom
[00:15:56.870]was this sense of support and belonging
[00:15:59.400]that I had not been afforded
[00:16:00.740]in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex.
[00:16:04.450]My transition to junior high began
[00:16:06.310]in April of my sixth grade year
[00:16:08.630]when the teacher sent me out to the hall
[00:16:11.030]to meet with the principal and the school counselor
[00:16:14.863]of the junior high I would go to the following year.
[00:16:21.540]In late April and early May of sixth grade,
[00:16:25.000]my mom and I went up to the junior high,
[00:16:27.610]where the principal and school counselor gave us a tour.
[00:16:32.240]One week prior to the last day of sixth grade,
[00:16:35.200]my mom and the special education director arranged a meeting
[00:16:39.045]where the junior high staff could meet
[00:16:41.460]with the elementary school staff
[00:16:43.200]and ask them questions about how I learned
[00:16:45.820]and the elementary school staff
[00:16:47.910]could answer those questions.
[00:16:49.780]The junior high staff commented later
[00:16:51.640]on how helpful this was.
[00:16:55.100]In late July, my mom and I went up to the school
[00:16:57.400]for a third time, and this time,
[00:16:58.870]I was most excited to meet a couple of the cheerleaders.
[00:17:02.220]One of these cheerleaders took me under her wing
[00:17:04.240]during my seventh grade year.
[00:17:09.105]In early August, I began volunteering with other students
[00:17:14.290]and the teacher to help get the school ready
[00:17:16.810]and I began walking through my class schedule.
[00:17:19.460]Volunteering to help get the school ready
[00:17:21.822]and walking through my class schedule was a ritual
[00:17:26.280]before starting seventh, eighth, and ninth grades.
[00:17:35.002]The first day of seventh grade was very stressful,
[00:17:38.440]but I did not get lost once.
[00:17:41.420]A ninth-grade student was assigned to help me around school
[00:17:45.083]and at lunchtime, he came back to the counselor's office
[00:17:48.330]in a panic, thinking he'd lost me,
[00:17:50.990]when what actually happened is I had just gotten tired
[00:17:53.960]of waiting on him and gone off to lunch.
[00:17:58.310]The counselor could barely contain her laughter
[00:18:00.240]at the end of the day when my mom came to pick me up
[00:18:03.398]and she was relaying the story.
[00:18:09.680]The first few months of junior high were very stressful
[00:18:12.040]and I really missed my elementary school,
[00:18:14.472]but I was glad to still have friendships
[00:18:18.734]with the teachers from that school, as well as my friends
[00:18:22.570]that I'd known since the third grade.
[00:18:27.820]A week prior to Thanksgiving break,
[00:18:30.690]my parents and I flew out to New Haven, Connecticut
[00:18:34.580]for my evaluation at Yale University.
[00:18:38.540]Having a week off for the evaluation at Yale
[00:18:41.556]and the next week off for Thanksgiving break
[00:18:46.560]greatly reduced my anxiety and allowed me time to regroup.
[00:18:54.850]I returned to school after Thanksgiving break
[00:18:57.660]comfortable in the junior high setting.
[00:19:03.820]In January, after returning to school from Christmas break,
[00:19:14.240]I found I was doing better
[00:19:15.160]than I ever had in my entire life.
[00:19:18.290]I had increased self-confidence.
[00:19:21.156]I had become interested in girls, particularly at that time,
[00:19:25.220]that cheerleader who had taken me under her wing.
[00:19:28.500]Associating with girls added a dimension of excitement
[00:19:31.900]and meaning to my life that it did not have before.
[00:19:37.480]In March of seventh grade, I became interested in 80s music,
[00:19:41.420]particularly the early 1980s music.
[00:19:45.210]Early 80s music was more effective in reducing my anxiety
[00:19:49.320]than things I tried in the past.
[00:19:52.980]In September, when I was 14 years old in eighth grade,
[00:19:57.060]my parents started a social skills group,
[00:19:59.592]which was held at a place called The Parenting Cottage.
[00:20:05.800]The social skills group consisted of adolescents,
[00:20:08.280]pre-adolescents, and young adults
[00:20:10.442]with various learning disabilities.
[00:20:13.840]The Parenting Cottage was a place in the community
[00:20:16.430]that served children with various learning disabilities
[00:20:21.720]and helped their parents out, as well.
[00:20:24.020]The Parenting Cottage was not a typical office building,
[00:20:27.663]but instead looked and felt more like a home.
[00:20:31.810]The waiting room was like a living room.
[00:20:34.840]You had a dining room, kitchen,
[00:20:35.970]and the offices were like rooms in the house.
[00:20:41.650]The spring that I turned nine in second grade
[00:20:45.823]was when I started receiving occupational therapy
[00:20:49.210]at The Parenting Cottage.
[00:20:52.170]During the spring of seventh grade,
[00:20:54.380]my dad started seeing clients out of The Parenting Cottage
[00:20:57.844]as he was a counselor.
[00:21:02.470]So I was very familiar with the place
[00:21:04.510]by the time the social skills group started.
[00:21:09.030]In February, the social skills group grew
[00:21:13.120]and a 14-year-old girl joining the group
[00:21:16.580]that I really took a liking to
[00:21:18.670]and the group became more fun when she joined.
[00:21:23.520]By March, The Parenting Cottage had taken on the role.
[00:21:28.084]The Parenting Cottage had become like a second home
[00:21:32.800]and the people there became like a second family.
[00:21:38.790]My peers in the social skills group were like cousins.
[00:21:45.630]Their parents were like aunts and uncles.
[00:21:50.960]My occupational therapist became like an aunt
[00:21:53.180]and Beth, who was the elderly lady
[00:21:54.890]who worked at the front desk, was like a grandma.
[00:21:59.980]So for during the spring of eighth grade
[00:22:03.180]and all through ninth grade, as well as a little bit after,
[00:22:05.470]no matter how stressful things got,
[00:22:07.696]I always had one day a week
[00:22:09.642]where I could go to The Parenting College,
[00:22:11.440]be with the social skills group,
[00:22:13.060]and all my stresses would be outside the front door.
[00:22:18.600]This picture that you see was taken
[00:22:23.780]during the Garland City 4th of July Festival, 2000.
[00:22:28.570]At this time, I was 15 years old
[00:22:30.297]and this was summer break, prior to ninth grade
[00:22:33.810]and these are the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders.
[00:22:36.580]My mom and I flew from Lubbock to the Dallas area
[00:22:40.280]to visit relatives
[00:22:42.180]and my grandfather was on the state council,
[00:22:44.300]so we had access to the VIP area.
[00:22:46.920]That is how I managed to get my picture taken here.
[00:22:50.580]I blew my photo up on a binder for my ninth grade year
[00:22:55.490]and guys were asking me about this.
[00:22:58.550]Junior high was not all roses,
[00:23:02.450]like I may have led you to believe.
[00:23:06.830]Here are some of the negative aspects.
[00:23:09.460]High stress, which is part of the hormonal changes
[00:23:11.800]going on through puberty, as well as some depression.
[00:23:17.490]I was worried about fitting in
[00:23:20.240]and not only learning the school curriculum
[00:23:21.920]and following the school rules,
[00:23:23.350]but learning the unspoken social norms of my peers
[00:23:25.980]and following them as well and avoiding being bullied.
[00:23:31.920]I was rarely bullied, and when I was,
[00:23:35.030]it was very minor verbal bullying.
[00:23:37.200]Most of the students at that school were good people
[00:23:39.320]who did not engage in bullying.
[00:23:41.520]When I got bullied, I would stick up for myself,
[00:23:44.450]friends would stick for me, or I would tell my mom.
[00:23:46.920]My mom would go mother bear and she would call up the school
[00:23:51.180]and believe me, when my mom called up the school,
[00:23:53.860]the bullying was taken care of.
[00:23:59.270]The most difficult part was heartbreak from girls.
[00:24:02.860]When I was 14 and in the eighth grade, my mom warned me
[00:24:06.793]that the only good thing about teenage girls
[00:24:08.940]is that they grew out of being teenagers
[00:24:10.580]and that I was a glutton for punishment
[00:24:13.282]for associating with them, and sure enough, she was right.
[00:24:17.380]After seventh grade,
[00:24:18.830]that cheerleader who had taken me under her wing
[00:24:20.720]as well as another ninth-grade girl
[00:24:23.520]that I enjoyed talking to went off to high school,
[00:24:26.442]leaving me really heartbroken.
[00:24:30.300]So, during the summer before eighth grade,
[00:24:33.590]I called up a girl who was in my crafts class
[00:24:36.140]during seventh grade.
[00:24:38.610]My mom, her mom, her, and I got together.
[00:24:41.870]And during the summer,
[00:24:43.680]this girl and I hung out and played tennis together.
[00:24:47.440]In August, when eighth grade started,
[00:24:50.540]she started giving me indications
[00:24:52.430]that she was not interested
[00:24:53.620]in being my friend outside of school,
[00:24:55.860]but I continued to remain hopeful
[00:24:58.920]that we would resume our friendship, until November,
[00:25:01.680]when it became more clear, which really hurt me.
[00:25:06.750]In January, after months of giving me the cold shoulder,
[00:25:10.770]she started talking to me again, which renewed my sense
[00:25:13.920]of hope of us starting a friendship outside of school.
[00:25:20.050]In April of my eighth grade year,
[00:25:21.810]as my 15th birthday approached, still,
[00:25:25.210]nothing happened with this other girl,
[00:25:27.020]with this girl I played tennis with
[00:25:28.830]during the summer before.
[00:25:31.190]However, I had realized that there was another girl
[00:25:36.170]I'd been talking to who was more receptive to me,
[00:25:42.370]so I began to develop an interest in this other girl.
[00:25:48.640]When I woke up on my 15th birthday in May,
[00:25:50.770]I'd moved on from my tennis partner the previous summer
[00:25:53.500]and was interested in having a friendship
[00:25:56.920]with this other girl outside of school,
[00:25:59.320]but that didn't happen.
[00:26:01.620]But throughout the spring of eighth grade,
[00:26:04.850]I was enjoying my friendship
[00:26:07.810]with that girl in my parents' social skills group
[00:26:11.000]and during the summer before ninth grade when I was 15
[00:26:13.580]and into the beginning of ninth grade,
[00:26:15.330]I still continued to enjoy my friendship with this girl.
[00:26:18.900]Ninth grade got off to a great start,
[00:26:21.830]but in October, things took a downturn again
[00:26:26.922]when that girl left the social skills group,
[00:26:30.084]which really saddened me.
[00:26:35.950]Also in October, I realized that
[00:26:37.730]since my friends from the third grade
[00:26:40.980]had moved out of state during the previous summer,
[00:26:43.550]I really didn't have very many friends at school
[00:26:46.490]and I felt like the social skills group was all I had.
[00:26:53.990]Also in October of my ninth grade year,
[00:26:56.550]school became very overwhelming
[00:27:00.110]and I began to struggle academically.
[00:27:02.990]Over Christmas break, my parents decided
[00:27:06.200]that they would probably homeschool me after ninth grade.
[00:27:11.850]They were confident they could teach me in a way
[00:27:13.610]that could prepare me for college
[00:27:15.640]and it would allow more social opportunities with my peers
[00:27:18.060]as well as more time to work on social skills.
[00:27:22.140]Dr. Ami Klin at Yale University informed my parents
[00:27:26.803]that I had a lifetime to learn academics,
[00:27:31.800]but I had a limited opportunity to learn social skills.
[00:27:36.070]Also, they had heard of students like me
[00:27:39.580]getting bullied relentlessly in public high school
[00:27:42.820]and they were determined to keep the bullying to a minimum.
[00:27:48.750]In January, when I returned to school from Christmas break,
[00:27:53.100]things were going well again.
[00:27:55.931]I had moved on from that girl
[00:27:57.670]in my parents' social skills group
[00:27:59.420]and I began enjoying the social skills group more again.
[00:28:04.924]The schoolwork was manageable
[00:28:07.050]and my parents informed me of their intentions
[00:28:08.970]to homeschool me after ninth grade and their reasons why
[00:28:13.894]and I really liked the idea of being homeschooled
[00:28:15.560]after ninth grade because I was not looking forward
[00:28:18.500]to going through the stress of transitioning
[00:28:20.180]to another school for 10th grade.
[00:28:23.560]In February, the workload became difficult to manage again,
[00:28:27.974]but when spring break came in March,
[00:28:32.090]I knew that I was not gonna have to deal with the stress
[00:28:34.330]of public school much longer
[00:28:36.400]and my stress level went down greatly.
[00:28:40.080]Also, over spring break,
[00:28:41.960]I began to develop an interest in a girl
[00:28:43.880]who was in the same PE class and same English class as me.
[00:28:49.030]She had a sense that I had some learning disability,
[00:28:52.150]although she didn't know I had autism,
[00:28:54.220]and she took me under her wing
[00:28:56.740]and would stick up for me if I got bullied.
[00:29:02.160]I returned to school after spring break
[00:29:03.830]feeling renewed and confident
[00:29:05.340]I could take on the last stretch of the school year.
[00:29:10.140]The last part of the school year went well,
[00:29:12.370]as did the beginning of the school year,
[00:29:14.620]except for one incident in my English class on Friday,
[00:29:19.960]three weeks before the last day of school
[00:29:22.860]when I got teased in my English class
[00:29:24.720]with the teacher present.
[00:29:27.420]She was unaware of the teasing.
[00:29:29.140]Otherwise, she would have put a stop to it.
[00:29:33.760]I left school that Friday
[00:29:34.980]afraid to return to school the following Monday
[00:29:38.060]and I was relieved that only had three more weeks
[00:29:39.723]to have to deal with this.
[00:29:41.910]This was very telling of what I could expect to experience
[00:29:45.510]if I went on to public high school.
[00:29:48.960]I told my parents about what happened.
[00:29:51.660]My dad gave me suggestions on how to handle further bullying
[00:29:55.170]and my mom went mother bear and called up the teacher
[00:30:00.495]and I'm sure the teacher took care of it the next week.
[00:30:03.440]Over the weekend, I had my 16th birthday
[00:30:06.133]and I returned to school the following Monday,
[00:30:08.700]having recovered from the bullying incident.
[00:30:10.910]The last three weeks went without incident.
[00:30:13.830]When the last bell rang on the last day of school,
[00:30:16.450]I felt a sense of freedom.
[00:30:20.780]Overall, the good aspects of junior high outweighed the bad.
[00:30:24.640]The bad was nothing that I couldn't handle
[00:30:26.714]and I always had a sense of support to fall back on,
[00:30:30.673]whether it was my teachers from the elementary school,
[00:30:37.750]my friends from the third grade, seventh and eighth grade,
[00:30:41.440]or The Parenting Cottage and social skills group.
[00:30:45.550]I can remember one thing that happened every week
[00:30:48.820]from the first day of seventh grade
[00:30:51.680]to the last day of ninth grade.
[00:30:57.980]In June, after having completed the ninth grade,
[00:31:02.360]I began working on the 10th grade curriculum at home.
[00:31:06.750]I found that homeschooling worked for me
[00:31:09.060]because I had become self-motivated to complete my work.
[00:31:12.450]The pressure of deadlines was gone
[00:31:15.800]and it did allow more social opportunities with my peers.
[00:31:20.610]A week after the end of ninth grade,
[00:31:22.450]my mom and I joined a Scottish country dance group
[00:31:24.380]and there were several adolescents there.
[00:31:27.983]Within three weeks after starting the group,
[00:31:31.606]I found my peers in the Scottish country dance group
[00:31:35.940]be more accepting of me than they were in junior high.
[00:31:40.770]A boy, two girls, and I would go skating
[00:31:43.950]at a roller skating rink after dance lessons.
[00:31:50.990]In July of 2001, when I was 16,
[00:31:54.230]being homeschooled for 10th grade,
[00:31:56.090]my parents informed me of their intention
[00:31:58.900]for us to move from Lubbock
[00:32:00.960]back to the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex to be around family.
[00:32:06.920]The big push for my dad was that my paternal grandfather
[00:32:09.670]was in his eighties at the time and we did not know
[00:32:12.630]how much longer he was gonna be alive,
[00:32:14.490]so my dad wanted us to get back to the Dallas area
[00:32:17.326]so that we could spend whatever time he had left with him.
[00:32:21.190]He lived just outside of Dallas.
[00:32:25.726]In September, we made the move
[00:32:28.270]back to the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex.
[00:32:31.400]Being homeschooled reduced the stress
[00:32:33.660]of the transition greatly.
[00:32:36.690]I could not handle starting at another school
[00:32:40.110]after having left my friends behind in Lubbock.
[00:32:46.030]This also allowed me time to go out to Lubbock with my dad
[00:32:52.440]every other week while he was seeing clients out there
[00:32:56.290]so I could see my friends out there,
[00:32:59.250]and I did this until November of that year.
[00:33:04.260]Also in November, when I was 16,
[00:33:06.240]homeschooled for 10th grade,
[00:33:08.020]I joined a group called the Explorers.
[00:33:10.580]They're a group of teenagers
[00:33:12.130]that train through the fire department
[00:33:14.140]and learn how to do stuff that firefighters do
[00:33:16.670]like cut up cars, climb the fire ladder,
[00:33:19.210]and fight an actual fire.
[00:33:21.150]I found my peers in the Explorers
[00:33:23.150]to be more accepting of me than they were in junior high
[00:33:27.850]and I have reason to believe
[00:33:28.683]they would have been in public high school
[00:33:30.810]and there was nobody in this group I did not get along with.
[00:33:36.060]This picture was taken on Saturday, December the first, 2001
[00:33:39.860]at the Dallas Firefighter Training Academy.
[00:33:42.567]This is the burn building.
[00:33:45.530]Trainees go into this building
[00:33:48.750]and they learn how to fight an actual fire.
[00:33:52.070]My team and I went in there and we hosed down a real fire.
[00:33:55.130]I'm the guy in the middle, by the way.
[00:33:58.350]While I was in there, my mask began to vibrate,
[00:34:01.070]which meant I was running out of oxygen
[00:34:03.010]and I needed to get out of there as quickly as possible
[00:34:08.280]in order not to endanger myself,
[00:34:10.800]the other Explorers, or the firefighters.
[00:34:14.690]When I took my mask off, a firefighter checked out,
[00:34:17.880]determined it was defective,
[00:34:19.280]and told my team I did exactly what I was supposed to do.
[00:34:23.490]A couple of hours later,
[00:34:25.070]we went to a chamber called the flashover chamber,
[00:34:27.670]where trainees learned to fight flash fires.
[00:34:30.790]A flash fire is a fire that shoots up the wall of a room
[00:34:33.540]and across the ceiling.
[00:34:35.845]It may appear to go over your head,
[00:34:37.788]but if you come out of there alive
[00:34:39.548]and you live and you're able to talk about it,
[00:34:43.000]it only appeared to go over your head.
[00:34:44.910]If it goes over your head, you're dead.
[00:34:48.690]All life plans canceled.
[00:34:51.470]Unlike the fire in the burn building,
[00:34:54.040]the flash fire had a mind of its own,
[00:34:56.800]where it would start shooting up the wall in the room
[00:34:59.010]and across the ceiling and we'd spray the top of the flame
[00:35:01.300]and it would back off.
[00:35:03.210]This happened several times.
[00:35:08.570]With these fires, you start at the top of the flame
[00:35:11.680]and you work your way down to the base.
[00:35:14.300]With a typical fire,
[00:35:15.200]you just aim right at the base to put out,
[00:35:17.500]but with a flash fire, the heat from the fire
[00:35:20.389]and the humidity from the water
[00:35:21.690]can scald you if you do that.
[00:35:27.193]That fire was so hot, it melted my face mask.
[00:35:31.020]I crawled out of the flashover chamber that day
[00:35:33.130]feeling like a hero
[00:35:34.570]and when I took my firefighting gear off,
[00:35:37.252]although it was a cold December day, it felt like April.
[00:35:40.830]Was I frightened in there?
[00:35:42.330]Absolutely.
[00:35:44.590]Fear is what motivates you do what you need to do
[00:35:48.140]to stay alive in these situations.
[00:35:51.710]Too much fear can be debilitating,
[00:35:53.660]while with too little fear,
[00:35:55.410]you may do something reckless and get yourself burnt.
[00:35:59.270]In fact, if you experienced one of these flash fires
[00:36:02.850]and you're not afraid,
[00:36:03.683]I suggest you get yourself checked out
[00:36:06.290]'cause there's obviously something wrong with you.
[00:36:11.980]A year and a half before starting junior college,
[00:36:14.340]my parents started hiring student speech therapists
[00:36:16.640]to work with me on my social skills
[00:36:18.150]and help me with my transition to college.
[00:36:20.890]Aside from them being attractive females in their twenties,
[00:36:23.671]they provided me a great sense of emotional support.
[00:36:30.000]Turning 18, entering adulthood was very stressful.
[00:36:37.271]A couple of these ladies took me up to the campus
[00:36:40.650]so I would become familiar with it.
[00:36:44.060]I went to Disability Services,
[00:36:45.960]began walking through my class schedule,
[00:36:47.640]and got my books early.
[00:36:50.890]This is where I learned self-advocacy.
[00:36:53.780]I would discuss the needed accommodations
[00:36:56.681]with a disability service counselor
[00:36:58.440]who would print the accommodations out on a document,
[00:37:00.610]which I would hand to instructors
[00:37:02.518]on the first day of classes.
[00:37:06.970]The accommodations were a laptop for taking notes,
[00:37:10.170]extended time on tests,
[00:37:12.180]and a reduced-distraction environment
[00:37:13.700]for taking these tests.
[00:37:16.360]For the most part, I was pretty self-sufficient,
[00:37:18.360]but sometimes my parents did have to intervene
[00:37:20.400]to get me the needed accommodations.
[00:37:23.560]Other strategies were running,
[00:37:24.800]which cleared my head so I could think better.
[00:37:27.020]I liked to get my work done
[00:37:28.761]a week or two ahead of the syllabus
[00:37:30.379]and by the time the project was due,
[00:37:32.320]be working on what came after it.
[00:37:36.020]I went in for tutoring,
[00:37:37.140]looked up my professors on ratemyprofessor.com,
[00:37:39.810]and limited the amount of hours I took each semester.
[00:37:44.400]I graduated with an associate's degree in science
[00:37:46.840]and did an online course format
[00:37:48.410]for my junior and senior year.
[00:37:50.750]This provided greater flexibility in my daily schedule
[00:37:53.401]and allowed me time to train for and run marathons
[00:37:56.540]and also allowed me to go out
[00:37:57.630]and interact with my neighbors,
[00:37:59.130]which was a great sense of emotional support for me.
[00:38:03.210]I graduated with a bachelor's degree in general studies
[00:38:07.470]with an emphasis in sociology and criminal justice.
[00:38:11.620]Here is a list of interventions that helped along the way.
[00:38:15.230]Now, social autopsy,
[00:38:18.120]this is where you discuss with somebody you're working
[00:38:20.330]with what they did well and what they can improve upon
[00:38:23.823]so the next interaction goes better.
[00:38:25.400]I learned this from (indistinct) video in January 2003
[00:38:29.120]when I was 17, homeschooled for 11th grade.
[00:38:35.280]Pausing movies and TV shows is another great intervention
[00:38:40.121]so that I could read the nonverbal messages
[00:38:45.420]the characters are trying to convey.
[00:38:47.690]I did equine therapy from the summer when I was 13
[00:38:51.130]till the summer when I was 16.
[00:38:52.850]This helped with coordination, self-confidence,
[00:38:55.320]and was a great social outlet for me.
[00:38:59.460]I competed in a couple of competitions
[00:39:01.420]the summer when I was 15, winning second place.
[00:39:06.810]I also did speech therapy.
[00:39:09.480]As I mentioned before,
[00:39:10.970]the speech therapist at my elementary school in Lubbock
[00:39:14.517]was a great sense of emotional support for me.
[00:39:17.620]I developed a great relationship with her and her family.
[00:39:22.930]Shortly after turning 14, at the end of seventh grade,
[00:39:25.900]I started seeing another speech therapist outside of school
[00:39:29.117]and in February, my eighth grade year,
[00:39:31.960]she began working with my parents' social skills group.
[00:39:35.030]She took on a role of an aunt, her son was like a cousin,
[00:39:37.740]and her husband was like an uncle.
[00:39:43.900]And when I was 17, 18, and 19 years old,
[00:39:49.260]I was seeing those student speech therapists,
[00:39:51.470]who again, provided me a great sense of emotional support.
[00:39:56.800]As I mentioned before, the spring that I turned nine
[00:40:00.190]when I was in second grade, I began developing occupational
[00:40:04.180]or I began doing occupational therapy, sensory integration
[00:40:13.760]and over the years, developed a great relationship
[00:40:16.420]with the occupational therapist.
[00:40:20.160]When I was 14, in the eighth grade,
[00:40:21.590]when the social skills group grew,
[00:40:23.337]the occupational therapist
[00:40:24.830]began to take on the role of an aunt.
[00:40:30.060]I will say my equine therapists, that speech therapist
[00:40:33.839]who worked with my parents' social skills group,
[00:40:34.967]and the occupational therapist
[00:40:36.790]took on the role of counselors that I could talk to
[00:40:39.010]when I was going through the stresses of junior high,
[00:40:40.820]particularly dealing with those girls.
[00:40:45.540]I also did Taekwondo from when I was 11 to 13
[00:40:48.710]and I did aquatic therapy from when I was 11 to 14.
[00:40:56.340]I also had a massage therapist who came in twice a week
[00:41:02.280]to work on me until the COVID got really bad.
[00:41:05.360]After I get my second vaccination,
[00:41:07.337]I will start resuming services with her.
[00:41:15.510]As you probably know,
[00:41:16.640]people on the autism spectrum have special interests.
[00:41:19.460]Mine are (indistinct) oscillating fans with blue blades.
[00:41:24.520]This is my nine-inch Lasko oscillating guest fan
[00:41:29.870]with cobalt blue blades.
[00:41:31.260]This blades are my favorite shade of blue.
[00:41:35.290]This fan was manufactured in 1980 or 1981.
[00:41:40.870]I believe it was 1980.
[00:41:44.180]Throughout the 70s and into the early 1980s,
[00:41:47.570]Lasko as well as many other manufacturers
[00:41:51.001]made these oscillating fans with the blue blades.
[00:41:57.310]In 1982, Lasko discontinued the blue blades,
[00:42:04.250]but other manufacturers continue to make them
[00:42:06.921]with the blue blades after that.
[00:42:13.090]This fan in particular is my favorite fan
[00:42:15.820]because it looks just like that fan I got
[00:42:17.800]when I was two years old.
[00:42:21.290]The fan that I got when I was two years old
[00:42:22.930]broke shortly after I turned four.
[00:42:25.950]Not knowing the importance of it, my dad got rid of it.
[00:42:30.030]But when I was 18, I ran into an elderly lady
[00:42:33.730]who had this fan and she gave it to me,
[00:42:36.570]so now I have a replacement for the fan
[00:42:39.333]that I had when I was a toddler and it brings back memories
[00:42:42.010]of being two and three years old.
[00:42:44.290]I have many other oscillating fans like this
[00:42:46.840]made in the early 80s with the blue blades.
[00:42:50.810]Lightning and thunderstorms
[00:42:52.590]is another special interest of mine,
[00:42:54.870]which started out a fear.
[00:42:58.930]As a child, I was afraid of thunderstorms,
[00:43:03.920]but the spring that I turned 12,
[00:43:07.279]I began to become interested in them
[00:43:10.740]and when I was 12, I began researching them
[00:43:12.070]and learned what to do and not to do
[00:43:13.420]to stay safe during a thunderstorm.
[00:43:17.150]Researching thunderstorms reduced my fear
[00:43:22.280]and enhanced my interest in them
[00:43:28.870]and I enjoy a big storm with lots of lightning to this day,
[00:43:32.570]so long as I'm not outside in it
[00:43:34.300]and as long as there aren't any tornadoes.
[00:43:40.010]It is not uncommon for people on the autism spectrum
[00:43:44.380]to research their fears to overcome their fears
[00:43:49.080]and through researching their fears,
[00:43:50.380]they turn their fears into special interests.
[00:43:55.360]A third one of mine is abnormal psychology.
[00:43:58.690]For six and a half months after having moved from Lubbock,
[00:44:02.070]I was in denial about having left my friends behind.
[00:44:04.280]Then reality sunk in.
[00:44:07.780]Eight months after we moved, my grandfather passed away
[00:44:14.238]and this was days after my 17th birthday
[00:44:17.450]and he had been a great sense of emotional support for me
[00:44:19.670]after I'd moved from Lubbock.
[00:44:24.810]I began to think I was developing a mood disorder,
[00:44:30.700]so I began asking my dad about various mental disorders
[00:44:34.240]since he has his doctorate in counseling psychology.
[00:44:38.440]After a brief discussion of the mental disorders,
[00:44:41.720]my dad showed me the DSM-IV,
[00:44:43.410]which was in his office and I began reading it.
[00:44:48.740]And I read about various mental disorders,
[00:44:50.360]such as schizophrenia, bipolar, sociopathy,
[00:44:52.820]and autism, to name a few.
[00:44:55.190]This became my way of understanding human behavior
[00:44:57.960]and enhanced my critical thinking skills.
[00:45:00.720]Over the years, I continued to do further research
[00:45:05.290]on various mental disorders through other books
[00:45:08.110]and I have gotten the DSM-V and began reading through that
[00:45:12.559]and the DSM-V is very similar to the DSM-IV,
[00:45:17.920]but yet a little bit different.
[00:45:21.250]I like 80s music, particularly early 80s music,
[00:45:26.080]and cardiovascular exercise is another interest of mine,
[00:45:29.710]which I'll go into a little bit later.
[00:45:33.400]What helps me manage these circumscribed interests
[00:45:35.530]is my desire to know how the other person's been,
[00:45:38.990]about the other person and the guilt I feel
[00:45:41.450]if the conversation ends
[00:45:42.590]with me not asking another person how they've been
[00:45:46.521]and them not getting to talk about themselves.
[00:45:51.490]Just talking about myself after a while
[00:45:53.330]starts to feel unsettling.
[00:45:57.070]Here's some anxiety indicators.
[00:45:59.540]I have a lot of nervous energy.
[00:46:01.580]I will talk a lot about my interests.
[00:46:03.830]I may have pressure or fast-paced speech
[00:46:06.250]and I may pace back and forth.
[00:46:10.290]Here is how I reduce my anxiety.
[00:46:12.440]Listening to early 1980s music, massage therapy,
[00:46:16.070]commuting with my dog, Kira, medication,
[00:46:19.320]hanging out with my neighbors,
[00:46:21.561]which many of them are my friends,
[00:46:24.639]and cardiovascular exercise.
[00:46:30.860]For years, I've run 11 and a half to 12 miles a day
[00:46:34.630]and I have run a couple of marathons.
[00:46:40.690]I tried to do the White Rock Lake Marathon,
[00:46:45.103]but I did not hydrate properly
[00:46:47.870]and I became sick from dehydration after 24 miles.
[00:46:55.080]Months later, I attempted the Big D Marathon,
[00:47:00.850]but it was unseasonably warm
[00:47:02.410]and after 13 miles, became sick because of heat exhaustion.
[00:47:07.300]So I plotted a path in my neighborhood
[00:47:09.890]and a week and a half later, successfully ran the 26.2 miles
[00:47:14.190]in my neighborhood, finishing it from my house.
[00:47:18.630]Months later, I did another marathon in my neighborhood
[00:47:21.620]and I made a 26 and a half miles,
[00:47:25.060]which was three-tenths a mile longer than the marathon mark.
[00:47:31.370]Completing both these marathons
[00:47:32.850]gave me a sense of accomplishment and peace.
[00:47:39.820]I cannot run as much as I used to
[00:47:41.330]because I have a hamstring problem
[00:47:42.670]and I'm getting that fixed through physical therapy
[00:47:46.150]and now I have a stationary bike
[00:47:47.560]that I use a couple times a week,
[00:47:51.960]but I am trying to get back up
[00:47:53.561]to the 11 and a half to 12 miles a day.
[00:47:58.650]Another benefit to running is being out in the neighborhood.
[00:48:03.500]I'm out in my neighborhood every day,
[00:48:04.870]either walking or running
[00:48:06.480]and I know most neighbors around my block.
[00:48:09.130]There have been many young couples in their twenties
[00:48:11.330]who have moved into this neighborhood in the past year
[00:48:15.540]and they knew I have autism and are very accepting of me.
[00:48:20.980]Also, years ago, there were four young girls
[00:48:24.070]who would cheer me on my ran by their houses,
[00:48:26.339]which were up the street from my house.
[00:48:31.660]They were very nice girls
[00:48:36.170]and their parents were really nice
[00:48:39.020]and I felt very comfortable telling them I had autism
[00:48:41.960]and they were very accepting of me.
[00:48:47.600]It was fun watching those girls grow up
[00:48:49.370]through their adolescence and now they're in their twenties
[00:48:51.710]and I still enjoy talking to them whenever I see them.
[00:49:00.660]What's helped me learn to be flexible
[00:49:03.210]is basically front-loading.
[00:49:07.140]I can accept changes in my schedule
[00:49:09.300]if I'm told ahead of time.
[00:49:13.330]What's helped with preparing for novel situations
[00:49:16.300]is basically front-loading
[00:49:25.650]and preparing for them ahead of time.
[00:49:28.070]I can eat a variety of foods because Mom's a very good cook
[00:49:31.310]that only knows how to make stuff
[00:49:33.200]that tastes good, but is healthy
[00:49:34.950]and she's got me in the kitchen, learning to cook with her.
[00:49:40.310]I love eating healthy and I love exercise,
[00:49:43.240]but chocolate is still my downfall.
[00:49:44.470]With enough structure in my life,
[00:49:46.622]I can be comfortable with change.
[00:49:48.380]Here is a list of role models
[00:49:49.910]that made a lasting impression on my life.
[00:49:52.420]First is my paternal grandfather.
[00:49:56.030]He fought in World War II.
[00:49:58.230]In fact, when he was fighting in World War II,
[00:50:03.000]he was a flight engineer on a plane.
[00:50:07.770]A flock of birds flew through the windshield
[00:50:10.540]of the airplane, knocking out the captain and the copilot
[00:50:13.590]and he landed the plane, got four bronze stars.
[00:50:16.230]He would've gotten the Purple Heart,
[00:50:17.300]except the war was already over.
[00:50:20.270]After the war, he worked blue collar jobs
[00:50:24.130]until he took a test for a job for the federal government.
[00:50:30.070]He scored so high on those tests,
[00:50:31.980]he was given a second battery of tests
[00:50:34.200]and he did so well on that second battery of tests
[00:50:36.800]that he was invited to join Mensa.
[00:50:39.890]He declined joining Mensa
[00:50:42.580]because it was beyond his upbringing, so,
[00:50:51.050]but he got his schooling paid for
[00:50:54.790]and he got a job for Defense Contracts
[00:50:58.880]as a computer systems analyst,
[00:51:00.440]a later computer systems analyst supervisor.
[00:51:04.080]He was very accommodating of me and very easygoing.
[00:51:11.100]He had a nine-inch oscillating guest fan
[00:51:14.200]with push buttons and royal blue blades
[00:51:16.820]that I just loved to play with
[00:51:18.160]whenever I went over to his house.
[00:51:22.140]That fan broke when I was eight years old.
[00:51:24.470]Otherwise, I would have gotten it from him.
[00:51:27.400]I am looking for a fan
[00:51:28.850]identical to the fan that my grandfather had,
[00:51:31.150]but have not been able to find one.
[00:51:33.560]I have, however, been able to find one similar
[00:51:35.970]to the one he had.
[00:51:38.080]He also had a 12-inch oscillating push button guest fan
[00:51:40.980]with aqua gray blades that I loved to play with
[00:51:44.570]and shortly before he passed away, he gave that fan to me
[00:51:50.410]and then he also got me an all-blue oscillating fan.
[00:51:54.260]The whole fan is blue and that was the last thing he gave me
[00:51:57.440]before he passed away.
[00:51:59.350]So I have those oscillating fans to remember him by.
[00:52:05.210]He lived to 82 years old
[00:52:07.430]and remained very healthy right up till the very end.
[00:52:11.660]Next are my maternal great grandparents.
[00:52:16.560]My great grandpa, like me, was a regular runner.
[00:52:22.560]He ran until he was in his late 70s,
[00:52:24.740]when he started having hip replacements.
[00:52:27.290]Then he began using a stationary bike.
[00:52:30.750]When he was in his 80s, he rode on that stationary bike
[00:52:33.610]for eight hours without stopping,
[00:52:35.140]just to see if he could do it
[00:52:36.620]and he got off without suffering any ill effects.
[00:52:39.830]The person who suffered from this was my great grandmother.
[00:52:43.880]It freaked her out that he did that.
[00:52:50.700]He lived to 86 years of age
[00:52:54.270]and I was five years old when he passed away.
[00:52:57.840]I remember him being very calm and quiet,
[00:52:59.910]not really having much to say.
[00:53:02.790]So, in many ways, I really didn't feel like
[00:53:05.200]I got to know him that well
[00:53:07.120]because I was so young when he passed away.
[00:53:12.420]My great grandma, his wife, overcame adversity
[00:53:16.370]that happened to her in her childhood
[00:53:17.590]and made sure that what happened to her
[00:53:19.240]did not happen to my grandma or my grandma's two brothers.
[00:53:26.896]I really enjoyed being around her
[00:53:30.280]and she was more talkative,
[00:53:31.530]so I really felt like I got to know her better.
[00:53:36.010]She lived to 91 years of age and she got around fine.
[00:53:40.760]She had a sharp mind, lived independently,
[00:53:44.370]and remained very healthy right up till the very end.
[00:53:48.400]I was almost 10 years old when she passed away
[00:53:51.800]and I got their oscillating fan they had
[00:53:55.130]after my great grandma passed away and now I have that fan
[00:53:58.170]to remember my great grandparents by.
[00:54:01.500]Going up to visit my great grandparents
[00:54:03.280]in Edmond, Oklahoma was very calming to me.
[00:54:05.540]And sometimes when I'm stressed, I go on Google Maps
[00:54:09.717]and I look at their house that they lived in.
[00:54:14.940]Next is my elementary school principal, James Baker,
[00:54:17.800]who did what was in the best interest of the students
[00:54:19.970]that went to his school,
[00:54:21.690]even when it wasn't in his own best interest,
[00:54:24.795]and sometimes got in trouble with his superiors
[00:54:28.870]for doing what he knew was right.
[00:54:34.830]Next is my Great Aunt Mary Ann, my dad's aunt.
[00:54:38.910]She got a PhD in biophysics during the 1950s
[00:54:43.550]and became a professor until she retired at 82 years of age.
[00:54:50.000]She, in her later years, she remained very healthy,
[00:54:54.560]had a great quality of life,
[00:54:56.720]had a sharp mind, and was very wise.
[00:55:01.590]She lived to 90.
[00:55:07.290]Here are some of my future plans.
[00:55:09.740]Continuing to present to groups that have autism,
[00:55:12.810]getting married and having a family,
[00:55:14.779]and running marathons into my 100s,
[00:55:19.490]maybe with medical advances, into my 120s.
[00:55:22.720]I plan to become the world's oldest marathoner
[00:55:26.000]and be very healthy right up till the end of my life.
[00:55:31.793]I desire out of life what most people desire,
[00:55:35.670]a sense of belonging, good health,
[00:55:39.430]spending time with good friends, and a sense of purpose.
[00:55:46.030]I informed you of my personal perspective for autism.
[00:55:48.520]Does anybody have any questions?

The screen size you are trying to search captions on is too small!

You can always jump over to MediaHub and check it out there.

Comments

0 Comments

Autism: A Personal Perspective

Description

Searchable Transcript

Comments icon comment

Related Channels

Comments