I had a pretty normal development as a kid. I made every milestone that a typical child would. At age 3, I stopped talking to everyone but my parents. My mom found out later it was selective mutism. I began to talk again when I was 10 years old. Despite the mutism, I excelled at school and was determined to be the best I could be. I graduated from high school with honors and went on to college. I thought that I had trouble communicating with people because the mutism had caused me to not learn social interaction properly. I found out when I was 27 that I actually had autistic disorder. The diagnosis was reassuring because I found out all of these quirks of mine from the huge obsessions with TV shows (right now it is Castle) and celebrities, to the awkwardness with communication was actually autism. I was diagnosed with Tourette syndrome when I was 17 too because my younger brother had been diagnosed first. It happened like that with autism too. My brother was diagnosed many years before I was.
I have had some struggles with anxiety the last few years and I'm in therapy twice a week to help with that. I have one year left of my degree in Communications and Writing. My dream is to become a Television Writer and create my own TV show based on my life working in a grocery store and my struggles. I also want to write my memoirs and some novels. Writing basically is my life. I learned to communicate through writing because I had trouble doing it by voice. I think that is the reason I have become so passionate about it and want to do it for a career.
While having autism is hard, I feel that if I didn't have it I would not be who I am. Having autism makes me unique. It makes me, me.
Minneapolis, MN
