Asperger's Syndrome; have you ever heard of it?
It's a branch in the Autisim community where the majority of our people can be highly intellegent, yet socially awkward due to the abnormal wiring of our nureons-not to be confused with geniuses, however; ingenius people have only the possiblity of having disorders like autisim, whereas Autistic people have their symptoms confirmed. The negitive traits of ASD are extremely broad-depending on the severity of the conditions. They may included: Poor Hand-Eye Coordination, Little to No Sense of Humor, Phobias to Physical Contact, Anxiety, Strong Emotions, Higher Risk of Suicide, Self-Harm and Depression, Troubles with Social Life (Problems with maintaining friendships, making friendships, sexually awkward, developmentally delayed maturity, socially awkward, anxiety in crowds.) Slow Mental Process: Difficulties with prossessing complex instruction, slow prossessing memory,) Sensory Integration: Sensistivity to bright or dark lighting or any sort of noise, and difficulty with adjusting/coping to tragety or a change in events.
On a more positive note, people with ASD have many fine traits.
Most Aspies:
- are able to easily forgive others
- are conscientious, reliable, and honest
- are enthusiastic and have a propensity for obsessive research, thus developing a broad and deep base of knowledge in subjects of interest
- are free of prejudice
- are intelligent and talented
- are less inclined to be fickle or bitchy than their neurotypical counterparts
- are more likely than those of the general population to pursue a university education
- are not inclined to lie to others
- are not inclined to steal from others
- are not likely to be bullies, con artists, or social manipulators
- are not motivated by an intense social drive to spend time with whoever happens to be available
- are persistent, and when they set their minds to something or make a promise, they can usually be trusted to follow through
- are unlikely to launch unprovoked attacks, verbal or otherwise
- are untainted by the judgments that people often make regarding one another's social position or social skills
- are very accepting of the quirks and idiosyncrasies of others
- bring a highly original perspective to problem solving
- can be selective, choosing honest, genuine, dependable people who share their interests
- can bring up a variety of interesting facts
- can listen to people’s problems and provide a fresh perspective, offering pure assessments based on the information provided
- can recall fine details that others miss
- can relax and be themselves without fearing social censure
- don’t attack the reputations of those around them
- don’t discriminate against anyone based on race, gender, age, or any other surface criteria
- don’t force others to live up to demanding social expectations
- don't have hidden agendas
- don’t play head games
- don’t take advantage of other’s weaknesses
- don't usually recognize hierarchies, and so are unlikely to give someone superior status simply because that person is wealthy or has attained a high position in an organization
- have a good work ethic
- are Loving and Sensitive
- have Intuitive Mindsets,
- have Logic and a Unique Set of Skills, which could be of anything you can imagine.
- have a lot of passion when engaging in activities they like, which may translate into a talent for certain athletic pursuits
- have a tendency to adhere to routines
- have above-average intelligence
- have an acute sensitivity that supports creative talents
- have exceptional memories
- have extreme endurance
- have high integrity
- have no interest in harming others
- have one or more highly developed talents
- have talents for swimming, rowing, running, bodybuilding, or other activities that require sustained physical effort
- have values that aren't shaped by financial, social, or political influences
- judge people based on their behavior – not the color of their skin or socioeconomic status
- like to spend time alone and are perfectly capable of entertaining themselves
- loathe small talk and trivialities, preferring instead to talk about significant things that will enhance their knowledge base
- make very good employees if able to control their pace and work within either a solitary or socially supportive environment
- pay attention to detail
- stick to their positions, even in the face of intense social pressure
- tend to become proficient in the technological media required for lucrative employment in the “information age”
- tend to prefer individual sports to team sports, as there are no social demands and they can exercise complete control over the activity
- who develop an interest in sport or fitness are likely to work at it every day, often for long periods of time
- will not go along with the crowd if they know that something is wrong.
(From MyAsperger'sChild.com)
Some Famous People With ASD:
Heather Kuzmich (Model/pictured)
Dan Ackroyd (American Actor)
Sir Issac Newton (Scientist)
Bill Gates (The Man who made Computers)
Micheal Edward Palin (British Actor and Head Actor of Monty Python!) (<3)
Jane Austen (Novelist)
Satoshi Tajiri (The Founder of Pokemon)
Thomas Jefferson (American Politician)
Jim Henson (Puppeteer)
(I'm sorry for the pictureless scape; it's very difficult to find pictures that meet the critera)
My Own Personal Story:
I was born on a chilly Sunday Morning in the town of Royal Oak, Michigan, United States of America, on November 19th 1995 to a very loving mother and father. Since then, I've always struggled with one developmental delay after another: I didn't walk until I was two, I threw toddler tantrums well into early childhood(up to seven years old) I was not toliet trained until the age of three years, I did not learn to ride a two-wheel bike until I was eleven years old, and shoe-tying never came to me until I was ten, and was painfully shy and socially strange until the age of sixteen, while all the while, being extremely verbal, languistic, and expressive with a fantastic long-term memory. My first friends was my two-years-older-than-me cousin, Aylissia at the age of four, and then my first real friend at seven named, Marley. Until I reached middle school, those two girls were my only other real friends.
To make the matter worse, I had to go to a special school funded by the State, in the town of Westland. It filled with creepy children with mental disorders, far sacrier than mine. The school stooped as low as labling me as a kindergardener at nearly eight years old; and for the rest of the early fall, my "big kid lunch" was replaced with "snack and nap time" all those early days of school playing on the jungle gym, became horrible days inside; dancing to goofy Kids Bop tunes, as I watched girls my age play double-dutch on the pavment. My source of good fourtune however, came when I was turning nine, I moved to a new school district after my father was offered a job in Lansing and my mother dreamed of wanting to live in the countryside. My family ended up buying a beautiful Victorian home, twenty miles outside of my father's place of work with a great school across the street that had a principal, whom allowed me to be promoted to the fouth grade, as she understood my Asperger's Syndrome and decided that I should be given a second chance.
I. Was. Thrilled. I began to take more care into my studies and soared in school! But even then, I struggled to adjust to the move, struggled to maintain my friendship with Marley and my cousin, since I lived ninety miles from them-and when started puberty in the same year of my school promotion, I struggled even more to understand and cope with my feelings; since I was very sweet, shy, verbal, emotional, and naive. In fifth grade, I battled mild depression, apathy, and a geninue crush on a husky little boy who excelled in football, fractions, and putting me in my place. In my tween years, I began to care more about success and my studies again, I took interest in more boys, sought to it that I'd enhance my outer beauty with make-up and better clothes, sharpend my communication skills, made more friends (and one unintentional enemy) endured much bullying from my uncompassionate peers, and when utilizing my religious faith and background, I prayed to sweet Jesus that High School will improve my living conditions and that I'd always see an opportunity to improve my flaws and strengthen what I already had. I was somewhat wrong.
At the age of thirteen, an economic ressession hit in Northern Michigan. I had to move back to the neighboorhood that haunted my childhood, and on top of that move, I moved three more times in the same city, when my father transfered to the Western Side of Detroit. Apart from that, I was also a womanly looking girl, with the temperment of a nine-year old. My parents apparently forgot that I had the power to say "no" around a guy. There were many young and older teenage guys that took sexual interest in me, to the point where my fairly full breasts and waist (36C with "24 inch waist. at the time) were once groped by an older high school boy, when I was walking home from school on a warm spring day. I didn't tell my parents about the molestation until two years later, when I had a sudden nervous breakdown over it.
It's a shame that Hollywood was never open about the truth of what it means to be in high school, let alone being an older adolesent.
Indeed, a teenager can have her good days and bad-but it's not like the movies. I spent much of my free-time fantasizing about what it would be like to have been a charater in goofy movies like Sixteen Candles. The thrill of going to alcohol induced parties, having friends constantly show-up at your door with smiles all around and going through cheezy traumas of not making the cheer squad or a break-up, was a bittersweet escape from the fact that my life could not even hold a candle to Happy Days: I was suddenly poor when my Call Center directing father was suddenly laid off work after a Detroit motorplant shutdown after GM filed for bankruptcy, with an additional disagreement at work in managing a sexual harassment case, between two ladies in the office.
I began to eat Spam for dinner and free school lunches that were loaded with fat and calories, causing me to gain as much as fifteen-twenty pounds and going through another growth spurt or change in braces, barely eased my bodily insecurity. On top of that, I went to two different schools between 2009-2010, (Livonia Franklin, Livonia Stevenson, and Franklin again-my desired school. ) my father was struggling with thoughts of suicide after his career was ruined, both my parents began to work full-time jobs while I was left with my grandma to run the household. Some of my peers weren't always sure how they could reach out to me, as they made themselves busy with their own lives. I never had any boyfriends or dates to dances, since I always insisted on dating one particular boy named Nathan* (not his real name) for nearly all of time spent in high school. He made me gush and act inappropriatly embarrassing in public. To this day, I cringe in humiliation for the many times I bothered him in front of his friends, in ways I don't wish to describe. I shed tears of sadness on the day that I was called into the office, where my vice principal and special education teacher, Mr. Woods gave me a long lecture about guarding my feelings and being careful around men and boys. After school clubs, and my special ed teacher: Mr.Woods, shed a small ray of light and slowly began to unlock more potential for young Briahna Joy* (My Real First and Middle Name). Here's an image:
My gawky self in High School Debate Club. Circa 2010.
Debate club was mostly shaped my charater besides partaking in Creative Writing Club, Drama Electives, and 10th Grade English, with the most wonderful and inspiring teacher I've ever met: Mrs. J Parks! It was through her influance that I learned to love reading and I've made it my mission to write with great passion to inspire the whole world to think wonderful things. During those years, my life seemed to be a roller coaster of everything pleasent against everything God-Awful.
Me at Sixteen:
When my Junior year came along, I was genuinely upset-sure I had depression before, but it was mild and for petty reasons. I thought that I'd be a success by now, I thought that by now, I'd have my driver's licence. I thought that by sixteen, I would be sexually experienced and satisfied. I began to think that I should've been working by now, I should've had all the wonderful joys of being young in my American Culture, before I became an adult....when in reality I didn't.
I still felt alienated somehow, I felt anxiety and morbid sadness about my future and the terrors of adult life when I learned more about sex, rape, childbirth, the 9/11 memorial(and the sad story of Todd and Lisa Beamer...thanks for sharing, Mom.), social issues of all sorts, and STD's in public school. My smiles often hid, what my tears never wanted to reveal to the whole world. Because I never accomplished anything significant at the time, I began to ask Mr. Woods and God himself: Why, oh why, did this have to happen to me? Tell me what reason I had to be this way, and tell me why in the whole world to I have exist in a world like this? So many questions with no answers. So many woes that were beyond what I could deal without ever feeling tempted to let show on the surface of my skin in the form of wounds and bruises. So many times, I tried and failed. So many problems that my mother made me talk about it to a therepist, because she couldn't deal with the fact that her Asperger's daughter was self-harming and struggling with thoughts of suicide. Just how was I to deal with being a teenager, how could I manage adulthood after losing my innocence while having ASD.
Thankfully, I never made an actual plan to kill myself and far away from the mental hospice. As I felt like writing "The Note" I felt like picking up my Bible and reading scripture. I was reminded that God does not make garbage, that I'm loved no matter what I do, that I'm important no matter how little or great my acheivements and that I have an even greater journey ahead. I temporaily moved away to San Antonio, Texas for the rest of my junior year when my Dad, rejoined the Air Force Branch of the Military. I'd say God used every bit of these experiences to help me adjust to change, protect me from other dangers, challange me, and to learn about true maturity:
Maturity is not measured by your ability to drive a car, nor the number of sexual partners you've had, nor should it be measured by the number of children you've born into the world; nor shall it be based on any form of material wealth, but rather by your ability to take ownership for your behavior and to completly devote your whole life to loving God and yourself." -Briahna Joy Grady alias: thegingersnap16.
To understand and to love, was when I became to be made whole. I went to Prom alone(:() But, more importantly, I graduated from Livonia Franklin High School in the year 2013 at seventeen years, with a full diploma and began to travel with my military father, before going to college. Yes, I still have my moments and my charater flaws, yet; I have my whole life to sort out every worry and thought. As for boyfriends, getting a job, moving-out, and driving-I'm feeling confident that I won't have to wait much longer to get it done.
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