Advice on my plan

Oh Wei, I can’t tell you how happy I am to read your post. I’m sat crying as I type this, with tears of pure joy.

Today I sent a reply text message to my support worker, that said, I’m going to face the fear and do it anyway and I’m going to do what I need to do despite the fear.

I took a year ‘out of life’. I mistakenly thought I was going to prepare myself during this year, to get ready to start my business ~ something that I’m 100% passionate about.

However, I was wrong. It turned out that I needed my year out to rest. To withdraw completely, or as far as was possible, from life and my mind, my plans, my ideas etc.

I spent a wonderful year inside my home. I was gentle, kind and loving to myself and I distracted myself by watching beautiful black and white movies on YouTube on my little phone. I was gathering my strength, but I didn’t realise that until I began to feel rested enough to start my life again.

Within less than a week (of me being ready to face the world), I have been given (all free of charge) every ounce of support that I will need and have wanted (since the beginning of 2013), to help me set my business up. I can’t tell you how miraculous it feels and how truly grateful and humbled I am for all the love and exquisite support that’s coming my way.

Failure, my good friend, is simply a wonderful opportunity to begin again, with more knowledge, understanding and awareness. You only fail when you give in. Success is the flip side to failure.

This is all going to work out so wonderfully for you. I tell just about everyone I speak to that I’m autistic, and I mean everyone. I put it out there and I am met with nothing less than curiosity and acceptance, every time. I make new friends everyday, by simply smiling at everyone I meet and by saying a genuine, warm hello. If people want to talk they will, if they don’t, that’s perfectly ok, you will nearly always get a smile and a hello back, which helps us build our confidence, slowly, in our ability to make and then maintain friendships. When we are genuinely interested in other people and have a sincere desire to help and be friendly, we find that we make friends easily and we maybe make someone’s day along the way.

I know I made the day of an elderly gentleman who I met on the street today. His face light up and we had a moment of eye to eye contact that said, thank you, it is so wonderful to meet you and we both parted with more love and joy and compassion active in our hearts than we did before our paths crossed.

Be open and friendly and the people who resonate with you will become your good friends and the ones who don’t, will be friendly friends when your paths cross.

There is so much support out there, you only have to ask and it will be given to you. Enjoy your gap year and enjoy the fabulous journey you will embark on from there on. You have a certain and beautiful life gently waiting for you for when you’re ready to claim it. You have already conquered your fear by declaring it is no match for you, and it isn’t. You’re not alone, there are always people around to ask for support when you need it, even if it’s only to say, I’m scared. It’s ok to be scared, it’s ok to have fears, so long as you know that’s all they are and they are no barrier to you achieving what you want in life.

And I just know you will make the most wonderful friend so you will not be short of friends. The perfect friends for you are already waiting for you. You’re going to have a great time. Well done and enjoy.

Do you know you can also do a degree, masters degree and PhD in autism (all funded) at Sheffield Hallam University. I’m not trying to persuade you away from your chosen course, just letting you know it’s there in case it is of any interest to you. They also offer a course in partnership with NAS.

Oh wow! i wasn't expecting such a detailed and long respond. Thanks for your time!

I am so happy that your story about what you have personally been through is going to encourage me on my plan and I hope the people i am going to open to are as incredible as the one around yours.

I did not know about Sheffield Hallam University but I have looked it up right after i read your message. It seems to be a part time course for 1 to 6 years and helps out people with ASD with study greatly. I will remember this and if i can ever manage free time i will attempt this but at the moment, i am still very young and would like to strife for more even in my condition, i would like to learn a lot more so i will try to study a full time course for my plan right now. Hopefully my course can lead me to become a clinical psychologist to help out people that are suffering my conditions and also other mental health problems, as for now that's very optimistic but it shall be my end goal.

There are different ways of studying their autism courses and there are different courses. All of them are open to people on the spectrum but are aimed as well at professionals and acedemics as well as individuals wanting to influence policy and procedure etc around autism. 

Your goals are most certainly not optimistic and you may not believe me right now, but they’re actually guaranteed, ‘if’ you continue ‘until’ ~ that is, until you get there! No matter how long that takes or how you get there. And yes, you can begin to observe now, people treat us how we treat them and how we treat ourselves. If you treat yourself well and have an open, honest, friendly and genuinely caring approach to life and people, life and people will respond back to you in the same way. 

I would wish you look but you don’t need it. Your future is secured. You need only enjoy it. 

Good luck with your meeting- if you can freeze your student loans till next year and then simply transfer them across to a new Uni/course that sounds like a brilliant option. 

Just a thought; get whatever you can, such as the advice about Student Loans etc in writing, if you can. For example, after having a meeting, or seeking advice, just ask everyone to sum up what they have told you and pop it in an email to you, (say you need this adjustment) so that you have some written evidence of these things/offers/ conversations which may prove useful in future. 

Best of luck.

Ah yes, exactly what i'm thinking about studying psychology, requirements says I only need one of the 4 subjects to be A* which are Maths, Bio, Phy, or Psychology and I have Maths so it was fine without Psychology but as you said helps with start up so why not, I am going to at least get an A here or even A* since im going for it! Trying to hit some high end Uni so requirement to my preferred Uni are a bit higher naturally.

As for student loan, called my student loan company have it all sorted, frozen the money to be paid to University now since i'm leaving. Going to a meeting in 40 min to get that actually approved, already talked and told my programme leader about it too. 

Just told my parent about leaving too because I felt guilty doing it without them knowing at all, was very brief so I asked them to wait till they are home with me (my parent is currently out of country) to talk face to face and get them to understand. Oh, my mum and dad was so accepting about all this! I am so shocked >o<. I'm so happy about it, I'm so glad that I was able to sums up the courage to call her because I originally just going to tell them only after they gotten back. (It was so hard to press that call button thoough xD)

It sounds to me as if you are really doing your best to plan and embark on a new path. 

What I do know, with some confidence, is that some Uni's accept less (AAB ) for their psychology degrees and that the A Levels themselves need not be in psychology. 

However, whatever else you choose to do, if you are serious about studying this subject at degree level,  studying A Level Psychology in your gap year first sounds like a fantastic idea to me, not only to enable you the other A Level you need for your preferred Uni, but more so to give you a good grounding and 'taster' into the subject too.

I did not realise you were currently studying at Uni, I don't personally know how this works with Student Loans etc if you have already started a degree. Perhaps someone else on here may know and offer their further advice about this?  

I'm still in the process of sorting out my current Uni situation such as cancelling student loan, withdrawing programme, and telling my friends and family. I have actually done most of that and calling my mum in about 20 minutes because shes busy right now.

I made a plan (wrote it down even) to go back to my high school to ask for advice about Psychology study and I know a professor that I could get advice from too. In other words, I have yet to understand the way I would need to approach University to study Psychology completely yet. I have looked up 3 or 4 different Universities, it seems that if I would to head toward a good University such as UCL (my aim) I would need A*AA grade, I currently have A*AB so I am thinking of studying Psychology A level to get that last A. As for GCSE it requires B in Maths or Science and B in English. I have C in English for GCSE so i am probably going for that too. The other Universities are about the same requirements so best if I just go for it.

Also planned a therapy or a way to face my fear of people and organised my life. I made a draft of my daily schedule includes reading, fixed sleeping timing, exercising and study/research time. I have wrote and confirm a plan of going travel, on my own, to reach further out of the world (I always hated travelling because of the crowd and how exhausting it is for me) but when I thought about what I can be doing during the travel makes me laugh or smile so I knew I wanted to do it. Planned to seek advice on how to travel and save money from relatives and travel agent.

I’m afraid you don’t have that kind of control Wei, none of us, to dictate what is written on a public forum. However, there has been no arguments on here and if something doesn’t relate to you/help you, just leave it. 

But yeah, keep it simple, that’s what I like to do and if the comments don’t relate to you or they’re more confusing than helpful, just leave them be. Take what works and leave the rest. 

Ooops, just noticed. Yes. There was some arguing going on, nothing to do with you though Wei, and it’s being dealt with by management. 

Oh Wei.

I so want to reply to BlueRay, oh, so so much, ...

But, in respect to you, I will do as you ask and 'end the non related debate.' 

You are very right in that things being said on here can be fake and misleading.., so, best to try to take the best bits from all of us and use whatever bits you can to help you make your decision. 

Have you got any further with your decision, such as finding out anything you may need to know such as what to do or study during your gap year, how to enable the best support at Uni, and what the Uni's require in terms of other qualifications in order for your application to be successful? 

I am thinking that, finding out what the Uni's need (qualification wise,) may give you some direction to head towards over the coming year to make your eventual application successful? If you decide this is the right path for you, naturally. 

Oh Wei.

I so want to reply to BlueRay, oh, so so much, ...

But, in respect to you, I will do as you ask and 'end the non related debate.' 

You are very right in that things being said on here can be fake and misleading.., so, best to try to take the best bits from all of us and use whatever bits you can to help you make your decision. 

Have you got any further with your decision, such as finding out anything you may need to know such as what to do or study during your gap year, how to enable the best support at Uni, and what the Uni's require in terms of other qualifications in order for your application to be successful? 

I am thinking that, finding out what the Uni's need (qualification wise,) may give you some direction to head towards over the coming year to make your eventual application successful? If you decide this is the right path for you, naturally. 

Good luck with your meeting- if you can freeze your student loans till next year and then simply transfer them across to a new Uni/course that sounds like a brilliant option. 

Just a thought; get whatever you can, such as the advice about Student Loans etc in writing, if you can. For example, after having a meeting, or seeking advice, just ask everyone to sum up what they have told you and pop it in an email to you, (say you need this adjustment) so that you have some written evidence of these things/offers/ conversations which may prove useful in future. 

Best of luck.

Ah yes, exactly what i'm thinking about studying psychology, requirements says I only need one of the 4 subjects to be A* which are Maths, Bio, Phy, or Psychology and I have Maths so it was fine without Psychology but as you said helps with start up so why not, I am going to at least get an A here or even A* since im going for it! Trying to hit some high end Uni so requirement to my preferred Uni are a bit higher naturally.

As for student loan, called my student loan company have it all sorted, frozen the money to be paid to University now since i'm leaving. Going to a meeting in 40 min to get that actually approved, already talked and told my programme leader about it too. 

Just told my parent about leaving too because I felt guilty doing it without them knowing at all, was very brief so I asked them to wait till they are home with me (my parent is currently out of country) to talk face to face and get them to understand. Oh, my mum and dad was so accepting about all this! I am so shocked >o<. I'm so happy about it, I'm so glad that I was able to sums up the courage to call her because I originally just going to tell them only after they gotten back. (It was so hard to press that call button thoough xD)

It sounds to me as if you are really doing your best to plan and embark on a new path. 

What I do know, with some confidence, is that some Uni's accept less (AAB ) for their psychology degrees and that the A Levels themselves need not be in psychology. 

However, whatever else you choose to do, if you are serious about studying this subject at degree level,  studying A Level Psychology in your gap year first sounds like a fantastic idea to me, not only to enable you the other A Level you need for your preferred Uni, but more so to give you a good grounding and 'taster' into the subject too.

I did not realise you were currently studying at Uni, I don't personally know how this works with Student Loans etc if you have already started a degree. Perhaps someone else on here may know and offer their further advice about this?  

I'm still in the process of sorting out my current Uni situation such as cancelling student loan, withdrawing programme, and telling my friends and family. I have actually done most of that and calling my mum in about 20 minutes because shes busy right now.

I made a plan (wrote it down even) to go back to my high school to ask for advice about Psychology study and I know a professor that I could get advice from too. In other words, I have yet to understand the way I would need to approach University to study Psychology completely yet. I have looked up 3 or 4 different Universities, it seems that if I would to head toward a good University such as UCL (my aim) I would need A*AA grade, I currently have A*AB so I am thinking of studying Psychology A level to get that last A. As for GCSE it requires B in Maths or Science and B in English. I have C in English for GCSE so i am probably going for that too. The other Universities are about the same requirements so best if I just go for it.

Also planned a therapy or a way to face my fear of people and organised my life. I made a draft of my daily schedule includes reading, fixed sleeping timing, exercising and study/research time. I have wrote and confirm a plan of going travel, on my own, to reach further out of the world (I always hated travelling because of the crowd and how exhausting it is for me) but when I thought about what I can be doing during the travel makes me laugh or smile so I knew I wanted to do it. Planned to seek advice on how to travel and save money from relatives and travel agent.