Learning to embrace my true self as an adult

Hello everybody, I'm new here. After a lifetime of loneliness and confusion, I've finally been finding answers and decided to join a community. 

I would like to tell my story: 

Growing up as a young child, I was labelled a "problem child" and the teachers did not want to deal with me. I couldn't get along with the other children, I often said things that others thought were mean or cruel without realising and I used to often have what I now understand to be meltdowns, where I would get under a table and scream, or similar. The teachers put me into a special class where they would reward me for not acting out or causing "trouble". I was severely neglected by teachers who hated dealing with me... They made me feel like I was a problem, and I was never diagnosed as an autistic child. 

By high school age, I had learnt that being myself was bad and tried to suppress it as much as possible. I did not know what was wrong with me, I just knew that I felt alien compared to everybody else. But I observed them and did EVERYTHING I could to fit in, I thought I was pulling it off but they could see straight through me and I never knew why. It's like I was a different species. My high school life was plagued with bullying and not fitting in. 

I've always been a weird kid who prefers alone time over social time with others, and I have VERY intense (and sometimes weird/specific) interests. These interests are all I think about and they bring me great joy, but it makes me hard to maintain a normal conversation with. I've never really held friendships, but I don't mind, since I'm happy on my own. I get all of my happiness and recharge from engaging in my interests alone. So overall, I had a pretty lonely and confused childhood to adulthood.

I'm currently 25 years old, and just last year discovered that I'm autistic. Reading through descriptions of autism was like having everything unexplained about my life explained to me. I fit almost all of the boxes. Easily overstimulated, texture problems, stimming, avoidance to touch, everything I can think of... just the whole lot. 

As an adult I'm learning that it's okay to be different and it's okay to be me. I just need to understand myself and what my unique needs are, and then embrace myself for them, and that's the path I'm currently on.