Hello there everyone. My name's Liam, now allow me to tell you a bit about myself. I'm eighteen years old and recently received a diagnosis of being on the Autistic spectrum less than a week ago. Not to say it makes much of a difference having the diagnosis or not to my own knowledge and understanding. However, I am glad I will now have the opportunity to socialize and communicate ideas with like-minded individuals, as well as having the opportunity to explore my inherent differences to average people with certainty and focus.
You see, I also have a mental illness, rapid-cycling bi-polar to be precise, though I'm aware that I suffer from a myriad of symptoms pertaining to a few other illnesses and conditions. What is my stance on being this different to what we call the majority of 'normal' people?
I am proud. My pride fuels me. But of course, arrogance and delusion must be evaded. It's so easy to become maglomatic at the intelligence some of us were born with. We have certain social ineptitudes and we can wish to show people that we are better than them at other things, or that we can become even more proficient than them at socializing through experience, strategies, knowledge and confidence. I've been there, I've made a great deal of 'mistakes', but these 'mistakes' allowed me to learn, and despite my regret I prosper on the building blocks granted to me through these cruel experiences. And that's just it, there is no limit to learning, always try to further yourself and show people that behind their stereotypical preconceptions we are able to look them in the eye and speak sense. One thing I know is that words stand on their own merits; it matters not how they were spoken or who spoke them. I firmly endorse logical approaches in life, with an emotionally intelligent approach that allows you to judge situations individually and correct what we can in this world. People living in comfort or people not able to see the bigger picture rely on the insight required to rectify their mistakes and to teach them the correct knowledge.
I learned something very important. Whilst I have a knack for Math and Physics etcetera I also have a knack for understanding life and mankind. I believe this is true for all people with the same condition as me. It's becuase we had to go through a trial and error process that average folks do not, we were forced to step back and truly try to understand and analyse situations and behavior. We had to learn how to overcome our conditions after all. And that's what I love about the Autistic community. We have a high aptitude and determination to reach the finish line, despite switching our focus like there's no tomorrow, once we realize the magnitude of a goal we can make it like no other. It is our intellectual responsibility to further others with our knowledge and insights, not to have them rejected in offence by the ones who pity us. It is high time we proved ourselves in the humanistics fields and truly corrected this screwed up world. Because if people like me who can clearly see what's wrong with society, all these subtleties that go unobserved and unscrutinized by the rest of the world, then they are our intellectual obligation to fix. Yes it's hard to articulate ourselves, despite possessing a high capacity of innate and wisdom granted knowledge but if we take it one step at a time, becoming the building blocks for each other I'm sure we can make it. Only then can people look past their subtle prejudices.
So what exactly am I proud of? I am proud of my unique perspective and the insight that my conditions have granted me. I am proud of the hard work I have put in to overcome my conditions, proud of actually learning important things the hard way. I am proud to be a person who strives for the best and success.
That's me, oh, and I have a tendency to be ruthlessly blunt and critical when I deem it appropriate whist debating on these fora, so don't be offended and try to understand my good intentions. All else aside for later, it's a pleasure to meet you all and join this community!