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Long term pen pals :D

Bushidō

Hello everyone.

I've checked over related threads and noticed that pen pal threads were placed under the 'Miscellaneous and chat' section, so I've re-posted my thread under this heading, in case I've made a mistake, >.<;.

I’m a 27-year-old autistic male with an interest in writing to long term pen pals. I find it extremely difficult to socialise in the outside world, I know that the internet is the only medium I’ve been able to communicate with as comfortably as I can. My situation is such that, I have been taught at home since my breakdown I experienced in mainstream school, leaving me with several bouts of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Long story short, from that day, up till my special educational needs statement ended when I reach 19 years of age, leaving me with no help whatsoever, I was taught from my home by two home and hospital tutors. Long story there, but that’s the general gist, it’s been quite an arduous experience on all accounts. Didn’t end well either, but again, that’s part of that long story.  Basically, due to my trauma and my difficulties, my options for socialising are extremely limited, which is why I’ve been hoping to find meaningful social interaction across the internet, hoping it could help me to meet new people, and to develop into trustworthy long term relations.

I have an interest in nature photography, but find it difficult to travel, so as a nature photographer, I mainly spend my time taking photographs from within my garden and surrounding areas, which is woodland and lakes. I have some of my artwork in a gallery on deviantART online, and I’m hoping to sell my artwork on Redbubble in the near future. I once sold my artwork to raise money for the National Autistic Society in the past, as part of, one of my home learning courses, with the help of one of old home tutors. I also have a keen interest in Japanese video games, such as JRPGs (Japanese Role Play Games), strategy, point and click, adventure, basically games which have deep storylines that I can lose myself in, and also tactical games which train the mind. I also enjoy playing games with a wide expansive world, like Skyrim and Final Fantasy XV (15) (huge fan of the Final Fantasy video game series, lol). I also have an interest in Japanese and Chinese histories and culture in themselves. Learnt both Japanese and Chinese histories with the help of both the Samurai Warriors and the Dynasty Warriors video game series. I wish I could learn the Japanese language to unlock the ability to play many more Japanese-only games. I enjoy watching anime, reading manga, and other fantasy novels. I also have interest in researching the unexplained mysteries in the world. I’m also very keen on gardening, but due to my Sensory Processing Disorder and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, I find it increasingly difficult, so I mainly help as much as can with my mum around the garden, using whatever precautions for my conditions as I can along the way. I am also hoping to learn to play the guitar, but it’s very early stages for me, and it a slow process, besides which I’m trying to learn it on my own, which can be really difficult at times, so motivation levels need a bit of a boost really, lol.

I am also affected by Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as a result of effects the mainstream school system caused me. Eventually I was taught at home, by home and hospital tutors, as I’ve mentioned above, which only lasted until I was 19 years old, unfortunately. I wanted to continue with further education, but was denied by a deceitful 193a Assessment document, long story. As a result, I find it increasingly difficult to find ways to interact with others in fear that someone could invoke my PTSD ‘triggers’ and offset my inner turmoil reminding me of the horrors of what I experienced all those years ago. Not to mention, all those years left its scar on me, which makes the general social world much more complex for me, but equally just as important. This is my way of helping to recover from my traumas, to find long term pen pals I can write to, people who I can socialise with, grow trustworthy meaningful relations with. Socialising has always been difficult for me, and I’m hoping to find people out there that are open-minded, willing to listen, to understand, to care.

Parents

  • You have got some fascinating interests and I am sure you will get replies from people who share these. It is wonderful that you have some of your work on deviantART already and that you are looking into Redbubbke too.

    Have you ever used Twitter? I follow quite a few people who tweet about nature photography and related subjects. 

    I was intrigued by your name so I looked it up and discovered it Is the term for a code of ethics or virtues for Samurai warriors (hope I've got that right!). 

    Have you seen this page on the NAS website? There is another way of finding Pen Pals via a magazine which you might want to try too: https://www.autism.org.uk/about/adult-life/resources/the-spectrum/penpals.aspx

    The Spectrum is the new name for the magazine formerly known as Asperger United. 

    There are some lovely people in this community. I'm sure you will find suitable pen pals. 

Reply

  • You have got some fascinating interests and I am sure you will get replies from people who share these. It is wonderful that you have some of your work on deviantART already and that you are looking into Redbubbke too.

    Have you ever used Twitter? I follow quite a few people who tweet about nature photography and related subjects. 

    I was intrigued by your name so I looked it up and discovered it Is the term for a code of ethics or virtues for Samurai warriors (hope I've got that right!). 

    Have you seen this page on the NAS website? There is another way of finding Pen Pals via a magazine which you might want to try too: https://www.autism.org.uk/about/adult-life/resources/the-spectrum/penpals.aspx

    The Spectrum is the new name for the magazine formerly known as Asperger United. 

    There are some lovely people in this community. I'm sure you will find suitable pen pals. 

Children
  • in reply to Sunflower

    Hi Sunflower

    Thank you for your response, :).

    Thank you for your compliments regarding my interests, :). I’m just hoping that somehow, someone will be able to share a common ground with me to hopefully start off the social experience with a head start. I’m keen to write to someone who can either share an interest with me, or even to share similar experiences, such as the horrors of the school system. Certain experiences from our school lives can really open your eyes up to the people, neurotypical or otherwise, you’d likely meet. I see life as a kind of minefield, with a holy grail on the other side, it’s very difficult to make for the goal, when there are so many difficulties and obstacles in your way, >.<. I wanted to try to set out a gambit out there on this forum for example, to see if it could allow me to come closer to my goal, to build long lasting, meaningful and trustworthy relations.

    It’s interesting you should mention Twitter, and yes, I’ve been on Twitter myself. I found it difficult at first due to the confined spaces of writing, >.<. However; eventually I began to build my own way of using Twitter, re-tweeting, making separate part comments, to allow accommodate more writing space, -_-. Still, I have not had a pleasant experience on Twitter, because it’s all very well talking about nature photography and related subject, but when you start voicing your views, it’s not long before you face an aggressive, abusive twitter user, -_-. This is the difficulty I have with the internet, but the alternative is even worse, so, in speculation, all I can do is keep trying I suppose. My trust in social networking has had quite a harsh effect on me so far. Even to the point where Facebook has a lot of users from my torturous school days, :(. Needless to say, I don’t wish to find them writing to me on there.

    Yes, you are correct, Bushidō (or Bu-shi-do-u) is the phonetic pronunciation of Japanese symbols for the term, ‘The Way of the Samurai’. Basically, I’m using that name as a way of tying in my interest in Japan, much like China, in a way, due to my knowledge of their histories, as well as the modern Japanese entertainment basically. Due to my interest in anime (Japanese animation), I conjointly have an interest in modern Japanese music as well, musicians such as Yui, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5Tu7NXEn7M , Aqua Timez, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6BtEHFxvlE , and UNLIMITS, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDQMIrI_5Z0 , to name a few.

    Truth be told, I have posted a pen pal advert within the Asperger’s United in the past, before they changed their name. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the success I’d hoped for, -_-. I had to wait along time before my advert appeared in the magazine. Also, there wasn’t much space to write your interests, and how could I describe my interests and my difficulties in such a small writing space? I feel, the more you explain, the better the chance someone may be able to relate to you. I tried writing to someone who wrote a letter to me, who enjoyed playing video games like I do, however; the correspondence didn’t last long, >.<;. This persons stated that they were only using the pen pal service for a writing course, when I needed someone long term to write to, not temporary, and certainly not just for a written course, -_-;. I enjoyed writing to this person at first, it was interesting, but before long, I started to notice sharp differences between our lifestyles, such that this person came from a privileged background, so I could recognise the difference between our access to aid which would have been off limits to someone like me, -_-. I quickly began to see how different our viewpoints on life were, because they didn’t see life from same vantage point as me, :(. I could quickly see that it was becoming increasingly uncomfortable, because it was quite surreal considering how well off they were, such as owning acres of land, -_-. When you can’t see eye to eye, it makes conversation very difficult. Needless to say, within a couple of letters, I never received a reply again from this person, which is shame because this person was the only one which came close to my own interests, :(. Maybe this person began to realise how different our lives really were, -_-.

    I decided to retry, this time on the forum, therefore I felt I’d have more of a chance on expanding on my interests some more, not to mention, my conditions, difficulties, experiences, etc., to hopefully give the reader a better chance of finding something they could relate to, or at that’s my hope, >.<;.

    Thank you for your support, :), it’s good to read your kind words, you may be surprised how rare they can be these days across the internet, -_-;.