Aspies For Freedom

It makes me wonder what it would have been like if autism would have been more understood when I was still in school... I got the same sort of convos but it was more like replacing the word "autsim" with "ditz" or "space cadet" I'm not sure if I would like it any more or less...

I like your bio thingy on your profile, BTW. It makes me wonder even more what I would have gone through if I had known about AS earlier or not... Is it better? I just discovered myself two or so months ago... but for me its like a "finally" but I think if someone had "noticed" my "problems" before and diagnosed me perhaps it would have been a much harder hit? But I also wonder if I could have avoided some of my bigger life-lessons along the way if someone had sat down and explained a few things to me... One of the biggies... knowing what you want to be when you grow up is one thing, having a detailed plan of attack to get you to that goal is a completely different thing. I seriously graduated college thinking someone would walk through the job with an offer letter... hee hee hee. Maybe not COMPLETELY seriously, but still...

I'm glad that you're not crazy good at math either. Actually my fondest memory of math class was one of my teachers that used a projector to teach to us... The purple markers turned darker as they dried... So fun.

HST&T:

Have you talked to those two boys any more since that conversation?  I'm just wondering if that conversation you described was planned ahead of time, to make you uncomfortable.  Did they have a decent attitude after you described AS to them?

If I were you, I'd try to be nice, but at the same time, be careful.

So kids these days are now casually tossing around the word "autistic", I take it?  I've heard that "geek" and "nerd" are still considered insults among kids, but that they don't have the intensity they did when I was in school in the 1980s.  ("Geek" is not an insult among adults.  I consider myself to be a geek... with pride!)  I thought maybe that's because it's become somewhat fashionable to fit the "geek" stereotype, but what you describe indicates that it could be because the kids have found a word with more "shock value".  (A clinical word would definitely have more impact that a couple of one-syllable slurs.)

Anyway, I was just wondering if anything has become of that encounter.

My father uses the word 'autistic' as a joke, and he's a psychologist. He doesn't apply it to people though. He just makes jokes about the cat when she refuses to be cuddled

hehe i used to say that about a cat i once knew.
"stop being such a aspiecat"

What's it like being at school with AS? I would imagine that it could be difficult sometimes? I remember when I was at school, theres a LOT of pressure to conform ... and thankfully (at the time at least) I managed to pull it off (mind you, now its conpletely different ... conformity sucks ). If you've got AS I imagine that fitting in could be quite difficult?

In my case school was VERY difficult. When I started high school aged 11, I had no idea about how to act around people, no idea that it was 'normal' to brush/wash your hair, no idea what kind of clothes I was 'supposed' to wear, I would bang my head against walls all the time, stim constantly, walk around talking to myself (often about makes and models of cars), and if anything upset me I would turn into a screaming, kicking ball of violence. I was labelled a freak, a psycho, a space cadet, a brain, a geek, a weirdo... all the usual insults.
I think if AS was known about in Britain in the early 90's I would have got a diagnosis instantly!

Luckily a group of 'intellectual eccentrics' or geeks, took a liking to me (because I was funny) and helped me to act and dress more acceptably, and also protected me from the bullies. Together we spent all our spare time hiding in the far corner of the library, so that the popular kids would never find us!
The day I left school was one of the happiest days of my life.

I go to a vocational high school, and I'm accepted among the goth/emo crowd. But back in grammar school and junior high, I was extremely bullied by students and teachers. I'd turn into a mess, and eventually it led to cutting and other self injury. In third grade, actually, in the middle of the year, my mother pulled me out of school due to the teacher being extremely insensitive towards me. I was homeschooled for about half a year and then integrated into another school, which although was less bothersome and bullyish, I was still alienated and people were disgusted with my behavior.
That school sent me to some hospital in Boston, where I was diagnosed with asperger's.

There was no goth/emo crowd when I was in high school (late 1980's).  There were a few people who could have been regarded as prototypes to what would eventually become goth.  My attempts to shed the nerd image led me to growing my hair out and putting on the heavy-metal look.  It convinced some but not others.  I didn't care.  It just fit my mood most of the time.

I figure there will always be some subculture that dresses in black and does not pretend to be happy unless they actually are at the moment.  Even if something else takes the place of goths in the future, whatever that is it will be the subculture of choice for aspies and anyone else who has trouble fitting in with the "in" crowd (or who doesn't want anything to do with the "in" crowd).

I did not exist in my high school. I was like a ghost. I had my circle of about 8-10 friends. Beyond that, it was a building I showed up to at the appointed hour... In hindsight, I regret not being more involved in, well, pretty much anything... but I also recognize that there weren't many options for me. Football and keggers were not very high on my A-list...