Aspies For Freedom

Autism no barrier
'Try hard' is her motto for sports, scouting, school
By Jane Erikson
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 03.31.2007
  
When Jennifer Gust was 3 years old, doctors told her parents why she had never spoken a word.
Jennifer was autistic, they said. She would never learn more than 200 words or be anything close to normal.
Well, they were wrong.
Yes, Jennifer is autistic. But she is also an amazing achiever, a young woman who refuses to be held back by her condition, who sees each day as a new opportunity to do good for herself and others.
Last fall, she was named to the National Honor Society, becoming the first special education student at Marana High School to win that honor.
Earlier this month, she was given a Gold Award for outstanding community service and leadership, Girl Scouts' highest honor.
And last weekend, the girl who was never supposed to perform well mentally or physically was a top finisher in the Special Olympics competitions held at Sunnyside High School. She got a silver medal in the 100-meter relay, a bronze in shot put and placed fourth in the 200-meter run.
Jennifer, a sociable 19-year-old high school senior, has a straightforward approach to life.
"Try hard," she says. "You should always try everything you want to do, and you should try your best."
And if you fail?
"Don't give up. Try again."
Jennifer got off to a rough start. She didn't talk until she was 6 and she was rigid in her behavior, refusing to eat all but certain foods, protesting when asked to do anything outside her usual routine.
But around 6 or 7, she began demonstrating an amazing ability to instantly link any date to the day of the week in which it will occur this year or in other years, past or future.
In an interview this week, for example, she was asked what day of the week Sept. 28 fell in 1999. She thought for a moment and correctly answered, "Tuesday."
Also when she was 6, she became a Brownie Girl Scout, beginning a relationship with scouting that she says will be lifelong.
"I got to learn a lot of stuff, and it helped me get out and meet new people and helped me express myself," Jennifer says.
Last year, she and sister Girl Scout Rebecca Claasen, 18, a senior at Mountain View High School, teamed up on the community service project that won them both a Gold Award.
They visited different nonprofits and chose the recently opened Tucson Alliance for Autism center, 1002 N. Country Club Road, as one that could use their help. A brightly painted mural on the center's exterior, showing children putting together the pieces of a huge puzzle, is the result.
Rebecca designed the mural, while Jennifer visited paint and home-improvement stores to get donations of paints, rollers and other supplies. They worked through last summer carefully painting the mural under the guidance of University of Arizona art professor Alfred Quiroz.
The mural was the clincher for the Gold Award.
Another transforming experience has been Jennifer's two years with the Aurora Foundation, which helps disabled young women develop self- esteem, volunteer skills and leadership abilities. For two years, Jennifer has been a model in the foundation's DisABLED Divaz fashion show.
"The transformation of this young girl into a young woman with the social skills and the desire to be outgoing is just nothing short of amazing," said Stephanie Parker, Aurora Foundation president and founder. "We have learned so much about how better to work with young women and girls because of Jennifer's involvement with us.
"I believe she will achieve her goals and she will be a self-supporting adult and a contributing member of this community. She has all that it takes to do that. She has acquired the social skills and the comfort level to deal with other people. She's comfortable with taking risks."
Parker connected Jennifer to another youth leadership program offered by the Volunteer Center of Southern Arizona. Jennifer's after-school activities now include helping interview the staff of six social service agencies that hope to get a share of a $20,000 fund the Volunteer Center has to give.
Suzanne Gust, Jennifer's mother, feels her daughter has been fortunate to encounter so many people in her life who cared about her and helped her grow.
"I also see how hard she works," Gust said. "Other kids wouldn't put forth the effort she does. I'm very proud of her. She's the light of my life. She's an amazing kid — and she's a wonderful young woman now."
● Contact reporter Jane Erikson at 573-4118 or jerikson@azstarnet.com.

Yet another "super-Autie". I'm glad for her--she's obviously happy. But I don't like the implication that I need to be an "inspiration" to other people just 'cause I'm autistic. What ever happened to living your own life, the way you want to live it, just like anybody else?

I'm glad she's learned social skills. That's good for anybody with autism to know. But I hope she'll learn that it's OK to be alone, OK to relax on your own, OK not to be "normal" and "outgoing" all the time. All this "You have to be social, you have to 'overcome' your autism" could really be damaging to her self-esteem, if she takes it to heart.

the way autism was talked about here, it was just impariments that prevented her from doing stuff.  i wish that sterotype would go away fast.  autism is netural, with it's own set of strenghts and weaknesses.  the autistic strenghts aren't really useful according to nt's, but apparently, they turned it into nothing but evil.  i don't call it overcoming autism, it's called, using autism to your advantage, aka, playing your strengths.

and about soicalibity, it's like a two way personality for me at some times, sometimes i just want to talk all day long and blah blah blah, but some days, i don't want to talk at all, i want my own space to think, etc.  i like doing things on my own, but sometimes, i like to do things with friends.  depends on the mood and a bunch of other stuff.  point is i can do both.

but what i don't want is these people being shown as the only capable autistics out there.  this is one reason i refuse to have this type of story written about me like this.  it would turn into a curebie fest and make me and everyone that knows me look bad.  my life isn't your pity party.  if you want a pity party, read fiction.

What really gets me is how they talked about some of the strengths she has because of her autism, but purposefully ignore the fact that they are from her autism and say they are because she has "overcome" it!

Callista, I have similar reservations to yours. It is wonderful to see somebody who is doing so much as this young lady but what about those of us who are more ordinary but fight our own small battles from day to day?

I have come across some people who say "if somebody like them can do it, why can't you?". The answer is "we are all different - we all have different strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and personality types". Few are called to greatness.

Ask them why they haven't won a Nobel Prize or an olympic medal.

Or why they don't have billions of dollars.
NTs are not all succesfull themselves, it is ridiculous for them to see one of us succeed and then assume we all can & will.

My mother always had the goal for me to be "outgoing".  I did not.  I tried to make her happy.  Then one day I found out that it was not "bad" to be an introvert.

Of course not. There is a place for introverts and extroverts both and it would be a boring place if everybody were the same.