This is one of my favorite pictures because I came up with the printed text, and drew the puzzle piece myself because I felt like it should be there. It really speaks to my journey to be here. My girlfriend took the picture for a project she was doing for nursing. She did a wonderful job, and I was lucky enough to be part of her hard work, brilliance, and compassion.
Over time, I'm going to share what being autistic is, and has been like for me all my life, and speak about what it's like moving forward now that I know what it is. I am autistic, and I'm speaking. Autism Speaks does not speak for me. I may not always be the brightest bunny in the box, but at least I'm not the one in the back corner chewing off my legs. I'm not going to say I'm the one in the front doing calculus on the wall either.
I'm somewhere in the middle looking lost and confused. Lost and confused not because I don't know where I am, I do know, I'm on an alien planet and while the locals use all the same words, it often seems like we're speaking a different language. Thus my confusion and feeling of being lost. It is possible to know exactly where you are in time and space and yet have no idea where you are all at once. But I'll get to that, eventually. For the moment, I'll say hi, and remind that Autism Speaks does not speak for me. After all, they are allistic/neurotypicals who appear to be more interested in money and getting as much of it as they can without really spending any off it on people who are living with Autism. People like me.
