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Jun. 15th, 2006 10:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kippurbirdMy mom and I were talking the other day. She as aspergers and so do I (of course). One of the things that happens with my mom, since she's a parent of two asperger's children is that she gets phone calls from parents of the newly diagnosed.
One time she was trying to help a mother, by saying that all was not lost for this mother's child, look at her children they've learned to drive and are sucessful at it. The mother then asks my mom, "Are you sure they're really autistic?"
... and I'm like, "No. I just decided to call myself autistic for shits and giggles."
Has that ever happened to you? You manage to get yourself to a nearly functional state where you can pass as normal and they say "... well maybe you're not autistic?"
Guuh.
On the other end of the spectrum of things. I just got my Masters in English Literature. Way back when I started Graduate school, my mom and I went to the Disabled Student Center (as we usually did when starting a new school) and talked to one of the councilors there. She said to my mother and I, "Are you sure this is something you want to do? It may be too hard for you, and we don't want to expcet too much from her. It might lead to failure." Or some other equally patronizing shit.
One of the reasons why I am where I am today is because my mom never put limits on what I could do. She never allowed me to settle for good enough. Because of her and this, I've learned to drive, live on my own, balence a check book, and gotten my Master's Degree. I'm holding down a part time job and even have a life of my own.
Sure, I've had some failures, but I've learned from them, things that I would never have learned if I hadn't been allowed to try.
It's just so frustrating sometimes. If you do too well you're OBVIOUSLY not autistic and if you don't do well, well that's okay, we can't expct too much from you anways.
One time she was trying to help a mother, by saying that all was not lost for this mother's child, look at her children they've learned to drive and are sucessful at it. The mother then asks my mom, "Are you sure they're really autistic?"
... and I'm like, "No. I just decided to call myself autistic for shits and giggles."
Has that ever happened to you? You manage to get yourself to a nearly functional state where you can pass as normal and they say "... well maybe you're not autistic?"
Guuh.
On the other end of the spectrum of things. I just got my Masters in English Literature. Way back when I started Graduate school, my mom and I went to the Disabled Student Center (as we usually did when starting a new school) and talked to one of the councilors there. She said to my mother and I, "Are you sure this is something you want to do? It may be too hard for you, and we don't want to expcet too much from her. It might lead to failure." Or some other equally patronizing shit.
One of the reasons why I am where I am today is because my mom never put limits on what I could do. She never allowed me to settle for good enough. Because of her and this, I've learned to drive, live on my own, balence a check book, and gotten my Master's Degree. I'm holding down a part time job and even have a life of my own.
Sure, I've had some failures, but I've learned from them, things that I would never have learned if I hadn't been allowed to try.
It's just so frustrating sometimes. If you do too well you're OBVIOUSLY not autistic and if you don't do well, well that's okay, we can't expct too much from you anways.
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Date: 2006-06-16 06:02 am (UTC)Seriously, though, it's annoying to deal with people clueless enough to take hard-won victories as evidence that there wasn't a victory in the first place. On the other hand, their mere presence is a measure of your success. Sorta.
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Date: 2006-06-29 04:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-06-30 01:49 am (UTC)WorldCon (LACon IV). Hope to see you there! :-)
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Date: 2006-06-30 02:13 am (UTC)I am So There!
Date: 2006-06-30 08:25 am (UTC)(Let me know what day-of-the-con/time it is whenever you know, and I will try my darnedest to be present.)