Hello, everyone at WrongPlanet! I just registered yesterday, and I think it's about time I introduce myself.
I'm Gerard, a 23-year-old multimedia designer, currently living with my parents and based in Manila, the Philippines. I was not aware of my autism until my parents have divulged it to me when I was 21.
Basically, I was mute until age 5, and had behavior issues as a kid and during my high school days. I was said to be very withdrawn, and sometimes incomprehensible. I studied in an all-boys school from 1st to 4th grade, and placed second to third to the top in class. I was subject to a lot of false friends who take advantage of me and, in the end, insult me how ret*d I was. Naturally, I would become very violent when that happens, and still I end up the culprit. When I moved to 5th grade in another school, I had both girls and boys for classmates, and at that time, I was not really used to being with girls, and the fact that some of the boys were, in the least complex of terms, punks.
When I entered high school, my parents took me to a special school, but I was enrolled in the regular classes. I became a butt of jokes among my classmates, poking fun on how I act, calling me names such as "autistic," "'tard," "psycho," and all that nonsense. I was a victim to bullying, both physical and emotional. Although I had many achievements during that time, it was inevitable that I had to learn what an average teenager must learn apart from what is taught at the classroom, making it even harder for me.
It was only in college that my awareness on my being autistic gradually became what it is right now. What I've experienced in my first two years really taught me a very hard lesson: I had to grow up. I shifted to another course after I've had it with my classmates and my subjects, and it was when I've been exposed to reality: my classmates told me I may be in the autistic spectrum, and as confirmed by my counselor, I could be autistic. And that was when my parents confirmed I am indeed autistic, and I acquired it when I was around 2 years old.
I think that would be all for now, but as we go along, I hope you get to know more about me, and I hope I'm welcome here in WrongPlanet. Thanks.
09 Jul 2009, 11:38 am
