I'm Andrew, but my friends and family call me Aki.
I was born in Adelaide, Australia and I was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome in 1995 when I was eleven-years-old. I've been living in Melbourne for the past five years.
I've travelled a lot over the years with my family, particularly my mum who I call 'Okasan' (Japanese for mother), and have been to many countries in America, Europe and Asia, as well as many parts of Australia. Between 2001 and 2004, Okasan and me lived in the UK as volunteers in a community for people with special needs and mental illnesses.
Like many kids, I loved dinosaurs for most of my childhood until I eventually grew out them and found other interests. The list of interests and hobbies is very long but here is a compacted list:
Anime and manga, model making, drawing, creative writing, computer games, military, history, science and technology (all forms, including biology, astrology, genetics, robotics, etc, etc), politics and environmental issues, myths and legends, spirituality and religion and a few others too.
I rarely watch Western T.V. and movies, but there are a few that I really like: Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Transformers, Pirates of the Caribbean, Mad Max and other post-apocalyptic films, Thunderstone (Australian post-apocalyptic show from the late '90s), and numerous others. As mentioned, I mainly like anime and manga, but I also have a personal library of non-fiction books.
At the moment I'm currently studying part-time Professional Writing and Editing at NMIT and working part-time at my brother's tabletop wargame shop.
A couple of friends who I met back in a social group for Autistic children in Adelaide (called Pre-Alpha, which was organised and sponsered by the Austism Association ... not sure what it's called now) I keep in contact with, but I have yet to find a good Melbourne-based Autism organisation.
When I was younger, I never understood why I was different until I was diagnosed. After that, I accepted Asperger's for many years, but still wasn't happy with my life. (It's hard to explain the full details, but the number of times I considered of committing suicide since I was five-years-old should give an idea.) When I returned to Australia from the UK in late 2004, I rejected the life of an aspie (despite the objections from my friends in Adelaide), and have since found it difficult to come to grips with it.
Although Aspeger's is part of who I am as an individual, at the same time I hate it because I feel restricted in areas of my life, particularly socialising (which is improving gradually). I had my first relationship with a female late last year, but it ended after two months because I had no idea what to do and was unable to handle it.
Sorry for the rambling. I guess five years of dormancy came flooding all at once.
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If it's broke, fix it. If it ain't broke, kustomise it!
13 Jul 2009, 8:23 am
