Hello! I think this is the right planet, right?

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Hello, my name's Matt. Not too terribly good at doing this but I suppose I should start off saying something about myself?

Well, I'm nearly 19 year old college student and I'm in the process of being diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder. I have an obsession with dinosaurs ever since I came out of the womb. I'm also a huge fan of Transformers and Daikaiju (Japanese for giant monsters, like Godzilla) and follow them religiously. I love to draw (Dinosaurs mainly) and I have a pet lizard who I love and care for every day. I'm an atheist and I love debating religious and scientific topics. In terms of my political views, I guess I'm a mix of Libertarian and Liberal. I'm very intelligent (Atleast I and everyone else thinks so) and I have a great sense of humor that ranges from dry wit to morbid to just incredibly "WTF" and I can make most people laugh and cheer them up. I have a job as a cashier at Walgreens (2 1/2 years now) which is a pain at times, but it's helped me cope with my autism by interacting with people.

Overall I think I'm a great friend to have, I value the friendships I have with my friends and everything they do for me. I love them like family. I'm kind and I'm forgiving, always putting others before myself and I always try to help out whenever I can.


A little bit about my autistic background
As a child, I had trouble making friends and I was really shy. From Kindergarten to fifth grade, it was awful. I was always bullied and alot of the kids in my class isolated me. I rarely talked and my grades would fluctuate from A's to F's constantly. If I got in trouble, it was for the wrong reason and I'd have what I realize now are autistic meltdowns. My school sucked and not one of the teachers or the school guidance counselor thought that maybe my behavior was the result of my brain being very different than the other kids. Instead, the Teacher-Aids would make comments about me how I was a trouble maker and that I'd probably grow up to be a sociopath or in jail. The school did nothing about it because they had Tenure there or some crap, and the bullying never stopped no matter what.

Middle school was not much better. Still struggled with grades and making friends. The bullying never escalated to physical confrontations thankfully. I managed to have maybe two or three friends I considered close.
As I grew older and when I reached High School, I then began to realize I was alot different than other kids and couldn't understand why so I really put alot of effort into learning on my own how to act normally (Or, rather, neurotypical). It was successful and it was a failure at the same time.

It was only into my senior year when I made a friend online that I learned about Asperger's. He taught me all about it and his early childhood pretty much paralleled mine, except he was diagnosed earlier and receive alot of special help, and even though we're the same age he's made more than twice the progress I ever did. So I took it up with my doctor and my parents. They all agreed when I told them that I might actually have it. So I'm seeing a psychologist who has alot of expertise on this subject and I'm undergoing a diagnosis. I'd be very shocked if I don't actually have it. Even other aspies I've made friends with agree with me and we all go through the same situations every day.


So if you've read all of that, thank you so much I'm very glad to be here and hope to find the help I'm looking for with some personal issues I'm dealing with at the moment, as well as trying to help those like me, and hopefully make some new friends as well.

Welcome to wrongplanet Matt

Bullying sucks, but at least you have your friendships to fall back with, right?

Welcome to Wrong Planet!

Welkome to WP

Mick

Thanks for the welcomes ^_^ I think I'll fit in here just nicely. By the way, how do I change my user title above my avatar? When I click "Edit Custom Rank" it just takes me to my avatar to change it.

Hello !