Early talents?

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I always wished I could sing or draw or something like that. I always thought I got the short end of the aspie stick. Although I can talk to people better than most aspies I have known in real life can, I am still by no means a social butterfly or anything of the sort. I'm smarter than the average person, but not exponentially so, and I cannot draw or sing well to save my life.

I've been told that I have a magnetic personality by a lot of people, and I'm wondering if I could use that to further spread awareness of AS. Lately, there has been much more about Asperger's in the media, with Heather on ANTM, articles, books (Look Me in the Eye etc.), and I feel like I may be able to help out with spreading positive awareness.

Or maybe not. I don't even know. *sigh*

I didn't learn to read until the end of kindergarten or first grade, mostly from lack of opportunity. But as I learnt the basics, I leaped ahead and didn't ever stop reading. By about second grade, I was reading at an eighth grade level. At fifth grade, it was college level, and then they didn't bother testing me anymore.

I also have very strong maths skills, and an innate physics ability. I guess the latter is rather lucky, since it would be unfortunate to be obsessed with physics but fail miserably at it.

I learnt to read at a very early age. My parents are proud of the fact that I was apparently the only child who, when I started school, knew the alphabet and how to write my name

I've always had an ability to play instuments that rely a lot on rhythm. When I was three years old, I could hold a basic drum rhythm on a snare drum.
I can play music by ear also. I have no ability to read music, I find it too hard. I play entirely by feeling.

I don`t remember having a special talent, expect, my teachers saying if I worked at it, I would be a reading champ. But, nowa days, I can usually pick things up easily... And which is one reason i`m learning how to play Piano now.

I used to always be one of the - if not the - most skilled in drawing among my peers if I can trust their words and my own sense of esthetics.

Excessive knowledge of dinosaurs doesn't count?

I drew a picture out of a book from memory almost perfectly.

I've always had an innate sense of math and the ability to do mental calculations rapidly and accurately. A few years ago, I was tutoring in chemistry and had the answer before I even knew how to do the problem. When I told my friend (who was listening in on the conversation I was having with the girl I was tutoring) that the answer should be somewhere around "17 degrees", she kind of freaked out. The actual answer was something like 16.9 degrees with some pretty nasty math involved. That's not the only time it's happened.

I also have a pretty innate physics and chemistry sense, though if I second guess myself, I usually end up being wrong (the second time around when I actually think about what I'm doing). I've also always been able to hyper-concentrate on a task if necessary.

In kindergarten I was working on a ninth-grade level in science. I also had an incredibly sharp memory at as early as seven months; I repeated sequences of movement that my mother had made when she read to me when I flipped through the book myself (I was mimicking, not reading, mind you).

I've had a talent for drawing for as far back as I can remember. When I was at school, I was known as that kid who was really good at drawing. Although I was aware I was good then, I figured that when I got to artschool that everyone there would have a comparable talent. However, my fellow artshool students were as impressed with my work as those at school.

Plus, that "different way of thinking" must come in to play because I seem to have no problem intuitively grasping complex and abstract concepts and representing them visually. My friends think I'm a genius but they'd probably say it was AS if they knew I had it.

lego =] i love making tall, interesting-looking buildings. and with other materials of course.

and also drawing. i had a look at the stuff mom kept back since 10 years ago, and compared em with my own 8 yr old sister. mine beats hers, yus =]

I was able to read above and beyond the rest of my grade, and probably still do. In fact, I'd guess it's college-level or above or something like that by now.

Also, I'm a pretty good gamer. Seriously: On my second play through Trauma Center, I beat the entire game in about 1.5-3 hours. Sweet time, huh?

Plus, I'm a decent compusician. Frankly, I'm still waiting to go to Office Depot; they've got Cakewalk Music Creator 4 and Sony ACID Music Studio there. I hope I can go soon.

Trauma center: Second Opinion for the Wii is the best ever. I love that game...
That time is insane... What level did you beat it on?

My parents were caught up in their own problems and as a result cared little about my education. I performed hopelessly in kindergarten, perhaps the worst in my grade (about 150 people). I could understand maths, but not numbers. I always thought they were a hopeless way of representing something so extraordinarily complex. I failed to learn anything in kindergarten, and was often sent to the "naughty corner". Kindergarten was torture for me. BUT, i was pro at mermaid barbies ocean adventures on the computer

then for some reason as I progressed to the 1st grade, I became the best reader, best speller and the 2nd best at maths in my grade. But I knew only 1 or 2 people i could call friends. weird.

I was a really early reader and was reading 6th grade-level books in preschool. They didn't believe I could read though and I remember having to hide my book and pretend to sleep but really be reading during naptime. I continued at that rate of reading ahead, and started writing poetry (on the walls, actually) when I was four. When I was put in Catholic school (and skipped third grade in the process) my academic success came to a screeching halt. I've since left but I get my education pretty much from my own sources. My grades are really crappy but I'm a good writer, or so I've been told.

Age 4--started working dad's MS-DOS system with onen monitor color-orange. Already reading, counting, despite how I didn't want to because of ADHD and the books sucked. I mean why look at giraffes and read dialog and people socializing when there are spaceship designs and mathematical drawings to delve into. IMO, this is another reason schools fail students shafted of their desired knowledge.

Age 8--sang backup with 20 other kids in a Celine Dion concert, now it's whoopdie-freakin-doo and over with.

Age 11--ahh, my first ream of GRAPH PAPER, THE ULTIMATE TALENT AND OBSESSION!! !! !! !! ! At least at that time, I filled the thing with several comics, elaborate security devices, Legend of Zelda fan-created dungeon maps, and many others. An object of pure innocence.

Age 15--
I invaded the real world, and my talent, my machines, takes hiatus into heavier coursework. Then I became an unprecedented thing, fairly social. I am reminded of the last quotes of War of the Worlds spoken by Morgan Freeman in the movie. It made sense in my head, anyway:

Commentary: [voiceover] The Martians had no resistance to the bacteria in our atmosphere to which we have long since become immune. Once they had breathed our air, germs, which no longer affect us, began to kill them. The end came swiftly. All over the world, their machines began to stop and fall. After all that men could do had failed, the Martians were destroyed and humanity was saved by the littlest things, which God, in His wisdom, had put upon this Earth.

Source: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046534/quotes