Proud to be an aspie/autist?

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Being proud of something I have not accomplished myself seems inane. It's like being proud of children or more accurately, children you haven't begat. I only feel pride when I fulfill my expectations for myself, it doesn't matter what other people say. They often say I get high enough grades but it's never high enough. For mathematics and physics/chemistry at least. Pride and shame are very weird feelings, it's hard to feel them.

Like many people here, I find it both absurd and supercillious to be proud of something that was not wrought with my own hands. For that matter, I seldom feel any pride or even a great sense of accomplishment in succeeding at things that seemingly fell into my lap, or in completing banal tasks that were merely expected of me. That being said, I certainly do identify with neurotype. I enjoy the perspective that it has given me and am thankful that I have been able to experience life this intensely and in this much detail, and to have seldom felt the need to seek the aprobation of others. I am very comfortable with who I am and like the person whom I have become. I am thankful for many of the pains and difficulties that I experienced along the way (often due to AS) as they ultimately helped me to build character. No, I am not proud, but it is something that I embrace as an essential part of who I am and whom I will become.

privately i am proud because i enjoy the way i think. but i act to others like i don't like it because they would not understand me enjoying being like this i don't think.

I someone offered me a zillion dollars to be "cured", I'd tell them to go jump in a lake.

If I was offered that amount of money..... I would actually spend it on something else of my own interest but to be cured.... No thanks, I think i'm better off being who i'am and being autistic is who i'am and nothing can change that.

I'm betting this will turn into another 'Aspies are superior to NTs' thread.

I didn't create this thread to make people turn against NT... But at the time of creating this thread... I was curious of what I would if any member was proud of being who they are... a huge majority apparently enjoys being who they are which again i was amazed.

NT's are welcome to post here.

No i didnt mean you. There are some people on here that would manage to turn that around though.

Yea, it makes sense... I have however seen a few of them before, but it does unfortunelately happen quite alot.
It would most like because of the experience they have been through with a NT which happens to alot of us here.. Thats possibly what it is aswell why it sometimes can turn out like that?

Not from me; I only engage in I am superior to ALL people threads--Aspie and NT alike!

Same, with me as I am I could make that much money myself, anyway

Yes, definitely.

Yeah if I had a zillion dollars.. I create all sorts of product lines and stuff but what I meant was that if someone said I could have a zillion dollars but I could only have it if I would be cured I would tell them to jump in a lake.

I wrote a post a few days ago discussing the two types of pride---good and bad. In my opinion I see nothing wrong with having the good kind of pride with Asperger's/autism---I admit to having this kind of pride with my Asperger's. Some say they don't understand how you can have pride with something you didn't earn since you are born with it. Does that mean you can't have pride in yourself because you were born as you? I believe it is fine to have pride in Asperger's/autism. But please notice I am stating this as my opinion, and not that it should be other's opinions. I am not going to argue against those who state they don't have pride in their Asperger's/autism---again that is opinion. I just want everyone to understand that we all have our own opinions on this pride thing, and we can't expect others to believe the way each of us do. This is diveristy---and that is a beautiful thing. As I expect those who do not believe the way I do to respect my views, I must also respect those whose views are different than mine.

Now for my thought on this today. For those who say you shouldn't have pride in Asperger's/autism because it is something we are born with and didn't earn---I have a thought. Are there things you have earned because of Asperger's/autism? My musical abilities have come as a result of Asperger's---I am an autistic musical savant (not one of those Rain Man type of savants, but the type that is said to occur in 10% of those of us with autism). I have learned to play multiple instruments because of this. Our abilities can bring us pride (the good type) in my opinion. Look at the road in life that you have travelled with Asperger's/autism. Are there things you have done that you are proud of? Did Asperger's/autism help you accomplish these things?

Naturally there will be people who have not had the best life with their Asperger's/autism, and that might surely lead to a lack of pride. I understand that. And there are those who have had lives that have been generally happy where they might claim to have pride. My life has been filled with a lot of luck amongst my challenges. Had I not had this luck, I have no idea how I would feel today. Life is a funny journey. The road can change abruptly. And where one minute in life I am posting on my wonderful world of autism thread, another minute I am in The Haven pleading for help. That is life. That is Asperger's/autism. That is the NT world too. We as autistics are not alone in life's unpredictablility. We must support each other and try to understand each other.

At this point in life...I have pride in my Asperger's/autism. It defines me. It is me. And like some recent posts, I wouldn't take a zillion dollars to get rid of my Asperger's/autism. Take it away, and you have stripped away my being. Well...thank you for reading...and this is my opinion---I hope you respect it.

Is that where my ability to play several instruments came from? Because I have Asperger's? If that's the case, then I wouldn't give it up for anything.

I have known a lot of musicians who have to try really, really hard to play decently, and I've never met anybody who could be famous for it. I seem to have the gift of melody, and it just comes out of my fingertips. Whenever I play the piano, I draw an audience. It's been that way since I was a little kid. I'll find a piano somewhere, sit down and start playing, get lost in my own little world of music and when I stop, there is applause. I can't tell you how many times it's happened. I wandered into a dark, empty auditorium once, and sat down at the piano and played for about half an hour. When I stopped, it sounded like over a hundred people had come in while I was playing (I hadn't noticed or heard them - they must have been really quiet), and they were giving me a standing ovation! And I was just doodling, you know. Playing whatever came into my head, not giving a performance.

I recently bought a Korg M50 keyboard workstation, and my wife has said that some of the stuff I play gives her goosebumps. She has two degrees in music. I have Grade 2 of the John Thompson Piano Method.

If my Asperger's is responsible for those kinds of events happening in my life, then yeah, that makes me proud. I don't have the kind that impairs my ability to reason or function or participate in the world. I don't stim, or however you call that action. I'm not too great in the social arena, and I can't do math, and I don't drive, and I can't build or fix anything, I'm well-written though poorly-spoken, but I can play like a mother******. It's what keeps me going, because there's more music in my head that hasn't come out yet, and I want to hear it.

Thanks for explaining it that way, glider18.