Why is it/was it so hard being a teenager with AS?

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I've been told that I act and behave like a 13 year old.

I feel like a 13 year old with the intelligence of a 16 year old who is trapped in a 16 year old's body.

I don't know what type of "trapped" it is.

That right there.

Heh, I was once told by someone close to me I act "either like an 8 year old or an 80 year old" when I was around 18/19.

Guess it's my two side, the first being how I appear when I let my inner social/emotional self out, and the latter how I can become when I repress myself to be able to cope as best I can by staying mostly quiet and as modest and rational as I can.

I'll take "boring and old" over "ret*d and naive" any day (unfortunately), at least among the wider public.

I went to a mainstream school, but was in a form of special ed.. I had an IEP, and in my last year of high school, an Educational Assistant that went with me to every class because my school was worried I'd hurt myself if I wasn't constantly watched. But it was still difficult. My first high school I went to I had two friends. My second I had one friend that I'd made in middle school, and she helped me meet the rest of her friends, and in the last high school I went to I was living in a mental health treatment facility and had no friends in school, just one from the treatment facility that went to another school. I had a lot of problems academically and socially. I was diagnosed with Nonverbal Learning Disorder, a disorder similar to Asperger's, during high school... I am now undergoing testing for ASD, as the diagnosis of NLD is poorly recognized and gets little services and help

If I had a dollar for every time I was labeled "shy', "quiet", "not living up to expectations" I would be able to fund an adult research and services organization that rivals Autism Speaks in size. I would also be able to fund an effective anti Autism Speaks ad campaign