Made for the Wrong Planet?

Post Reply New Topic

As the name of this very website suggests, many aspies must feel like they were designed for a different planet. Does anyone else feel like they are completely maladept for living in this world--that their every effort to improve their condition is met with indifference or even derision? Does anyone else feel like they're wandering through life aimlessly without a single thing to look forward to when waking up in the morning? Does anyone else feel like they're wilting in a desert--lacking what they need to make life livable?

I'm starting to think two decades is just too long for some people.

Thats why I'm going to school to get a degree. So I can spend the rest of my life pursuing my greatest obsession.

I've had that feeling many times before. Two years ago when I had to take a year off of school becasue of grades and finanical reasons, I got very depressed becasue I didn't have anything in the short term to aim for.

Plus it was two years ago that I first realized the problems I was having was related to the fact that I had poor social skills, which didn't help matters any.

I know exactly what you're talking about. My differences always seem to make me stick out. Many people do not talk to me the same way or act the same way as they do everyone else or avoid me altogether and it bothers me. It's like I'm in a movie, where everyone else has a script and directions on how to act and I somehow didn't get any, so I am standing on the side, watching. I am sometimes content with this, but when I do want to join in I have no idea what I'm supposed to do or say and it wrecks the scene. Even though I gravitate toward being alone b/c being with people takes so much effort as my social skills are pretty bad, I am always happiest when I am with people, laughing and talking and having fun. Call me a traitor and I apologize for saying this, but sometimes I don't think I'm cut out for this (AS), that I was meant to be someone else. I never really liked myself but now I am really starting to hate myself. There are a lot of advantages but a lot of limitations too, so much that I really can't think of any careers that I'm suited for. The only things I'd want to do as a career are art or writing and I don't think I'm good enough at either. I have a lot of interests but none really stand above the others. So I am kind of aimlessly wandering, too. I used to think that all these challenges got thrown my way b/c I was destined for some great purpose, but it has become apparent that I am not really destined for anything, really. It's like I got on the wrong bus, and I don't know where it's taking me or whether to stay on or get off. I apologize for the depressing content of this post. They'll get more cheerful once I pay a visit to my happy place (aka the Dunkin Donuts/Baskin Robbins down the road) and once Kerry wins the election (knock on wood).

That is easier said than done for some of us with Asperger's.

I am in the same position as Scoots --- I feel out of place in normal everyday social setups, so am going to try my best to work in scientific research eventually, where I can obsess about my interests and hopefully look forward every day to working on things I like.

That's exactly what I'm doing, as well, Scoots. I am really afraid now, though. I'm a senior, so I'll be graduating this year. As a freelance illustrator, I will have to go to all kinds of interviews for jobs, and I'm not sure if I will be able to do this. I'm terrified that I will never make it because I am so socially inept.



I do feel like this at times. When I get into moods like that, I either do nothing, or spend all of my time online. Sometimes, I find mindless work (like sewing stuffed animals from patterns I've already designed) to be satisfying enough to make me feel like I've accomplished something.

Me!!

Yes and no.

Yes, if it were possible I would move to a another planet without hesitation. Right now the only viable destination is Mars, but if I lived in the 23rd century, then I would move to planet Vulcan. As all Star Trek fans know, inhabitants of that planet are all logical and rude, so I would fit much better than with Earthlings.

No, and I am now speaking seriously, I am not wandering through life aimlessly. I have a clear goal: to be accepted. So far I haven't been very successful. I tried hard to change myself so that people would like me and respect me. I didn't want to be a bad guy. But in the end, the only solution I have found was to isolate myself. If I don't interact with people then I won't upset them. This road is not good. I must find another to my goal, one that I would be able to follow while being myself. I haven't found it yet, but I don't lose hope.


What do you mean?

Me too!

I feel like I've dropped in from somewhere else, like earth is not my real home, and there was made a mistake I definally don't like the way society works.
I'm also pritty lost right now, everybody found their mission, but I didn't. I'm still trying to figure out, what kind job I should go for. I love animals, but I'm also afraid, that when I finally decide, it will not be what I expected, and I'll end up unhappy. I don't have alot of selfconfidence.
The social, and the angst of the unknown, are the worst obstacles.
I also have a sense of not knowing who I am.

Everytime I ever tried to do whatever my classmates said would get more people to stop making fun of me, I always seemed to do it wrong, because it didn't help. So I just try to be myself.

This is sensible; it's the constant quest to live up to the expectations of others that is the root cause of the unhappiness most Aspies experience. In this computer age there should be no shortage of outlets which do not involve other people; why for instance would an artist need to be interviewed; examples of the work on a home page would be more sensible!

There's no rational reason a small unrepresentative minority should be able to impose their desires on all the other facets of humanity, and we should be working collectively to change this. What use are interpersonal-skills to the usual function of a programmer, or research scientist? Companies are now assessing people for the work available according to how well they can gratify some ego-tripper during the only hour they are likely to interact with said person in any one month; clearly a ludicrous system of assessment?

The "Wrong Planet" view on life shocked me when I found this place. The reason was that, when I was five years old and obsessed with life in the 1800s (before I knew other planets existed) I turned to my mother and said, "Mummy, I think I was born in the wrong time. Other kids here aren't like me. Why?"

I never found out the answeras to why I'm like this, but as I grew up and my attention turned to space, I always thought I was an alien-baby. Many nights I went to bed praying that the mothership would come and get me, or at least vaporise me. Of course, the ridiculous imaginings of a ten-year-old never come true, but I still wish that today.

I think that's why my great obsession in life is the hunt for the cause of ASDs. I'm determined to find out why they exist. I want to know why I am from the wrong time or the wrong planet. I doubt that I can be "fixed", but I want to know precisely what I am.

True indeed, it took me four years to get my A.A.S. Where as most people were able to do in two years. Also keep in mind that I didn't start college until the fall of 2000, when I was almost 21.

Now that I've got the monkey off my back in here in Oshkosh this semester (Spanish, damn verbs....) I've been making a good run here and I hope to finish the semester with a 3.0 GPA.

Next semester though looks to be much tougher... Mainly becasue I have math to put up with.

I'll have to stop in at the disabilites office sometime and ask them about math tutors since math is my weakest subject.

Civet, if you find yourself worrying about getting a job once you graduate, maybe you could get one of your professors who teaches in the subject that your majoring in to give you a letter of recomendation. Those kinds of things always help out.

I've been making it a point to be as social as I can be with all my comm professors for just that reason.

I am majoring in illustration, so things work a bit differently. You're right though, it does help to have "connections" with other artists, who may be able to spread your name around. It's considered bad form to ask for someone to do that for you, however, because if they don't like your art, it puts them in an awkward situation.



What is "comm"?

I have a hard time approaching people (read: I don't do it). If I do stay in contact with my teachers, it's through email only. I'm not sure how willing they are to become friends via this medium, when I don't really speak to them in classes.

The one thing I do have going for me is that people who have professional attitudes and are responsible and dependable tend to do better in the field. I've always been this way, so atleast I don't have to worry about that.

I'm from a strange, but wonderful planet where the clock seems to be stuck in the year, 1967. It's called Austin Powers World. Not everybody from that planet looks like Austin, but I do. It's a more hip version of the Planet Earth and without the Veitnam War. There are Swingers having parties and dancing in the Streets. There are Hippies playing and relaxing in the Parks. Everybody on my home planet wears bright, viberant colours. The most convincing Swingers look like Austin Powers, Male or Female, but they are few and far between.

I was put on Earth, because Earthlings need a reminder of a more peaceful, gentler time.

Count yourselves lucky; when I was in boarding school I was put in a very small dormatory that only had room for three beds though I was the only person in it, I was the most trustworthy person in the school that could be put in a room on my own. I was also on Roacutane, the acne drug with severe side-effects.

Needless to say in the following months a gradually became crazy and if the staff had known what was going on in that secluded dorm, I would be in a loony-bin now; I believed I was the reincarnated spirit of a deceased alien deity.

Well, there was no other explaination for why the world was so weird to me!