Personal Narrative: My Puzzle My Story

Autism is a disorder that I seem to hear more about every day. I hear about it on the television news, in news articles online, and even personal blogs that I read. It seems that everyone has some knowledge of autism and most people know someone personally that it affects. As far as my own personal knowledge and experience of the disorder, I learned it at camp. I have volunteered many years for at Camp Tik-A-Witha. This camp provides a week long session for children with special needs (mental and physical handicaps) called Elizabeth Gwin Session. While volunteering at camp, I have seen children with blindness, Cerebral Palsy, Down syndrome, and autism.

Autism can be a beautiful diagnosis to have, it allows individuals to see, hear, and feel things that most people do not. I have had the pleasure of becoming friends with many people who have been diagnosed with different levels of autism and they are some of the most interesting, caring, and intelligent people who I have encountered. So many people in the world do not have personal experience or knowledge of this diagnosis. Individuals

I myself have grown up with someone who has Autism. There are definitely some difficulties especially in the beginning, but once you get to know them the are just like anybody else.

Hi iam Edgardo Flores i was born in casa grande, az not that far away from our state capital,Phoenix, Az.theres nothing better to do in a hot summer than going out with the friends to a lake and have a blast riding jet skis boats and my favorite, swimming!My activites of the day are shooting,riding horses,and my favorite one is quad riding.Thats right! ive been doing these fun exciting hobbies since i was 9 years old.pretty young huh?

Al, Alde, de, shon, deshon, and Al’Deshon my name takes on many forms. Kind of like my writing in a sense. I have never been a strong writing also being the reason, I took this class first semester I think. If I get it out of the way maybe I’ll have an easier chance of reaching the finish line happening to be graduation.

“Work to view my autism as a different ability rather than a disability. Look past what you may see as limitations and see the gifts autism has given me…Be my advocate, be my friend, and we’ll see just how far we can go” –Ellen Botbohm, author of Ten Things Every Child with Autism Wishes You Knew.

Thinking about our first writing assignment, one of the suggestions focuses on the comparison of writing to running, it became apparent to me that this is something I would enjoy writing about. I am a long time running advocate, competing in marathons, and a neophyte writing student, and I find many similarities in both endeavors.

Autism has been a big part of life since I was born. My two brothers were diagnosed with some form of Autism, but even though they were diagnosed with the same condition, the way Autism affects them varies. For some kids with Autism, they are able to hide their condition better than other kids. Some kids might also need more help than others. This is why there are special classrooms just for kids with any disability where they are not able to function in a “normal” classroom, but even though people with Autism are different, we all are different.

There are a lot of people who live with autism, and by the time they are adults, are able to take care of themselves. “My autism is the reason I’m in college and successful. It’s the reason I’m in math and science. It’s the reason I care,” (Jacob Barnett). Jacob is a math and physics prodigy, and he lives with autism. All over the internet there are stories about people with autism living normal, or even extraordinary lives. People who work with them learn to accept their quirks and eventually realize that they can function just as well as anyone else. This is one example of someone who learned how to overcome the issues that autism presents, and go on to be something really special.

I was diagnosed with Autism when I was 2 years old and it has affected my entire life more than anything else I have experienced. It has impacted the way I socialize and communicate with people, the way I think and understand the world,and it also affected my speech and development when I was younger. Autism also affects the way other people see me and I’m often misunderstood. I don’t remember everything about my life at that time, but I do know that I struggled a lot to get to where I am today. I’m also aware that it will impact my future and force me to work harder than my peers. Even though I have Autism, I will always know that it doesn’t define who I am and that I will improve no matter what.

I have a love-hate relationship with writing. I can write well according to some of my peers; though this could just be from the fact that I seem like the quiet, studious, type who has spent most of her time with the straight "A" nerds who went on to top tier schools such as Stanford. Sometimes I am not too sure of my own writing abilities. On most essays, I get a little bit above average grades and every once in a while I get a few more points than usual. I have noticed that my writing is better when I have to write about a topic I am passionate or know a lot about. The more I have to work with the better. Otherwise, my writing seems poor, forced, and somewhat bland. It usually follows a poor or basic thesis statement and lazy paragraphs. I believe motivation helps me to write better,

One of the biggest misunderstanding in today's day is that people judge without knowing what's going on. There are many children in this world that have problems with communicating that makes them seem “abnormal”. Autism is a disease that is developed during the first three years of life in a child. People have stereotypes on autism such as can't do things on their own, autism is an excuse for bad behavior, just being lazy.

Throughout my life, I have always been taught to be respectful and grateful. My mother instilled in me these two values at a young age and emphasized on its significance. This helped me realize that, in this world, there are many people who undergo unbearable adversities, far worse, traumatic, and painful than I do. This awakening encouraged me to be more grateful for my experiences. As a child, I was cognizant of people with mental disorders but there had always been that barrier that prevented me from approaching and getting to know them better until I met my best friend’s brother in high school. It was as if a new door opened up to my sense of identity and self-awareness in this world. Fortunately, as years passed by, my best friend’s brother and I grew close. I realized that autistic people were people just like us who needed to be cared for and loved compassionately just like every human being. This past year, I started working for a company that shelters people diagnosed of Autism Spectrum Disorder, which allowed me to firsthand witness what was so new to me, and most important to learn about the disorder.

Many people enjoy and have fun writing, but then again, many people dislike having to write, including me. Writing has always been something I was never really interested on for many reasons.

The best writing I’ve ever produced is from last semester I wrote a paper for Sociology on how the movie “Selma” related to what we were learning in class. This is the best writing I’ve produced because I thought long and hard about what I was going to write and ended up making a 100 on the paper which I was very excited about. Another reason is that I’m not particularly exceptional at writing I struggle with what words to use and how to really make my writing mean something to the person reading it, and my teacher left me a comment saying how I had thought outside the box and done very well. When I’m writing, my only fear is that I could be using better words so that’s why after I write a paper I always like to continuously edit it until I’m satisfied. Challenges for me are thinking of what to write I guess you could say that I get writers block and I must take breaks and really think about what I want my paper to convey, but once I get an idea usually I’m and can come up with more ideas it’s just really that first few sentences in a paragraph that get me.