tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3060938350791936355.post9145265265793533975..comments2023-08-26T06:51:25.173-07:00Comments on Jumping Out of the Fishbowl - An Autistic Life: A Spectrum of Highs and Lows in College, The Rocky StartZoeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01926780296427819124noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3060938350791936355.post-55557558799893072402015-07-04T11:04:40.381-07:002015-07-04T11:04:40.381-07:00You make a good point that more college-bound teen...You make a good point that more college-bound teens on the spectrum need to know: namely, that their choice of a college destination needs to take into account their own particular strengths and limitations. Like you, I had a rough transition to college as an autistic, though it sounds like you had more support in getting through it than I did. I grew up in the 80's and attended college in the early 90's, when most people had never even heard of Asperger’s. Though I fit the profile of an Aspie largely to a tee and was dysfunctional in a number of ways in high school, nobody showed much concern about the latter fact or tried to guide me since, back then, you were considered “OK” if you were earning high grades in school (and I was ranked at the top of my high school class). Plus, my family was, as a whole, even more dysfunctional than I, and so they weren’t much of a constructive or guiding influence either. At any rate, I chose a university three states away since I wanted to move far away from home, and I won a merit scholarship to go there. The problem was that, in terms of social ability and executive function, I just wasn’t ready to be living mostly “on my own”, in a dorm with roommates whom I didn’t know and didn’t really “get” how to interact with, etc. The result was that I did a lot of things to turn other people off to me, I put myself in a number of bad situations without realizing it, and I ended up with a very deep “frantic loneliness”. I survived there and got my degree, but I was also quite “battered” in a number of ways. Now, as a high school teacher in California, I have become something of a mentor to our students on the spectrum (my students know I’m autistic, as I “came out” to them and to my administration), and I try to guide them a bit towards college and life choices that take into account their autism, so that they don’t just blindly sign on with the “highest-ranking” college that they get into, which is what their counselors tend to advise. Sometimes, staying in town and going to Fresno State is better than going to UC-Berkeley if one simply isn’t ready yet for moving to the Bay Area, living on one’s own right away, etc. The advantage that these kids have is that they know they’re autistic. I didn’t know that about myself until I was well into adulthood, with autistic children of my own through whom I learned about myself. Petrovichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02911252777327060768noreply@blogger.com