So today was a pretty dull day. I had to say good-bye to Lauren sadly, who had come over as I believe I said in my previous post. I also had to work with Chris again, and it was relatively quick, we watched Dreamgirls and then followed it up by watching Night at the Museum.
When I got home, my parents and I headed and saw Date Night. It was an absolutely hilarious movie, and I would definitely recommend anyone who likes comedy to see it. It isn't a romantic comedy really as you'd think from the title, it's basically pure comedy and Steve Carrell and Tina Fey are such an amazing comedic pair. So plain and simple: GO SEE THIS MOVIE! If I am wrong, then I truly apologize.
Autism...autism...I guess only thing that really happened was that I wasn't concise about what I was trying to talk about to do with council. Some things have arisen and I just am unsure what to do...And if any council members are reading this please don't jump to conclusions.
Hope everyone's week is going well. My day was quite busy actually since I was moving my stuff out of my friend's place as obviously I had moved some stuff in there. I just didn't realize though how much I had accumulated. Go figure :P. So after that was all done it was time to hang out with Lauren which took a while since she had to get ready. But the benefit was I got to drive in London for the first time on my own. It was a bit frightening but at the same time invigorating knowing that I was driving in London on my own.
It's quite funny that I did so well (obviously since I'm back in St. Thomas :P) seeing as how back when I drove in London in Grade 11, I wound up veering off when trying to switch a lane and wound up on the curb, now of course at the time it was frustrating. But when I look back now, to me it's just a laugh riot :P.
When we did get back to St. Thomas we headed to dinner at Boston Pizza, picked up Avatar and the video game Scene It, and then headed home to watch/play both. We also watched Grease (which is what we're actually doing now).
Autism-wise, I think the only thing that happened was....I think I just got frustrated over stuff to do with moving because of my distaste and lack of muscle strength. I didn't have a spaz attack but I did kind of get frustrated and raised my voice at my mom. I know, I know, a lot of people hate moving, but I'm sure not EVERYONE has spaz attacks or raises their voices over nothing. But maybe I'm wrong and it wasn't autism lol. Anyway, Night All!
So today was my first day of summer vacation and it was WONDERFUL. I slept till 3PM to start off with which was wonderful. I then got up and took my writings in for the Creative Writing course. I hung out with Lauren for a little bit in the library as well, though I don't know how she is able to get through these exams. If I still had them I'd probably go insane. I then just headed home, cleaned up around the house, and watched television.
My autism details for today are actually instead going to look into the past in one of the writings I submitted. So here it is:
"My life has been full of twists and turns, one that has never taken me the same way twice. I was born as a healthy child but that changed a short time later when I started becoming ill frequently, putting me in and out of the hospital consistently. By the time I was four, I had been in the hospital at least eight times. It was at this same time that I came down with rheumatic fever, a condition that probably changed my life forever.
Following the rheumatic fever, I changed socially. When I was once a socially active chatterbox, I withdrew into my own world, and while I did in some ways keep that bubbly baby boy that I was, I still was different. It wasn’t until I reached the end Grade 3 that my life changed around and returned to how it once was. I made several friends, and it was as though all those who one might consider “popular” had finally deemed me as someone to become friends with.
It was Grade 4 where I truly started reaching my stride and discovering the person I really was. That year they held a talent show for all of us and at the beginning of the year, my new friends and I were planning on performing a dance and singing number to the Backstreet Boys’ “Backstreet’s Back” for the talent show. As the year went on however, more and more of my friends dropped out of doing the performance, until it wound up only me as the remaining member who wanted to perform. I showed my confidence that year and performed on my own in front of the entire school and got a standing ovation both because of the guts I had to perform on my own but also because apparently I actually had the talent to put on a great show.
Just from reading you can probably tell that performing breaks me out of the shell that developed when I was younger. What developed, to be clear, was Asperger’s Syndrome, a form of autism that should have inhibited my social skills. While it did in some ways inhibit my skills at knowing what is and isn’t socially appropriate to talk about, at the same time I still do great at socializing. It’s actually through performing that I have been able to learn how to best present myself and also make friends with people of the same interests. This doesn’t mean that I haven’t had difficulties though when it came to socializing. In high school it was harder to be involved in what I was skilled at and that’s where the hardest part of my life happened.
At the beginning of high school, it wasn’t that difficult to make friends, nor was it difficult for me to continue the friendships I had with the friends I already had. But as the years went by, I started finding certain people abandoning me because as I later found out, I said the wrong things to them, talked to them in the wrong tone without realizing it, and also getting into their personal spaces. It wasn’t until later, when someone decided to make a group of people who “hated” me, that I learned who my true friends were who didn’t judge me for how I acted, and those who just pretended to be my friends. I will admit, it was difficult though for me to find this out, and of course it was an eye-opener. But to tell the truth, I’m glad I found out none the less so I knew who to stay with and who to not listen to.
I think the other problem I’ve constantly had in my life is while I have many friends, and make friends easily, I still feel as though I’m an outcast. I try for many things over and over again, Students Council, the Big Purple Couch, and other things and yet I don’t get them no matter how many times I try. I think the main reason for this is simply because I am not the type of person who wants to party all the time like those who are voting for the people who get the positions. I don’t go out to the party events everyone goes to because that is not who I am. I am a people person, but at the same time I’m a people person when it comes to those of my own interests which is in the arts and performance.
So this is my life in a nutshell and I have to say it’s sometimes more than I can handle, but I still do it because I know that there’s something in store for me in the future. I truly believe that my Asperger’s will help me in the future because I see the world in a different light. I better understand what people with disabilities go through, and while they may not be the same as what I have, but I still understand the astigmatism people experience just because they are different."
So boring day today but the best part of it is that I'm finally done my third year of University and I still can't believe it's done. I woke up today just thinking, 'in less than eight hours I'm going to be done third year', and just finding it unbelievable. Time has gone extremely first, I remember starting my first speech class ages ago, and now not only is that class over but so is everything else.
How was the exam? It was interesting. It was difficult but at the same time was not completely impossible. I think I at least did fairly well and I definitely did higher than just "a pass" (50%). I think I definitely got higher than that thankfully.
I then got to see Glee, the Madonna episode, which was absolutely the best episode of the series EVER. I don't think ANYTHING will ever live up to it. :D
Autism-wise, I think you can see where it happened. Me constantly going over in my head fifty times over that I can't believe school is over XD.
So I really need to stop going to bed so late at night because it is just draining every bit of energy I have. But for now, exams are almost over. Only one more tomorrow and then I can enjoy my summer thankfully.
I had a relatively enjoyable day today. I went to a party for my brother's baseball team and got to see my nephew again. What was also interesting though was that Chris and his family was there too so that was a surprise.
Autism-wise, not much happened except that I wound up going on and on about the writings I'm doing to get into the Creative Writing class at my school. They only take 20 students and no more than that, based on their work, so here's hoping I get in.
This is for yesterday. Everything went okay, I had my exam in I/O Psychology and I kind of feel bad though because I thought I would've been fine with the exam, but sadly I found out today I got 65% in the exam despite thinking it would've actually wound up higher than 70. But oh well is really all I can say.
As for the rest of the day, I just spent it studying for Clinical Psychology which was so boring it wasn't even funny. I also though had a meeting of KP Executive and I felt it went extremely well, full of laughs and negotiations and just all around goodness.
Lauren and I headed up to Christina's to get some food and then headed back. I then dozed off from around 10:30 till midnight, watched South Park, and then wound up falling back asleep AGAIN until 3:30. I then studied a little more and headed to bed at 5AM till 8.
So that's all for tonight. Autism wise, I just laughed at a comment in the meeting because of an inside joke between Lauren and I. It was....awkward slightly. I don't know HOW it's autistic, but I think it was.
Okay so after today, sooooo not happy about exams but at the same time I might be more ready than I thought I would be if I hadn't done it. Today was completely just studying in the library with Lauren and Matt for tomorrow morning's exam. We just went through all the material in only 7 1/2 hours in the library. I also found studying in the library a heck of a lot easier than at home because stupid television isn't right there in the way (thought technically it's my fault that I watch television sometimes).
Anyway, that really is all that happened today. Another successful day without autism getting in the way!
Thanks Everyone and sorry for such a boring and short post. Sean
I'm a 22 year old student at King's College at the University of Western Ontario. I've been a member of students councils for the past 8 years of my life, including Communications Coordinator and Website Commissioner. I'm in Psychology at Western, and have a big passion for acting. I'd love to get into movies if I could, but for now, I'm just living life and loving my friends and the productions I'm in at school :).
