Jeannie Davide-Rivera Quotes

This taught me two things: being smart didn't matter, and grades mattered even less because they did not reflect what you knew or what you did not. They only reflected your ability to follow other people's ways of doing things, even if those ways make no sense.

I had no one. No one to talk to, at least that is how I felt. No one to hold on to, or who would hold tightly back. No one to tell me everything was going to be alright. No one to say, yes, me too, I know how you feel - No one.

It is no wonder that I had tears of relief, to find out, finally, the truth - to discover an explanation, a diagnosis that explained not one or two of my symptoms or behaviours but ALL of them. Finally, someone saw me

Writing is my form of communication. I may not call someone on the telephone; I cannot stand to talk on the phone. I may not visit, make play dates, or organize nights out with friends, but I will, if they are willing - write. I will write messages, emails, and chat online - it is the easiest, most honest way for me to communicate with the world.

My colors ran all over the page, poured out of the lines and meshed together to form colors no one had yet recognized. I was different–unique, bold, strong, smart, and hard-headed. I was simply me.

Autistic children often show no real fears of danger despite obvious risks of harm. This may be easy to spot in a young child who bolts for the street at a moment's notice, or plunges into water with no fear of its depth without being able to swim. But what does it look like in an older child, one on the cusp of adolescence?

Focusing on and sustaining life activities...jobs, budgets housekeeping etc. takes from me. It is an exhausting struggle; a desperate attempt to tread water while drowning.
Life drains my well. Special interests fill it back up. I need that time, I need that filling, that relaxing, that decompressing, in order to accomplish other tasks in my life.