Now, I feel really weird and at the same time liberated in the fact that I have a job directly related to ASD. I was diagnosed as a young teen with Asperger's. The mindset I grew up in was "Never let anything define you, define yourself" which has really built me as a individual. As I stand today, a college graduate with a job, I soon realize what I wasn't ready for but as pushed into: the real world.
So I have a job. Is that it? Often times I find myself using the mediums I've learned throughout the years of how to deal with the world; social etiquettes, manners, just plain "real world drama." I just can't believe how people accept such things. There are politics, unspecified "correct ways" of doing things, "in-between the line" approaches, and such an encrypted style of handling situations that I just can't seem to understand (Not that I don't spend endless hours researching and data collecting). I just can't help to wonder, will this be my life? Plain and udder confusion.
Regardless of the fact, I landed a job working DIRECTLY with students with ASD. Developing behavioral protocols, accessing behavioral modifications, and expanding learning to their field of understanding, not to mention incorporating that into their education. I work with children who use assistive devices, who lost their ability to communicate, who have yet discovered their ability to communicate, young, old, stimmers, questioners, inspirationalists, mathematical geniuses AT AGE 3. Man the list continues. Yet every day I come home drained. DRAINED. I come home as a person and I am just tired, not form the students I teach, but from the coworkers I sit beside, work beside, play beside, and learn beside. How does one deal with that? I only even mention such a burden of others because it's such a huge hurdle to understanding and incorporating learning into the autistic individual. In that regard I am not even stumped, stressed, or confused. Its dealing with everyday life occurrences as a individual who is considered "high functioning" yet scrambles to keep up with such a term without letting it define myself that bothers me. I don't want my goto answer to be "I have autism, can you break things down for me, please???"
There are obvious answers, I've looked it up. Believe me, I research almost EVERYTHING I encounter. But I just can't seem to understand how people deal with working, especially if it's a upward battle. Change your diet, separate your work and home self, reach out to HR, look towards the rainbow, blah blah blah. I'm just wondering, is there and answer?
Anyway, to those of you how understand my question: Give me Thoughts. Give me Ideas, Give me Advice, Give me Something, please! I'm so lost =[.
