On Becoming - Part Two

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t has been reckoned that Arts undergraduates do an average of 15 hours work a week, whilst those who do subjects like Medicine or Music have to work their butts off. I read somewhere that Music may be the most difficult degree of all. You see the point, all these people who are going to make a success of their lives are paying the price of hard work.

Now, OK, you can say I just wish it were possible for an Aspie like me to actually manage all that hard work. Having been the school dunce myself, I can understand that. All those ink blots covering my moments of force and vector calculations would bear testimony. Of course it may have been the education system, or dim witted school teachers for all I know, because I went on to day release college and got a flash in the pan A for Maths. Whilst the other kids were going off to wonderful jobs like aircraft design or Ships Engineering Officer apprentice, I ended up as a very bad telecommunications technician.

I asked my parents if I could go to Art School, but that wasn't allowed because as we all know artists are to say the least weird people. The second choice I couldn't be a photographer, because as it was well known all photographers are homosexual. Those were the days when homosexuals where either sent to prison, or given electric shock therapy. I was shy, reserved and gentle, apparently with feminine traits. I grew up keeping my thought about my preferences for women's 36C breasts to myself. But getting a girl friend was difficult as the thought of having to make conversation threw me into a panic. You may understand that in spite of all my best efforts it was never possible to really please my parents.

So here is my point, we might not be capable of working hard to get a degree in Medicine. A lot of us just would not be able to order our mind's well enough. I want to say that our differentness does not mean inferiority. We do have abilities to offer this world. How do Aspie kids get on at school these days? I would hope for better, but you tell me. I imagine, it is still very difficult to fit in to the mainstream, so let's just accept that is not where we belong. It is not just having to cope with the education system, which is difficult enough, but the necessity for an entirely different way of life. I never found anybody who could understand me, so was forced into making my own way.

What we need to understand is that this being out of the mainstream is our value. If our thinking is different then that is good. There is always a need in every society for those who have original ideas. That kind of thinking is far less likely from those people who are swept along with what has been called accepted wisdom. Need I tell you that original thinking with bright new ideas are not usually accepted right away. There is a power which keeps the average joe in line. The communal mind is a secure place to be.

You probably found out long ago that it isn't possible for Auties and Aspies to fit in with the big system. Everything within you goes against the grain. People with ADDS are often seen as rebellious, and that may well be the reason. Trying to fit in with the majority will never feel comfortable.

Thanks for posting, I liked reading this and part 1. Some good thoughts.

Average experiences do not create exceptional people. I am grateful for certain things about not fitting in with the majority. For instance you are not influenced as much by all the limiting beliefs that people put on each other. All the stress that comes with caring about how society judges the way you live. Its never a black and white thing you lose some here you gain some there. Every negative has its positive aspect aswell.

Make life your special interest. I used to dedicate months to researching everything about games so i could become the most efficient/best player i could be. Now i try to apply those things to myself as a person. I am far from perfect but i have come so far in the past 2.5 years. I started as zero functional suicidal and became someone i can be proud of.

I liked this article aswell.
http://spectrummentor.com/profiles/blog ... appy-today


About the art undergraduates its just a case of students being misguided. The people who want to be equally skilled in art as the medicine students are in their field work as much if not harder.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XnNbk5g ... re=related
What he says at 4:20 is a way of thinking that i deeply respect. I hope to get close to it someday. If every person put in as much effort as top athletes towards becoming the person they want to be the world would be a much better place.
I think that most if not all can overcome the supposed disadvantages that being on the spectrum brings. If we dedicate our entire life towards finding peace with who we are as a person, overcomming our fears, whatever you want to improve about yourself. Like Grebels said we have so much potential. Maybe even more so because of all the hardships we face. Bad experiences we have are just showing us weaknesses about ourselves. We have so much more of these opportunities to gain new insights and get to the next level of thinking. Often times the most succesfull/fulfilled people are the ones who went through really tough times.

I know you're talking a lot about college but I think you need to think farther out.
Art majors don't make a lot of money unless you work yourself into a very special niche and you're exceptional at it. Your goal is to support yourself.
I'm still going to school but managed to learn enough on my own to have a good career.

For me it was about finding the niche that using my Aspie traits was an advantage.
I'm a great problem solver but I'm not so great with the niceties of working with people - but I am getting better thanks to Toastmasters. I gave it A LOT of thought 15 years ago and chose my career path logically.

First I worked myself into computer programming jobs; once I was there I realized that there was a lot of turnover with programmers once the project was done since a small number of programmers was required to maintain a project compared to the larger number to build it out. Thinking about higher paying jobs... they typically involve more responsibility even if they don't involve a lot of work. That lead me to think about my own strengths and weaknesses in considering how to get to a safer, higher paying, more stable job... For me that ideal job was Database Administrator. Once I made the decision I used my Aspie focus traits to become an expert on it.

When the DBA they'd hired moved on to a higher paying job, I took over his duties in addition to programming. I've been a DBA ever since. I make as much as senior level managers do at my job and don't have to deal with the BS they do

The point is to think PAST going to school to what you're actually going to be doing. You can learn to become an exceptional Artist and there is good money in graphic design and other technical art niches. Do some research and take a hard look at yourself to figure out what you'd be happy doing that doesn't pay peanuts and doesn't have high turn over.

Cogs, I don't know about you but I have very few close friends. I don't seem able to spare the emotion. So, I find there is a very good minority of people.

Absolutely TB. I think a lot of people here in the UK regard Art and some Humanities as an easy option. My son worked hard and has an MA (digital art) with a distinction. He is a very well paid web developer. I was maybe a bit too subtle, but you have made the point much more clearly for me - thanks.

Jed, I was a graphic designer, was quite good, but never made a lot of money from it. Location was probably the biggest problem, plus I never could sell myself.