Sandpiper wrote:
armandreyes wrote:
At the very least I would not live with my mother and would instead have a wife
A wife (or a husband for that matter) is not a prize you automatically receive for not being autistic.
This.
As for me, I have a PhD and teach at a university level. Would I have been able to do that without super laser vision interests? ....maybe, but maybe not. It's hard for me to even guess, because I don't think I would be myself if I was neurotypical. Being on the spectrum is part of my existence, just like being kind of short. To "not have it" would mean I'm someone else, and I rather like being me.
I think that love, even for ones' self, is very much an act of bravery. As a kid, I'd sometimes go days at a time between hearing positive words said to me, even though I earned words like "unacceptable" and "bad behavior" easily. At some age, I began wondering why I even bothered being around people who don't like me... and so when conflicts arose, I'd just quietly remove myself. I'd go for a long walk through the city until I reached the big wall at the edge of town, then I'd climb over it. It seemed to me that the trees, the frogs, even the insects that sucked my blood didn't care at all whether I was "socially acceptable." Out there, as far as the environment was concerned, I was a perfectly normal mammal. Although people loved to tell me I was "trapped in my own world," spending time looking down on people from trees, or walking for hours in the wilderness, helped me to see normal human societies as these "own worlds" people are wrapped up in. The ability to at times stand comfortably apart from that plane of existence and gaze back is a remarkable thing. It gives a person perspective. It fostered my curiosity and gave me relief from my frustrations. I don't know if this is a quality all people on the spectrum have or not, but I suspect it's not just me.