What were you doing on the elementary school playground?

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I did seem quite typical when I was a kid in the playground, but I used to take playing games a bit too seriously. I hung around with my cousin, and we always had set games to play for each day of the week, for example every Monday and Friday we would play one certain game, then every Tuesday we would play another certain game, then Wednesday we would play another certain game, and Thursdays we would play another certain game. And it was the same like that every week, and the schedule stuck. Other children we knew were welcome to join, but they had to do it my way, so they did.

But in year 5, we didn't follow the schedule thing any more. Instead, we practised plays for eachother than took turns to sit and watch eachother show our little play. So we were quite unique (I don't think my cousin had AS, but I think she had something undiagnosed).

They say Aspie children don't have enough imagination, but I was full of imagination. I even used to play with the colouring pencils on my desk at school, pretending they were people. I played with anything in front of me.

I was very athletically competitive when I was young. I imagine that's the only reason I wasn't picked on or ignored, since I was quiet and terrible at talking socially, and a known math nerd. It's funny how much being able to throw a dodgeball can change your social status as an 8 year old boy.

Another strange thing is that I never thought about what the non-athletic kids did during that time. As far as I was concerned, they literally dropped off the face of the earth, only to re-appear back in class later. I can recall exactly 1 memory of one of them sitting off to the side reading a book, throughout my entire childhood. I guess that's aspie (lack of) perception and theory of mind in action.

Walking aimlessly around the school oval. In high school I moved into the library and spent hours on Encyclopedia Britannica.

I will tell you a couple things I did at recess when I was in school. I used to walk/run a specific pattern around the playground over and over again (I did this at home too). And I used to climb to the top of the monkey bars and hang out there a lot.

Reading a book under a tree, feeling detached from and yet fearfully-cognizant of any classmates whose play drifted in my direction.

I only remember fragments of my early childhood. First and second grade I recall inviting several kids to a birthday party so I did have a nice amount of friends (I guess).

Third grade I had moved to a new school so I had to start over. There was a group of 'popular' girls that I hovered around (seriously--I stood near them whenever they sat on top of the monkey bars and didn't speak a word to them....must have creeped them out) but I did manage to make friends with many other oddballs like myself.

Once I entered middle school, I basically started over again since friends had different classes or went to another school altogether. That's essentially when my social anxiety sprouted and sent me spiraling down a dark, friendless path.

I went around the playground observing what other kids were doing. However, there was a section of the playground with two big tunnels. One tunnel was always full of girls (the Girls' Tunnel) while the other was almost always empty (the Boys' Tunnel). I spent many recesses farting whilst running through the Girls' tunnel. To me, it was the funniest thing ever.

Sitting at the classroom door, reading a book