Hello...I'm New (WARNING: Pessimism)

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Hi DJRnold

welcome to WP.

First of all I would like to say that there is no link to tell you what people with AS are good at. Like every other person on the planet, we have our own talents. It seems like you need to discover what yours are. Often, they will show themselves unexpectidely...or you will realise that something you've been doing your whole life is a talent of yours.
For example, I have always been a good writer/story teller, good at poetry, expressing myself through art, eye for detail, musical instrument player and photographer [photographer I didn't know until a few weeks ago which was when I got a camera]. Only when I thought about all of this and connected it all together...I realised that I was very creative and THAT was what I was good at.

Knowing that you are only 16 [the same age as me!] your talents will start to become more apparent as you get older...we young'ens still have a LOT to discover!

Being a teenager is awful for most everybody, aspie or not. I'm sorry you're going through such a rough patch right now. One book I can recommend is "Thinking In Pictures" by Temple Grandin. That was the book that opened my eyes and realize that my autism plus daughter came by her autism honestly, my goodness I can't believe it I have asperger's and so does one of my sons and oh my goodness! Now I know that one niece and one nephew have it also, and, and, my dad! And one uncle! (the one called the little professor when he was a child and later became an engineer) What a time of discovery this last decade has been.
Another good book is "The Unwritten Rules of Social Relationships" also by Grandin and Sean somebody or other.
My brother and his wife were happy to hear that Bill Gates has asperger's as that gave them some hope for their son. I think he's just gotten a job in the back room at Best Buy. My son with asperger's is a programmer at a video game company. My dad was a telephone installer. I write science-fiction and because of the decades I spent trying to figure out how to fit in, I do better in foreign countries than all "normal" people I know. I married and raised five children. Your life is not over. You have no idea where you'll be in ten or twenty years, but I can almost guarantee it will be in a better place than you are right now. (especially if you are in public school in america right now)
Oh, and wandering about the internet aimlessly can be a symptom of stress. I do believe you are feeling stressed.
Is your mom on Wrong Planet? I wouldn't mind chatting with her.
Oh, and might I mention that you are an exceptionally clear and logical writer for a sixteen-year-old? I can easily see you making a good career as a technical writer or journalist or researcher for a think tank. What have other people suggested you go into for a career?

To WrongPlanet!! !

There are a lot of dream-killing trolls out there but remember what Booker T. Washington said:

The above comment was originally made in a racial and socio-economic context but it can also apply to Neuro-Diversity
as well.

welcome

You were pretty close. I'm Canadian.



Isn't the constant need to for information allowed to be one of my "restricted, stereotyped interests/activities"?



No she's not. Sorry.



Thank you. I have actually always wanted to write stories, but I use the same words to often so I wanted to expand my vocabulary first. I'm not going to try writing something I want published until I have taken writing courses (and I don't mean language/vocabulary, I mean rules/guidelines for writing and how to improve my writing and develop my own writing style.)

I also used to think that I needed to write about something that nobody else had written about before, but I found it quite impossible. But recently I realised that I can take concepts from different stories, combine them, and use/show/express them in a way that only I could have done, while throwing in my own personal experience(s).
That brings up another reason why I won't try writing something I want published yet. I want to wait until I have more life experience to contribute to my story. I also need to learn to understand social things a bit better if I want to have a story that actually contains human interaction and dialogue.



Well... Because I have strong opinions and I argue with people who disagree with me alot, some people have said I should be a lawyer or a politician. BUT I'm not really interested in that stuff.
Other people have said that I'm smart enough to do anything that I put my mind to. Too bad I have trouble believing in myself.

What do I want to do?
I would definately enjoy a career in media production. Starting as an editor or camera man and working my way up to director or director of photography.
I LOVE music, but I have no musical talent, so I would love to be a music video director, though I'd also like to do movies.
And obviously I also intend to write on the side. I have incomplete stories in my head that I'd like to turn into novels eventually, and I might also enjoy writing screenplays. Then I could turn my novels and screenplays into movies!

I didn't seem to have the patience to proofread my previous post,
but then I read it AFTER I posted it, and I apologize for the few grammatical errors that I made.

More about me:

-I "overthink" things alot.

-In case I didn't state this earlier, I use run-on sentences a lot, like the following:

-When I don't understand something, I ask A LOT of questions, in order to avoid being incorrect or doing something wrong, but also because people explain things to me in a way that THEY (or most NTs) would understand, but my unusual way of thinking makes it harder for me to understand their logic, so I need a more detailed explanation than most "normal" people.

-I seem to be obsessed with things being "correct", even when it's something that can't really be correct. If I make or read a spelling or grammar mistake, I need to point it out or correct it.
If somebody says something that's incorrect, I correct them. Sometimes that causes arguments because people seem sure that they're right, or they don't want to admit that their wrong, or because they don't trust me as a source, even though I'm usually correct.

A newspaper should be happy to hire you as a proofreader.

But in everyday conversations you'll need to work to not correct people. I wasn't as bad at correcting people as you are (though close) and didn't realize how it bugs people until a few years ago. I've worked at keeping my mouth shut and get along with people better now. A job where you are rewarded for correcting things should be gratifying for you. You could be the continuity director of films.