Saturday, February 18, 2012

Background

    Do you ever step back, look at your life, and wonder "How did I get here"?  I remember the first time I read the poem "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost.  I was in my teens and I wanted to be different and special.  I craved adventure and the poem struck a chord in my soul.  But time moved on, as it always does and the passion of youth fades.  I met someone, married and began having children.  Of course it wasn't as smooth as it sounds.  It rarely is.
    I was raised as a Beach Bunny in Southern California in the 70's and 80's.  I came from a typical middle class family with a teacher mom and an engineer dad.  I was the youngest of three children.  My brother was two years older than me and my sister was four years older.  I spent much more time playing with my brother than with my sister.
    I remember my brother as a gentle, shy child who didn't have many friends.  As he grew older he was a little quirky, but not too far from what is considered to be normal.  He was never good at sports.  He would daydream and pick dandelions out in right field during Little League games.  He was an extremely picky eater and would rather starve to the point of passing out than have an objectionable food item pass his lips.  He rarely talked.  He hated change and stayed at a job that treated him poorly until he was in his late 20's, even though he was smart enough and talented enough to run his own business.  He didn't have many girlfriends in his teens, 20's, and 30's but when he found the right one, she was his everything.  He married around the age of 40 and now has two young children who are the center of his universe.  Somewhere along the way he learned how to hold conversations, even if they tended to be a tad bit centered around his limited topics of interests.  He is someone I admire and respect, but I suspect that he lies on the higher end of the Autism Spectrum.
    Is it any wonder that the man I chose to marry had some Spectrum traits as well?  At the time, I had never heard of Autism or Aspergers.  All I knew was that my brother was struggling with growing up and I felt like his older sister instead of his younger sister.  As for my love life, I believed that I had met the most intelligent man on the face of the earth.  He could spout off facts on almost any topic.  He was always right and I could never win an argument.  Having spent my childhood in "gifted" programs, I loved the challenge!  He looked at life in such an uncommon way, that it fulfilled some of my need to live a unique and interesting life.  I took the road less traveled and so began my adventures in Autism.

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