I want to tell my story. I don't have
Aspergers, but I have become friends with
a young man who does.
Greg came to our college with other
freshman in the beginning of the fall
semester. He quickly came to our club, The
Storytellers' Guild. We're a gaming/anime
club, and he probably felt like we all
did, that he could finally fit in.
Greg was different from the moment we all
met him. One of our members said part of
it was due to the fact that he looked like
he'd been bullied physically and
emotionally on a level most people never
reach. Other than that, none of us
understood why Greg was so odd.
We welcomed him at first, but found his
limited conversational topics to be
annoying an repetitive. His quirky speech
habits and physical movements confused us.
We're a very open and accepting group, but
even we have our limits. We gave him a
chance at first, but most of us became
impatient and avoided him soon after.
Shortly after many of us began verbally
expressing our annoyance with Greg, a
female member of the club stepped in. She
said Greg hadn't old her, but she could
see that he had Aspergers. She explained
that it was a type of autism, and told us
the symptoms. It was Greg, 100%. The best
thing for someone with Aspergers is to get
as much social interaction as possible in
order to widen their social abilities.
So we all gave him a second chance. We
re-invited him to lunches. We purposely
talked to him. And you know what? He's
improving! Even in one semester his
conversation topics have expanded, haha. I
had a conversation with him about
something I'd never heard him talk about!
I'm glad Greg found our club. We are
accepting of people above the normal
level. Most college students would look at
Greg and hear him talk and not even
bother. We're nerds, and we're nice It feels good we've
given him a second chance and are helping
him to come out of his shell. He WANTS to
be around people - that's where Aspergers
is different from full autism.
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Georgia59
Supporter
Joined: 11 Apr 2007 Posts: 5469 Location: Along the Mississippi, USA
Thanks: 78
Thanked:31
Posted: 01-11-08 12:47pm
This made me cry. My bro has aspergers.
Thanks
|
Tmddyan
Moderator
Joined: 13 Jun 2006 Posts: 4259 Location: post falls, id usa
Thanks: 81
Thanked:61
Posted: 01-11-08 14:17pm
you should have him join here. I hate the
attitude of the modern day person to
someone that is "different" there is a
lack of understanding. IN your case you
didnt know that is a different case
scenario. I hate how i go to walmart and
people are rude to us just because i have
a special person with me.
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lonestarguy
Active User, Really EHEALTHy
Joined: 21 Jun 2007 Posts: 585 Location: , Hoosierland, USA
Thanks: 9
Thanked:1
Re: Aspergers: Reaching Out Posted: 01-11-08 14:31pm
Eiri
wrote:
I want to tell my story. I
don't have Aspergers, but I have become
friends with a young man who does.
Greg came to our college with other
freshman in the beginning of the fall
semester. He quickly came to our club, The
Storytellers' Guild. We're a gaming/anime
club, and he probably felt like we all
did, that he could finally fit in.
Greg was different from the moment we all
met him. One of our members said part of
it was due to the fact that he looked like
he'd been bullied physically and
emotionally on a level most people never
reach. Other than that, none of us
understood why Greg was so odd.
We welcomed him at first, but found his
limited conversational topics to be
annoying an repetitive. His quirky speech
habits and physical movements confused us.
We're a very open and accepting group, but
even we have our limits. We gave him a
chance at first, but most of us became
impatient and avoided him soon after.
Shortly after many of us began verbally
expressing our annoyance with Greg, a
female member of the club stepped in. She
said Greg hadn't old her, but she could
see that he had Aspergers. She explained
that it was a type of autism, and told us
the symptoms. It was Greg, 100%. The best
thing for someone with Aspergers is to get
as much social interaction as possible in
order to widen their social abilities.
So we all gave him a second chance. We
re-invited him to lunches. We purposely
talked to him. And you know what? He's
improving! Even in one semester his
conversation topics have expanded, haha. I
had a conversation with him about
something I'd never heard him talk about!
I'm glad Greg found our club. We are
accepting of people above the normal
level. Most college students would look at
Greg and hear him talk and not even
bother. We're nerds, and we're nice It feels good we've
given him a second chance and are helping
him to come out of his shell. He WANTS to
be around people - that's where Aspergers
is different from full
autism.
That's a life-affirming story. You guys
are to be lauded for your help for Greg
and his Aspergers. I had not heard of this
illness, only autism. If he had not found
your club and been exposed to more social
interaction, he might have had a much
different college experience.
|
kulon
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 03 Feb 2008 Posts: 1
Posted: 02-03-08 13:33pm
I'm a member of the STG and can attest to
Greg's improvement.
I'll be honest, I was ready to chew out
some of our members if they were mean to
him but I found that people were ready to
be patient with him as soon as I told them
about his condition. He first opened up to
me in private, when we were waiting for
other members to come to an event. Greg
arrived early so we had a moment to talk.
This was when he told me about his high
school experience and how I was the first
girl to talk to him. Greg had come to me
many times before to ask for academic and
random advise, so I had talked to him
enough times to realize that he had
Aspergers. A semester ago he would only
talk about Transformers: now he's
interested in a variety of subjects. I
asked him about his classes and I found
out that his lowest grade was an A-! Greg
is a smart, good person and all it took to
help him was an invitation to lunch and a
few movies. All he needed was to be
included and treated with respect.
|
Tylanas
Especially EHEALTHy
Joined: 13 Jul 2005 Posts: 12985
Thanks: 3
Thanked:0
Posted: 02-03-08 14:05pm
Yep! I just had a great conversation with
him the other night. He's getting a lot
more confident in how he speaks and in
voicing his ideas; I've really noticed
that once you get him going on something,
he stutters less and just says what's on
his mind
It feels good we've
given him a second chance and are helping
him to come out of his shell. He WANTS to
be around people - that's where Aspergers
is different from full autism.
