Lights, Camera, Autism by Amanda Harneoth

“I am different, not less,” says autism activist and scientist Temple Grandin

Grandin is a female on the autism spectrum, just like me. Grandin was diagnosed in early childhood, unlike me who didn’t hear the words for autism until my twenties.

I was born in late November 1989. My mother was rushed to the hospital, and I was not expected to live beyond three days old.

My parents were a young multiracial couple, 31 years old at the time, just looking for answers.

I was born in the C section and I’m black and blue like, I was in a school fight as my mom remembers it, I weighed only 1lb 7oz. My mother asked my father when I came out “Is he alive?” he said “yes”

“What is that?” I asked him “a girl” he answered Shortly after that, I was transferred to another hospital for treatment for more of my medical problems including hydrocephalus (water on the brain) and retinopathy of prematurity (ROP).

My young parents were full of a sick child and my older sister Ashley was at home. Once, I finally left the hospital, to go back to live at home, my health issues persisted with consistent water fights over the brain and my ROP and I underwent several surgeries to stabilize the fluid in my brain and make difficult decisions like saving my tunnel vision or my peripheral vision.

When I was in the third and fourth grades, I was reminded early of obsessive thoughts and disturbances in my routine. (Especially when we go to another room, I’ll be very nervous about the idea of ​​getting lost. I also hated eye contact with my teachers and family members, it made me unmusical. (I still struggle with that over time.) As I got older, I didn’t really want to Communicating with other kids In middle school I was a recluse that the teachers would hang out for lunch or go sit in my next class early I always had a notebook with me I loved writing stories I felt so lonely inside but couldn’t get out of the world of characters My Fiction (I Will Create) and the latest Teen Heart in the early 2000’s.

My teachers will tell me that I need to connect with more kids my age. Nothing worked, I would have done the same things in high school and my case manager who was also a math teacher was writing about my social media interests in my IEP. Looking back, these sure signs I was dealing with autism. After high school, I volunteered at Kaiser and my church. In 2014, while in college, I received a key that would explore my life purpose. My sister’s girlfriend gave me an unexpected hug, and it plunged me into an autistic breakdown. (I didn’t know that at the time). I went back to my room, cried, shook, walked on the floor, and finally lay in the fetal position on my bed for hours. The severe reaction was haunting me for years after that. In 2016, it was confirmed about five hours after testing, I have autism and an IQ that’s below average, 67. I was in so much pain, I didn’t want to be “stupid”

I haven’t been able to clean floors or store breaths properly, I’ve dealt with many tears and rewards from shooting, regularly for two years. I found peace prayers as I grew up believing in them. I was praying to God in that dimly lit warehouse

One morning in June, as I was crying on the bathroom floor in my bedroom, I wrote my first poem.

Things started to change for me, the job was still a nightmare but through poetry I was free to express my thoughts, feelings and thoughts. God gave me a wonderful gift, I was going to the world.

So I started writing during the shift. I wasn’t stupid, I was so different that the workplace couldn’t handle it. I had eight works written in my name. I had 10 days to learn how to work at a cash register, so I quit before, I was fired. I am finally free to live and love life again. So poetry became my life’s work. I wrote for hours on end. In the fall of 2018, I joined Special Olympics (SO), my life was about to change me for the better. I was going to gain exposure to the sport, and my heart was public speaking. So I became an ambassador for Northern California, oh my god he told me to put my trust in him and he would do the rest. I have given speeches everywhere, in and out of SO.The staff is very dedicated to the well-being and success of athletes in life.It is a pleasure to work alongside Tyler and Amanda, as they continue to support me with my career in public speaking. They show up at various events, (virtual) and share my writing, it doesn’t matter, if it’s SO related or unrelated. They love to help me be the best.

It was said to my father, I would have died in three days, if I had been alive, I would have fallen ill to live in the house at all “But God and I have different plans for my life. It turns out that they lived in three houses, visited different countries, met public figures who marveled With my strength and courage.I refuse to be an additional element in the story of the almighty physical person, instead writing the script for my own life and presenting myself as the hero in the story of my life.