Hello there! Pleased to meet you.
I am very bad at making introductions. Please bear with me for a (long) while, as this post won't be short.
I was diagnosed AS during my late teens. I do not let the syndrome define who I am ; however, I am well aware it significantly shaped who I am. Oh, and I hate people who pretend I use it as a 'get-out-of-trouble pass'. Of course I have been insensitive to many, but when I inform people of my difference, it is in the hope of bettering the communication and narrowing the gap between us, not to justify an extreme behaviour (which is behind me anyway). Some people automatically assume otherwise.
I had the opportunity to travel around the world from my childhood onwards, following on my father's footsteps (understand job opportunities). A chance, you might say? Yes and no.
There's two sides to the coin. Of course, all this traveling allowed me to acquire great language skills and cultural understanding (to write it concisely), but our family moved every three to five years. I could not keep my hard-earned friends. I had to constantly adapt to new environments. Of course it was difficult. I was bullied extensively, like many of people on the spectrum were (or still are), from primary school up until year 10.
I graduated with great difficult as my grades dropped significantly during high school, from excellency to barely passing. I stopped caring, that is. The knowledge I was interested in was, most of the time, not what I was taught.
I left the security of my parents' homestead in the dawn of the previous year. I did a bit of (relatively successful) studying at a local university the years before things became very tense with my parents over several months. As in, daily screaming arguments I was, to cope with loneliness, chatting on an IRC network. Some user managed to have me come to South East Asia, promising it would be easy to find a job as a teacher, a girlfriend etc. Naive as I was, I believed the golden dream he presented to me.
He was a very bad mentor. I naturally spent a lot of time with him, as I barely knew anyone else who could speak my tongue. I would follow him to the bars, and was encouraged to drink myself to death, not to speak of the other stuff I indulged in, while in his company. Behind my back, he arranged my first sexual encounter and 'date'. To any NT, it would have been very evident she was a poor partner. Money kept 'disappearing', and yet I was told to give 'her a second chance' and that I was not doing enough for her. I gave her many, many Nth chances. But as time passed, evidence came to me she was only here to parasite on my money. Spring came, I left her.
This is only but a few things that happened due to his bad influence (and my naivete touchante). I distanced myself from that guy, who started insulting and arguing online over some petty thing. He never told the problems he had with me to my face. Ever. I received death threats. It was very nasty.
It's also the time I started having a very nasty habit. I smoked pot daily. Was it to drown my sorrows? To see clearly in all this bull****? I do not know.
I met my current girlfriend before summer. Unlike the ex, she is loving, trustworthy, protecting. Both pretty on the inside and the outside. To our great pain, I had to leave weeks later, to resume my studies, on the summons of my family. I left for North America. Our relationship went long distance with very few problems. She spoke the right amount of English to communicate over the internet, and I pledged to learn her language.
Nevertheless, my addiction worsened over the course of uni life. I was over exposed to it. Everyone was doing it. I gave up everything after failing my midterms, doing nothing but smoking and playing video games for months on end until I reached a breaking point. I endangered my relationship, and knew I was going to an abyss.
I stopped partaking over the new year. I received a copious amount of support from my parents and my girlfriend. I thought my parents hated me, though it was enormous misunderstandings, and a lot of bad faith from both parts involved. We came to the conclusion I could not live alone, that I needed some support. And I knew where to go. That I could teach, have her by my side and see where my life would be headed, with her protection and love. I realized I gave my kindness to people who did not deserve it.
So that's that. I hope my story ain't too long.
Here's a much shorter trivia sheet:
- I am polyglot. I am fluent in three spoken and one sign language. I am learning my love's native tongue. No, English is not my native tongue. I have some knowledge of Mandarin Chinese and Japanese.
- My interests are gaming, music, literature, science in general, space stuff in particular (yay Kerbal Space Program), history and geography. This list is not exhaustive.
- I play the synthesizer. A piano is too bulky.
- I have visited over 30 countries, and lived long term in 7.
- I learned about the community while browsing TVTropes.
Nice to meet you!
Enchanté!
27 Jan 2015, 2:47 pm
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