Asperger Syndrome: A Short Story

“Sid choked me with his left hand as he held me against the tiled wall of the boys’ restroom, and pummeled me. I thought I was going to die”. Tears sprung from my eyes, as I narrated this to my mom, one afternoon after school in the spring of 7th grade. To set the context of this incident, let me first share a minor eccentricity about myself.

In elementary school, I was a socially reticent kid who enjoyed building Lego airplanes, solving the Rubik’s cube, and had an obsession with astronomy. Unbeknownst to me, others felt that I lacked social skills, which led to a diagnosis of Asperger Syndrome. Asperger put me in the august company of Abraham Lincoln, Bill Gates, and Isaac Asimov. In middle school, I felt socially isolated and sometimes acted cool to fit in, which made me feel even more uncomfortable.

Sid, on the other hand, was a social butterfly who lived across the street, and we had grown up together since elementary school. He teased, bullied, and called me a retard. Confronting bullies was not my forte and therefore I suppressed the urge to stand up for myself. One day at school, as I stood innocently outside the restroom along with the

Being a nerd with glasses, I naturally never stepped foot into the world of High School gossip, but rather found friends who valued my sincerity and willingness to help. Occasionally, I bored them when I rattled off about astronomy, and at times my quips made them laugh. I was always a good listener. I joined the Cross Country team and enjoyed it, because I was never judged on popularity, but rather cheered on for my pace. In my junior year, I was elected Webmaster of my School Key Club, and later at the Carolinas District Convention of over seventy-five clubs, on an impulse, I ran for Lieutenant Governor and gave an impromptu speech. To my amazement, I was elected! The introvert in me had become comfortable with being an