The medical establishment isn't completely convinced that Asperger's Syndrome, a form of "high function" autism, really exists. I was tested for it and got a resounding "maybe".
I overcame my shyness and fear of speaking in public by speaking at public government meetings, then watching the delayed broadcast and critiquing my "performance" on the following night. Essentially I get through life by "acting" different roles as the occasion dictates, which makes it difficult for others to "read" me, but it sure can be fun!
It also makes it very easy for me to fit in with people from broad cross sections of diverse cultures and ethnic groups. Still though, most of the time I'd rather be at home reading, working in my darkroom, writing, or out fishing, all solitary pursuits. I prefer talking on the telephone to talking directly.
One dead giveaway it seems is my writing and speaking style: long convoluted sentences but the grammar is correct, not classic run-on", the use of words that most educated people would understand but be unlikely to use in conversation, using subtle double meanings just to see who might pick up on them, a wry sense of humor, and a few other signs. The last time I mentioned Asperger's here on the forum I heard from a couple of others who wrote that they'd suspected that I had it, just based on my writing style.
It's kind of fun too. Typical of Asperger's I always hated "busy work", dropped out of high school twice before finally graduating, and dropped out of college once before finally completing a summer course of three credit hours in physical anthropology. Now I tell people "Oh, I had a straight four-point-oh average all the way through college!"
I must be doing something right though. I've served on the boards of directors of the YMCA, the Chamber of Commerce, and the Mayor's Economic Task Force, was vice-chair of the North Miami Planning Commission for a dozen years, and I'm currently on the North Miami Board of Adjustment and the Disaster Preparedness Board. When I showed up at the Board of Adjustment meeting a few months ago with a neat hair cut, clean shaven, wearing suit and tie, the city planning director said "Oh, I didn't know that you were an attorney!" The real reason for the disguise was that Florida started issuing 8 year drivers licenses and I figured that I'd get dressed for the occasions. Cops treat you differently when you wear a suit and tie, they really do, and although I might be wearing ratty old jeans when I'm talking to the cop that photo on the drivers' license makes a big difference if you get stopped or you get in a minor accident.
There you have it! A series of nice long convoluted sentences revealing facts about myself that others might prefer to retain as secrets were they to be descriptive of themselves, all laid out on the table for everybody to see.
What you don't see are how many times I went in to edit the thing, exchanging a word here for a synonym there, trying to get the syntax just right, developing and maintaining a rythym, avoiding the use of the same word or phrase in consecutive sentences or paragraphs, and then on occasion I will do just exactly that, either for the sake of rythym or for the perceived need of emphasis.
It ain't easy being crazy, it really isn't! I suppose that it has a lot to do with why I shoot mostly with a 15mm lens, full frame, no cropping, and rarely use the finder.
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