I was not diagnosed with being on the Autism Spectrum until this year, 2017, at the age 43.

All my life I wondered what was wrong with me; why was I different, had no friends, saw the world differently. In 2016, in my college english class, we had to read a book called, “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night”. While reading that book, I told the teacher I did the same stuff this kid did. After that I started doing research and talking to my mom and getting tested. I always felt that I was normal and everyone else was weird and different.

Since I became “Self Aware” and reading and learning about myself and autism, my life has been so much better. One of the things I love and I am passionate about is photography. Photography has helped me learn so much about life and the world and about me. I am an advocate to do any and all autism studies I can to help myself learn and to help the future generations of people on Autism.

Even though my life before being diagnosed was a nightmare – I lost every job I have had do to social issues, getting into trouble and making people mad all the time, I look back and am honestly grateful. If I never went through all of that, I might have never found out that I am a beautiful, awesome person.

Photography by Luke: