Growing up undiagnosed autistic, I would have loved some intervention at school. I was a total nerd, so I was just pushed towards academic success. Go to uni, then get a PhD, great things await.
In reality, I burnt out by Year 13, my final grades only held up because I did well in Year 12. I ended up unemployed for a year. Struggled to even get minimum wage retail, until I got a job at a post office, £4.25 an hour, that no one else wanted because it was crap pay and only 2 days a week. Got taken hostage at gunpoint after 2 months, left, got offered a job at the charity shop I was volunteering at. Which my toxic ex then encouraged me to quit after a few months. Spent years unemployed again, got a retail job at 26, been working minimum wage ever since. Managed to blag a trainee bike mechanic job, only for the council to put my boss out of business after I was there less than a year. Currently living off my savings because I couldn’t take how toxic my last job was.
If someone had intervened in my school years and pushed me to towards learning a trade instead of pushing me to go for uni, and given me support with my social difficulties, I wonder how different my life would have turned out. Maybe I wouldn’t be the pathetic basket case I am now.
Growing up undiagnosed autistic, I would have loved some intervention at school. I was a total nerd, so I was just pushed towards academic success. Go to uni, then get a PhD, great things await.
In reality, I burnt out by Year 13, my final grades only held up because I did well in Year 12. I ended up unemployed for a year. Struggled to even get minimum wage retail, until I got a job at a post office, £4.25 an hour, that no one else wanted because it was crap pay and only 2 days a week. Got taken hostage at gunpoint after 2 months, left, got offered a job at the charity shop I was volunteering at. Which my toxic ex then encouraged me to quit after a few months. Spent years unemployed again, got a retail job at 26, been working minimum wage ever since. Managed to blag a trainee bike mechanic job, only for the council to put my boss out of business after I was there less than a year. Currently living off my savings because I couldn’t take how toxic my last job was.
If someone had intervened in my school years and pushed me to towards learning a trade instead of pushing me to go for uni, and given me support with my social difficulties, I wonder how different my life would have turned out. Maybe I wouldn’t be the pathetic basket case I am now.