Why blog?

I’ve been making diary notes and jotting down thoughts over the past two years on what it’s like dealing with autism in my family and have plans to eventually write a book, just for the personal satisfaction mainly and maybe preserving “family history” in some small way.

In September I decided that starting a blog would be a good outlet for some of these thoughts, regardless of whether anybody else actually reads it.

In the past month, since my first post, I’ve discovered numerous autism and asperger blogs, many of which are fascinating. It’s been a revelation to find all these other people with similar experiences to myself. Reading the words, a lot of the posts could easily be describing me. Amazing that there are so many shared experiences and that there are so many people who have been diagnosed later in life.

Growing up, I remember “fitting in” until I was 12, 13 or so then always felt my divergent interests, and the fact that the thoughts and feelings in my aspergian mind couldn’t connect to my friends any more, put me at odds with those friends. I never wanted to be a “sheep” though and have always been defiant in sticking to those interests and not following trends.

While everyone else was listening to Abba, I was listening to The Clash. While everyone else was getting drunk, I was at the cinema watching a movie. While everyone else was watching mindless action or frat-boy movies, I was discovering Casablanca, A Clockwork Orange and other more intelligent fare. While everyone else was driving fast cars I was a passenger, observing, taking notes and writing it all down.

I’ve always been interested in writing and wrote a tenpin bowling column (of all things) for my local newspaper for a decade (1990s) as well as an online version, before blogs were blogs really. I also wrote lots of fiction and had some sci-fi short stories published in my early twenties.

It’s also been rewarding reading about other people dealing with autistic children. For a while after Will’s diagnosis it was tough to deal with and felt very isolating. It seemed we were the only ones fighting the good fight to help our child. Gradually Will has met other autistic children through an Outreach program and Kelly has become good friends with some of the other mothers.

I didn’t intend on such a big gap between posts but a couple of days after my first post, a fox came onto our property and killed 16 of our chooks (Australian slang for chickens) in the middle of the day. That was devastating to Will, my wife Kelly and me.