Kingtrey's AS Story

A member from WrongPlanet.net gave me permission to post their story. Here's their inspirational story from the point of view of somebody diagnosed with AS. Thank you for the story, Kingtrey!

"I was diagnosed with AS in early childhood. In elementry school I was always known as the smart but eccentric kid but socializing was fairly easy because I was in class with the same group of people through 5th grade. My life took a very dark turn when I went to middle school, I was constantly bullied for three full years by pretty much everyone, people I thought were my friends, my cousins, and just random people. By 8th grade I pretty much withdrew from any kind of social interactions and remained afraid to connect with others during the first two years of high school. But that changed at the end of my sophomore year when I was diagnosed with a chronic illness. I reflected on how shy I had been and vowed to change it. When I came back to school, I realized I had very little idea how to interact with others so I just learned as I went. I think doing so well in my US history class helped others accept me more, history is my special interest. All of the hard work in 11th grade paid off. My senior year was incredible, I joined several student organizations such as the academic challenge team where I put my knowledge of history to use, I joined the fellowship of Christian Athletes and gave a speech on how important it is to accept those who are different from you, and once I learned how to socialize, I was voted by my senior class as most friendly. Now Im 18, Im about to go to the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and I hope to become a history professor. Unfortunatly I have not had a girlfriend yet, that is probably my biggest failure in high school but other then that my life has been great in the past couple of years."