Table of Contents
How It All Started
You probably wonder with the content I have on the site, how did I get into writing in the first place?
It's been an interesting development in my life. When I was young, my reading and word decoding skills were above average despite numerous difficulties in other areas, including writing because of my complex learning profile with autism.
According to HelpGuide, people with autism spectrum disorder often have diverse cognitive abilities.
However, in grade school, when I read many picture books and chapter books, I got interested in writing my own stories despite my struggles.
In Kindergarten, I also remember drawing things that happened with me in real life and writing a sentence about them in this giant scrapbook I had at home.
Elementary School
Perhaps the most memorable grade school story writing experience was in sixth grade when I created a series of stories I created with four adult men. Every time my class had a Language Arts assignment that required me to create a story, I would find a way to include the four protagonists in my story.
Two of them were stereotypical popular and charming men, one was bald and fat (based on Homer Simpson but far more intelligent) and another was a fat, drunk guy who never showers (based on Homer Simpson's friend Barney Gumble).
From what I remember, these guys seemed humble for the most part. My teachers, SERTs, and educational assistants found these stories amusing (despite some of the character's quirks, I never wrote anything inappropriate for school).
They encouraged me to continue writing stories because it was clear it was one of my favourite parts of the school.
I needed lots of assistance to fix grammatical and punctuation errors (spelling was never an issue for me), and to make sure my supporting details fit the main ideas, but I still was super enthusiastic about writing.
High School
There weren't as many opportunities to write stories because there is more essay writing. However, I do recall writing some short stories in Grade 9 Locally Developed English class, as well as a story about suspense in Grade 11 College English, but I don't remember too many details.
However, I got As in four of five English courses I took in high school. Therefore, even though there wasn't much story writing, I still had lots to write about that kept me engaged with this path.
My intense interest in weather got in the way of considering writing as a career path, but I never completely backed off.
Later Years
When I started writing my weekly weather reports on Facebook in late 2014, many people enjoyed reading them and said I should consider writing as a career path.
In 2017, I got accepted into Sheridan for Journalism, and despite being so used to essay writing in high school, I quickly found short-form news writing to be more fun.
I like writing that is to-the-point and gives out all the details without having too many words.
Therefore, I didn't regret my choice of choosing this program.
When I won a silver Canadian Online Publishing Award in late 2018, this was when my family especially felt that writing is one of my primary strengths.
More Recent Writing
Despite some struggles because of COVID-19 times, I've happily written for a couple of organizations since leaving Sheridan and have thoroughly enjoyed creating unique content for this site.
You may also like: Handling COVID-19 Restrictions with Autism in Ontario
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