A few weeks ago, there was a photo spread in our local newspaper where what is my hometown elementary school had an autism awareness week. Ironically, that school now occupies my former Junior High School. Regardless, by seeing that article it made me realize that things were different when I was growing up and that things that are now standard were not so back then.

Even what was more interesting was that one of our district’s lead support teachers was my teacher when I was in Junior High School. At that time regardless of whether we were autistic or not, I was often required to fall into line to classroom expectations or what was called rules then, because there was little room for rigidity at the time.

It should also be noted that there was only one autistic support classroom for the entire county at the time and it moved throughout the county several times in my school tenure. Today in the same building where the students from my hometown now go to school, the Junior High School I attended, there are not one, but two autistic support classes. There are also other classrooms in some of the other elementary buildings as well as the middle and high schools.

Granted, this is not to bash the way that things are by today’s standards, but back when I received my diagnosis in 1998, ironically at the same time that I was in Junior High School, no one knew nothing about autism other than what autistics that require more support needs experienced. Even though my parents took literature to the school principal, it was often disregarded. I do remember that once a teacher sent me to the one computer at the time that was connected to the Internet via a dial-up modem to research some of my diagnoses as a way to not be such a bother to the other students. Sadly, things back then were rare.

Even as I had my worst experience and went through what I went through before I returned to my home school district, information was still lacking. There was not the literature that we have today not only from a professional standpoint but now there are the great mothers and individuals that have authored great works in order to educate those now raising autistic children so they can have a glimpse of what their loved one’s future could look like.

In those early days for me it did not look as promising as it is today. There were many things that those early professionals did not believe that I could do. There was even a time when a group home or institutionalization became an extended possibility, but thankfully I had loving parents that would not accept that for an answer and did whatever it took to make sure that I had the life that they thought I deserved, even if it meant that sacrifices had to be made. Even as autism is now in the light of many in the outside world, it is remembering the hard road that I, my parents and many other people traveled to get to where I am today.