For those of you who subscribe to the Straits Times, you'll know that the special report for this saturday is all about autism, and more specifically autism in adults. when i was a toddler, "trouble-maker" would have been the ultimate understatement to describe me. it was so bad that my mom got post-natal depression because of me. back then, everyone highly suspected that i was autistic; even the general practitioner also thought that way. even though i was never properly diagnosed by a psychologist, everyone who had ever met me at the time firmly believed that i was autistic. but seeing as how i'm functioning normally in society today (well, kind of normal), i always took my mom's words with a pinch of salt. but looking through the list of symptoms in today's paper, and comparing it with all the weird things i did back then, i have to say that it really does seem like i was autistic, at least mildly. or should i say "am autistic"? autism has no cure and one never grows out of it. if i was autistic then, doesn't that mean that i am now? i think most of my friends would never guess that about 14 years ago my nursery school teacher suggested to my parents to enroll me in a special school.
looking through the article, looking at what could be my fate if my autism was any worse, i realise just how bright that silver lining is amongst the dark clouds. i shudder to think what might have happened if my parents decided to heed the teacher's advice and send me to a special school. i might never have had the chance to fulfill my academic potential. in today's world, where the youth are constantly being criticised for not cherishing what they have, reflections like this are all the more important and valuable.
so anyway, it's back to the typical, self-centered anecdotes of the typical, self-centered youth now. what little SSBB skills i had are now slipping away T_T i predict that very soon my brother will be miles ahead of me, cos i'm too busy doing homework to properly practice. and speaking of homework, i am progressing with all the haste and speed of a tortoise climbing up an oil-slicked hill. slow and steady only wins the race when it's not a time trial, and the coming few months will be the ultimate trial by fire.
the coming few days will be rather packed compared to the last few days i spent steadily decomposing at home, and while i do feel excited over the hockey chalet and OG10 outing ( :D ), all this will slow down my homework progress even further ( :( ). i frankly cannot picture myself finishing everything before the end of the month, let alone all the stuff left over from term 2.
here's a song from The Dillinger Escape Plan, one of the pioneer mathcore bands (mathcore is basically metalcore with extremely complex and varying rhythms). most of their stuff is way too hardcore for me, but i really like this song, which is one of their most mellow offerings. so here's Black Bubblegum:
