Meet Ben & His Educational Journey

Please enjoy this special guest post from Benjamin Robinson during our January topic: Autism. Ben is a successful man living with autism who enjoys sharing his stories to hopefully help others in their path.I started school at young age. My first memories were in preschool, but I will start at grade school, I was treated a lot in grade school and it not easy as I didn't make friends all that well. I had a few people to hang with but on the playground I was a loner so I would just sit on the playground lot. I was mainstream in grade school so but I was in support room part of the time. In sixth grade, it was decided that my twin brother and I should try a Quaker School and so we went there. It was very different from pubic school, less teasing, and I was able to be more social. Then after my grade 7 year we need to find a better place for me to go so we went to a one to one school. I had one teacher by myself for most of the day. It was a long day as there was a bus ride to get there but I learned a lot and thought when I got into high school it would give me some help. When I was about to enter ninth grade I got told I had autism. So that rocked my world big time and my parents I think knew what I had; they just could not put a name to it. So in ninth grade I went back to public school where I was held back to join an autism program that had just started so I was one a few students who trying something new. It was fun and I still am friends with a few of them. I had a lot of hard classes, which was not easy for me, but I got thought it by knowing that I was breaking a few barriers in my life. One of the things that this experience did for me was to see that I did not want to go down that track that my classmates were going down which was getting a job. I wanted to try college out which I did after I graduated from high school. My senior year went by so fast. I still remember walking and the senior party afterward.So I moved on to college where I went for a couple of years. College was tough only because when I first got there I was really overwhelmed by everything that was happening. It was hard for me to deal with all the noises that were going around me. At the time lucky I had a lot of support from friends and a great support staff, one thing I always subject is get tap into a disability services in college it a great place to ask for help and get support. They knew really well and were very helpful to me. Being on my own was fun; I had to learn how to navigate a whole new place. It was scary at first to find all of my classes, but I have help from a RA to guide me along. I would suggestion that you get a tour of where your classes are going to be it help on the first day.I had two hard classes; one was English and the other was Psychology. English was hard because I was not a very good writer at the time so the teacher found that out and got me into a better class which was a lot better for me and taught me better writing skills. The psychology class was hard for me because the tests were really hard for me to do and I feel like I couldn't do the work.But for the most part I really enjoyed college it was really fun and exciting I enjoy my time there a lot, and It also great that I lived by myself it gave me the space to relax and have a place that I could have peace from all the noise.So I finish college in 2004 and moved to Bryn Athyn PA and I work in a food store. That is the story of my education. I moved to Bryn Athyn and now I starting a new life as blogger and autism counselor.~BenCheck out his blog http://blog.postivelivingwithautiusm.com/ALSO: hear him Monday January 23, 2012 8PM http://www.blogtalkradio.com/webe/2012/01/24/ben-robinson--positive-living-with-autism#.Txlt1EhO4us.facebook