Ever since I could remember, I always knew that I was different from all the other kids around me. When I was 2 and a half, my mom took me to see a doctor, and they diagnosed me with autism. Part of being very young with autism often includes speech therapy and OT. I started sessions with a speech therapist when I was 2 and OT when I was four. I haven’t felt like I was a truly normal kid until recently in my life. When I started Kindergarten at Norwin, I was placed in the Autistic Support Classroom.  One of the downfalls of this was that I was often isolated from my “normal” peers.  My first couple of years in grade school were very tough on me because I didn’t have any friends due to my not knowing how to talk to other kids. Teachers seemed frustrated with me when I was very young because I didn’t understand what they were teaching me.  My autism diagnosis led to feeling isolated in school.

When I got older and started 5th grade at Hillcrest my situation improved because I made a couple of friends and I didn’t struggle as much with my academics. I developed great relationships with the staff at Hillcrest. I had help from paraprofessionals from Kindergarten until around 9th grade. It was embarrassing for me to have a person with me that no one else had. When I was younger, my dad did not think that colleges would accept me because of my autism.  My experiences at Hillcrest were more memorable and started a change for me in enjoying my time at school, but I still had a long way to go.

In middle school, I took more steps towards independence and eventual success. I still had a bit to go. While I had done some sports growing up such as soccer and basketball, I joined the middle school track team in 7th grade. My case manager started placing higher expectations on me to prepare me for high school. For example, she sent me to social studies without a support person in 8th grade. I wanted to be more involved in 8th grade so I decided to apply to run for student council for the next year. I was elected to be a part of Student Council for the ninth grade.

In the summer before my 9th grade year, I attended cross country camp and decided to join the team. This was one of the best decisions that I have made in my life. The start of high school included a lot of challenges, such as how to fit in and how to deal with people who are mean. It was a struggle, and some days I didn’t want to get out of bed, but I kept going. The time for my first race for cross country was over 30 minutes. By the end of the season, I ran the race in 23 minutes. Following cross country season, I continued to try to fit in with my classmates by using social media such as Tik Tok and Instagram. I had the opportunity to speak in front of the Norwin School Board twice in 9th grade to talk about the Castle Production Lab. Those experiences gave me a lot of confidence in myself. In the spring, I continued with track and field. I kept working until my last race of the season, when I came in first place in my heat with a new PR (personal record). People were congratulating me, and it also made the morning announcements.

During the summer before my 10th grade year, I continued to practice with the cross country team, getting better and faster than the year before. I also worked at the Pittsburgh Pirates games and made my own income for the first time. In my second race of cross country in my sophomore year, I broke 20 minutes and I PR’ed by 3 minutes. That was not even the end of it because two meets later I got a time of 18:50 for another PR of a minute. One of my closest friends now, Niko Kelly, congratulated me and told me, “You are one of the most improved runners on the team.” That meant so much to me. At the banquet that fall, one of the most popular kids in the school, Dave Shepherd, called my name and told me to come to receive a gift from him. He said I was one of the most improved runners from last year to this year. Sophomore year, I also stopped having a paraprofessional attend classes with me, which was an amazing feeling. Another highlight of 10th grade was being accepted into the National Honor Society and being recognized at the ceremony on the stage. My sophomore year was the first year that I felt people were noticing me, and people started to invite me to things. I was very excited when track started, but I didn’t do as well as I hoped. At the end of the year, my grandma that I hung out with a lot, passed away suddenly and unexpectedly. This made me very upset, ending the year on a down note.

My junior year started pretty great with me taking my cross country coach’s newspaper class. The class was a lot of fun and cross country was doing amazing. I met even more great people I can call friends and I really came into my own. My cross country team even won WPIALS for the first time since 1976. This was an amazing feeling, and my name got called on the morning announcements. In 9th and 10th grade, I went to dances by myself, but junior year I went with friends and even had a date for prom. A special thing about high school for me is that I have a lot of people who will do anything for me and push me to succeed especially Coach Fleckenstein and Mrs. Cheplick. For the first time ever, I started to hang out with friends, like Tommy Waters and Gracie Paulovich.  The year ended with the track team also winning WPIALS. One of the fondest memories from my junior year was talking to my friend Izzy Anders in the Castle Production Lab, and I asked why she wanted to major in Child Development and she said, “because of all the progress you made, Mike.” That is one of the sweetest and most wonderful things I’ve heard in my life.

Now I am in my senior year. I am hanging out with friends every week. I have all normal classes, and I am not in any special classrooms anymore. Last week, I got my driver’s license. At least twenty people say “Hi” to me every day in school. I am the co-president of the school newspaper and vice president of Knights for Life. The staff is always excited when they see me. Now that I am a senior, I am supposed to lead by example for the underclassmen and show them how to pull the best out of themselves and lead by example of how you should treat others. I have hundreds on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok with people congratulating me on how far I have come and the amazing things I have achieved. Even the Pittsburgh Tribune Review wrote an article recognizing my success at running and overcoming challenges with my disability. I am so thankful to all the adults and my peers for giving me so much support and encouragement to be my best self. My advice for people who feel like they are stuck somewhere in life is to just keep trying and never give up. You never know when you will get a break in life.